Kevin O’Connell says Brian O’Neill’s calf injury is “significant”

We’ve gotten an update on the calf injury suffered by Minnesota Vikings’ right tackle Brian O’Neill on Sunday and. . .well, the news is not great.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell informed reporters this afternoon that O’Neill’s injury is “pretty significant,” and he will be out for this Sunday’s game in Chicago. . .and, likely, longer than that. He’s currently seeing doctors at the Vikings’ facilities.

O’Neill suffered the injury in the first quarter of Sunday’s game and wound up getting taken to the locker room on a cart. Since taking over the starting job at right tackle early in the 2018 season, O’Neill has developed into one of the best at his position in the NFL, missing only a couple of games.

Following the injury, O’Neill was replaced by Oli Udoh. Udoh, for what it’s worth, was the highest-graded lineman for the Vikings on Sunday by Pro Football Focus. It’s probably not worth much but, hey, it’s something, I suppose.

Couple this with the injury to Austin Schlottmann that will sideline him for a while and Garrett Bradbury’s ongoing back problems, and the Vikings suddenly have some significant issues on the offensive line. They could get Blake Brandel back in time for Wild Card Weekend. . .or, at least, he’d be eligible to come off of IR at that point. . .but there hasn’t been any real word on his progress in returning from his knee injury.

We’ll see what the Vikings do in an attempt to handle this, but for now they need to get something figured out on the offensive line, and they need to do it in a hurry.