John Sullivan injury a massive blow for Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have one of the best players in the NFL that you’ve never heard of in star center John Sullivan, and, unfortunately, you won’t get to hear about him in games for a couple of months. According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Sullivan has been placed on the injured reserve with a designation to return, as he needed to have spinal surgery yesterday.

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This means that Sullivan won’t be able to play until Week 9 against the St. Louis Rams, which is on Sunday, November 8th at 1:00 p.m. ET. The Vikings already lost star right tackle Phil Loadholt for the entire season, so Sullivan’s long-term injury is a massive blow for an offense that is strong at every other position.

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Second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had a strong rookie campaign, but he didn’t play at his best until later on in the year when issues at the interior of the offensive line calmed down. That said, even Loadholt’s 2014 season was cut short by an injury, and the Vikings also missed sold starting guard Brandon Fusco for most of the year. With Loadholt and Sullivan- clearly their two best offensive linemen- already injured this season, the Vikings simply cannot afford any other injuries up front.

Veteran Joe Berger figures to slot in at center, and while there are worse backup centers around the league, there’s undoubtedly a big drop-off between Sullivan and Berger. Look, Sullivan is somebody the Vikings cannot replace over the first eight weeks (seven games) of the regular season, because he is arguably the best center in the NFL.

Over the past two seasons, Sullivan has quietly been one of the NFL’s best run blockers at any position on the offensive line, and Adrian Peterson will feel the impact of missing out on the star center’s dominant work on the ground. This will, in turn, hurt Bridgewater, who will also miss having a capable pass protector who is a key leader at the heart of the Vikings offensive line.

The Vikings already have to put an awful lot of faith in raw rookie right tackle T.J. Clemmings and former rookie star Matt Kalil, who has been one of the worst players in the league over the past two seasons. There’s hope that Clemmings can build on a solid preseason and use his tools to have a decent rookie campaign, but first-year offensive tackles generally don’t have much success, especially not players who have concerns with technique. We can remain optimistic that Kalil will bounce-back, but, again, it’s hard to trust either of those two.

With Charles Johnson, Mike Wallace, Kyle Rudolph, Jarius Wright, Stefon Diggs, Cordarrelle Patterson, Bridgewater, and Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings offense is stocked with depth and talent (especially young talent) at the skill positions. Some of those aforementioned players are speedy, athletic specimens and can be counted on to produce when they are on the field.

But can the Vikings count on their offensive line? The good news is that John Sullivan should be back at some point this season. The bad news is that his back injury is much more serious than once thought, and even though he’s eligible to return in Week 9 against the Rams elite front seven (where elite DT Aaron Donald resides), there’s no guarantee that he’ll be healthy enough to play at that time. We can remain optimistic that he’ll be ready to play as soon as he is eligible, but this is a big blow.

Bridgewater will have to hope that Berger, Fusco, and new starting right guard Michael Harris can hold down the fort on the inside. We all have faith in Fusco’s ability to do a credible job, but Harris and Berger will have to prove that they can be average options due to their boom-or-bust offensive tackle situation.

All we can do is wish him a speedy and full recovery, and all we can do is hope that Bridgewater and Peterson are able to overcome his loss up the middle, which is more difficult to do with Loadholt also out. If they can weather the storm and Sullivan can come back sooner rather than later (and fully healthy), then the Vikings could be a stronger team in the long run.

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