Vikings Reveal Sneaky Roster Fight
While most Minnesota Vikings fans expect 1st-Round rookie guard Donovan Jackson to win a starter’s job this summer and take the reins in Week 1, patience for that theory is required.
Your Minnesota Vikings quietly launched a roster battle that is under the radar. One veteran and one rookie will evidently vie for a starter’s job at training camp.
Vikings.com came along this way and basically announced a roster battle at left guard — even if Jackson emerging as the 2025 starter feels like a no-brainer.
Folks can’t quite count the chickens just yet.
An Official Competition at Left Guard for the Vikings
Donovan Jackson and Blake Brandel will duke it out at training camp.
Vikings.com Claims There’s a Left Guard Battle
Since draft night on April 24th, everyone has just kind of assumed that Jackson would be named the starter in 2025. He checks all the boxes, is game-ready, and the Vikings need improvement at left guard.
But not so fast, says Lindsey Young of Vikings.com.
She noted this week, “The Vikings will evaluate competition at left guard between returner Blake Brandel and 2025 first-round draft pick Donovan Jackson. Brandel worked at right guard in place of Fries, and Jackson lined up at left guard with the first group during the offseason program.”
“The Vikings are closer to seeing their plan for the offensive line unfurl.”
That doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It’s an honest-to-goodness roster battle, at least on paper.
The Case for Donovan Jackson
Nobody wants a replay of Lewis Cine in 2022. That year, Minnesota drafted the Georgia safety, and he didn’t have the summer juice to earn a starter’s spot on the depth chart. Soon after, he broke his leg, ending his rookie campaign, and failed to win a starter’s job in 2023 or even make the 53-man roster in 2024.
Cine now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles and is a Super Bowl champion, although he’s never taken a single snap for that club.
Unlike Cine, Jackson’s spring and summer momentum has suggested for three months that Minnesota will roll with him as the starter. His scouting report heavily hinted at a Year 1 starter, and to sit him on the bench for the sake of sitting him on the bench would be silly.
It also helps his cause that Brandel didn’t exactly set the world on fire last season.
The Case for Blake Brandel
Perhaps the masses got it all wrong about Jackson. That’s what it would take for Brandel to start out of the gate this season — a crummy or unprepared summer from Jackson. Of course, that just hasn’t happened for the rookie in April, May, June, or July.
However, if Jackson encountered a “welcome to the NFL moment,” where coaches realized he needed time to watch and learn, then yes, Brandel would become the next man up.
Brandel logged a 55.2 Pro Football Focus grade last year. Pretty poor.
Writing Is on the Wall for Jackson as a Starter
Jackson will win this thing. The proposed battle, mentioned by Young, is probably derived from the Vikings’ mentality of “you have to earn it first.”
After all, Jackson is a rookie. The team wants him to organically emerge and slay Brandel for the starting LG job, a task that Jackson should welcome with open arms.
In spirit, there probably is a roster battle at left guard. In reality, Jackson is the type of guy who will win that battle, and that’ll be that for Brandel.
PPTSD on Donovan Jackson
Our own Brevan Bane wrote about Jackson last month, “It hasn’t even been two months since the Minnesota Vikings selected Ohio State offensive guard Donovan Jackson with the 24th selection in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but apparently, he may already have at least one fan from a differing organization to the one that called his name on draft night in the Twin Cities.”
Bane then noted ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler’s praise for the Jackson draft pick by the Vikings.
He continued, “Should anyone be shocked that Donovan Jackson is getting this love from around the league already? As a Vikings fan, no. I choose to believe that he’s already the best left guard in the entire NFL because this is a free country, and I can do whatever I want. However, if you’re a reasonable person and don’t think that way, then you still shouldn’t act surprised.
“Not only was Donovan Jackson a dominant offensive guard for the Ohio State Buckeyes, when left tackle Josh Simmons (drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs with the 32nd pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft) went down with a torn patellar tendon in a game against the Oregon Ducks in October of 2024, Jackson took over.”
You may not need to get the popcorn ready, but officially, the left guard post is up for grabs at training camp and in the preseason. The team’s website told you that much.
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