The Minnesota Vikings have lost Christian Darrisaw, one of their top players and one of the best at his position in the NFL, for the season due to injuries to the ACL and MCL in his left knee, coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed Friday.

Darrisaw suffered the injury late Thursday night in the first half of the Vikings’ 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The Vikings placed him on injured reserve Friday afternoon and in the corresponding move activated tight end TJ Hockenson to their 53-man roster from the physically unable to perform (PUP) list.

“He’s obviously one of our offensive pillars that we’ve leaned on a lot,” O’Connell said of Darrisaw, “and it will be a significant loss. But we all have to do a little bit more.”

Veteran David Quessenberry replaced Darrisaw in Thursday’s game, but O’Connell said Vikings coaches discussed multiple options for the position moving forward. Left guard Blake Brandel has played left tackle in the past and guard Dalton Risner is eligible to be activated from injured reserve. The Vikings also drafted tackle Walter Rouse in the sixth round this spring.

“I thought (Quessenberry) had settled in and done some things to help us,” O’Connell said, “but yeah, when you talk about that mentality of trying to get the best five guys in there, not just those five options, but also what does the rest of the depth look like? offers and we will continue to have that dialogue within our team coaching staff and we will figure out what the best plan of attack is, and I think there are multiple options on the table and that’s what we have to figure out.”

The 25-year-old Darrisaw has been the Vikings’ starting left tackle since they took him No. 23 overall in the 2021 draft. He battled a series of injuries but performed well enough to earn a four-year contract extension worth up to $113 million.

The injury occurred while Darrisaw was blocking with 35 seconds left in the first half. Rams safety Jaylen McCollough fell in the side of his left knee, and team medical officials helped him walk straight to the locker room as the Vikings finished the half.

The Vikings had taken possession on their own 3-yard line, but all three had their timeouts. Instead of letting his team kneel the ball to end the half, O’Connell said he wanted to see if the offense could possibly get into position for a score. The Rams also had a timeout, which would have required the Vikings to kneel twice in a narrow space between the line of scrimmage and the end zone.

“They had a dime defense on the field,” O’Connell said, “so I thought maybe we could score a point.” I don’t know if we were necessarily targeted by that group out there, and I think if so, maybe the ball has a chance to (move). If we go away and start rolling with the timeouts we had left at the time, get that first down, then there’s an opportunity to maybe set some things up and not give them any chance to double. us up there, together with them, who started the second half.”