While J.J. McCarthy stole the show in his NFL debut on Monday night against the Chicago Bears, another Minnesota Viking in his first game may have had the best performance. Rookie guard Donovan Jackson played a near-perfect game against Chicago and showed why the Vikings made him their first-round pick in 2025.
Although most of the Vikings seemed surprised to discover that there was a game to play Monday night, Jackson was terrific from the opening kickoff. In his debut, Jackson was so perfect that he might have set the bar a little too high for himself. He was the best lineman in the game and nearly the entire NFL. After allowing zero sacks, pressures, or hurries, the guard has already made his case as one of the best rookie linemen in the league.
Earlier this year, in desperate need of a rebuild on the interior offensive line, the Vikings selected Jackson with the 24th pick in the draft. The pick filled a need at guard, but it’s starting to look like he may have also been the best player available. Perhaps partially because he’s a man of few words, it felt like there was never huge hype around Jackson during the summer. The big man just came in and got to work immediately, eager to show and not tell, proving with his game that he was the right choice for this franchise.
The returns have been good. The day following their first win, Kevin O’Connell commended Jackson and his immediate command of the position.
“Donovan really did a lot of good things,” he said. “There were some moments where Donovan was a rookie…but it has, not one time, felt too big for him. He’s a guy that I’ve always just looked at as he’s going to correct whatever he needs to correct. He’s going to evolve throughout the game.”
On the roller-coaster night, Jackson proved O’Connell right. PFF gave Jackson an 88.1 pass-protection grade, which was the highest among guards and fourth overall for all linemen in Week 1. The only linemen to outscore him were former first-round picks Joe Alt, Paris Johnson Jr., and Charles Cross.
While Jackson’s pass blocking was on full display, he had the key block that sprang the longest run of the night, a 19-yard scamper by Jordan Mason. On that crucial play, Jackson secures a block up front and then moves onto the second level to take care of the linebacker.
What’s most impressive is Jackson spent a majority of the night lined up against former All-Pro Grady Jarrett, who may not be the same player he was five years ago but still provides a big challenge to opposing offensive linemen. Dating back to 2021 and his Ohio State days, Jackson has only allowed five sacks on over 1,324 pass blocking snaps, or just 0.03% of the time. After years of subpar and sometimes straight-up terrible play at the position in Minnesota, Jackson is finally giving fans a reason to get excited.
Ultimately, the best part about Jackson’s performance wasn’t that he didn’t give up a sack. Or a hit, or a pressure, or even a hurry. He did all of that despite missing tackle Christian Darrisaw to his left. Justin Skule played relatively poorly as Darrisaw’s replacement, leaving major holes along the line, as well as in any argument that Jackson needs to be shielded by elite talent to succeed in his first year. He’ll have bad days this season, but the Vikings have every right to be thrilled with Jackson’s long-term potential.
While in past years Minnesota’s guards seemingly took the phrase “watch the quarterback” to mean head to the couch and take in the Netflix series, Jackson got down to business and made sure his franchise QB stayed clean all night. He’ll have another chance to stonewall the Atlanta Falcons, who only registered one sack last week, on Sunday night in another primetime game.
With a young quarterback and two talented running backs, the success of Minnesota’s offense in 2025 will hinge on the freshly rebuilt offensive line. As an unproven rookie, Jackson might have been the biggest question mark of the group, but those concerns were put on hold after a dominant performance in Week 1. A constant thorn in Kevin O’Connell’s side, guard is now a position with a bright future, thanks to the additions of Jackson and free agent Will Fries.
