The Minnesota Vikings have seen a tremendous amount of success drafting in the early twenties of the NFL Draft, especially at wide receiver. Across two years, the Vikings hit major home runs with building blocks with wide receiver Justin Jefferson and left tackle Christian Darrisaw.
While it's widely accepted that Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the National Football League, the same can't be said about Darrisaw.
Christian Darrisaw disrespected in NFL rankings
Being one of the best left tackles in the game comes with a level of respect. Darrisaw wasn't given the respect he's earned based on his play by those in the NFL.
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler released the offensive tackle rankings from his series ranking the top 10 affter conducting a poll with multiple NFL executives and personnel. They ranked Darrisaw ninth in the league among all offensive tackles.
Darrisaw's severe knee injury is the primary issue with his standing on the list, as he's recovering from a torn ACL and MCL. In minicamp, Darrisaw conducted individual drills but hadn't graduated to 11-man work. The Vikings will take it slowly with him, and plenty of evaluators still see him as elite.
"He's got it all," a veteran NFL offensive coach said. "He has power, good feet, balance and range."
Despite the injury costing him 10 games, Darrisaw produced an 88.9 pass block win rate on 197 snaps along with a 79.7 run block win rate. The Vikings gave him a four-year, $104 million extension before last season.
Darrisaw ranked seventh among left tackles, with Penei Sewell (2nd) and Lane Johnson (3rd) being the only right tackles on the list. Now, Darrisaw did rank as hight as fifth on the list, which is objectively good. However, it's becoming clear that he's underrated.
It's easy to see why he's being underrated. The rest of the Vikings' offensive line has been really poor, including having suffered a torn ACL in the seventh game of the season. It can be easy to forget about Darrisaw because of the injury, but the performance of the offensive line at the end of the season proves how incredibly important Darrisaw really is.
He may not be seen by everybody as the superstar he is quite yet, but it's only a matter of time.
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