Coach Carter brings old-school toughness to Vikings' O-line
Minnesota's new offensive line coach is pushing players "beyond our comfort zone" -- and they're buying in.
NFLMinnesota VikingsChristian Darrisaw
Full story
EAGAN, Minn. -- It's exhausting just to watch the Minnesota Vikings' offensive line move through training camp drills.
The veteran and talented group hits bags, and each other, with a force and intensity that outweighs what's happening at other positions. On an otherwise light day in shells and shorts last week, backup guard Joe Huber hit a bag so hard that it sent backup tackle Henry Byrd to the ground.
Some linemen use thick bungee cords to increase the difficulty of their techniques, especially in pass sets. They all run, not walk, back to the group at the end of a rep. When full team drills begin, all five run to the ball and then run back to the huddle.
Play the No. 1 fantasy game
It's never too early to start your championship run. Create a league with friends and family, or join a public league today. Sign Up Now!
<!--replaced text below
We're back with another year of ESPN Fantasy Football and it's time to get started. Create a league with friends and family and draft before the start of the season! Sign Up Now >>
--> >
-->
At the center of it all is offensive line coach Keith Carter, promoted in February as part of coach Kevin O'Connell's redesign of the run game. Carter is the kind of whirlwind upon which Hollywood script writers could base their archetypal football coach. He's in perpetual motion, "hollering at us," in the words of center Blake Brandel, and "pushing us beyond our comfort zone," according to guard Will Fries.
Carter keeps the lines moving, with minimal time between reps, and reminds players that "individual drills are not warmups," right tackle Brian O'Neill said.
"You might not always like it," Fries said, "but it's good for us."
O'Connell has been clear about what he expects, repeating throughout camp that he wants the line to play "on the other side of the line of scrimmage" after four years of middling physicality. It's hard to imagine a coach more equipped to implement that vision than Carter, whose intensity and physical demands drew public criticism from players at previous stops with the Tennessee Titans (2018-22) and New York Jets (2023-24).
First-year offensive line coach Keith Carter brought his hard-nosed coaching style to the Vikings this offseason. AP Photo/Abbie Parr This summer, ESPN spoke to all five members of the Vikings' starting line about the changes Carter has brought under O'Connell's direction. All five acknowledged camp has been difficult, but they all emphasized that Carter's approach was necessary and appropriate.
"This is a guy that loves football," O'Neill said. "I mean loves it. Obviously, everyone does if they're in football, but you can just feel it every single day in a walk-through, in a practice, in a meeting. And from a physical standpoint, the bar has been raised a little higher for us. And we knew that was probably going to be the case.
"But it's not like we were setting NFL rushing records and protecting the best in the whole entire NFL [in previous seasons]. So if there's a little bit of a different approach, we're going to be receptive to it because we want to be better."
Carter is the grandson of Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Gino Marchetti, and the two shared a close relationship until Marchetti died in 2019. Carter told ESPN that Marchetti helped him develop one of the key tenets of his coaching career.
"He told me, 'Keith, make sure that practice is harder than the game.'" Carter said. "'Challenge them at practice, so when they get to the game, they can cut it loose and have fun playing football.'"
Best of NFL Nation
• How will Pats respond to Super Bowl loss? • Green dot a badge of honor for Devin Lloyd • Who'll fill Broncos' DT spot next to Zach Allen? • Hallmark, hot dogs, TDs: The Loveland story • Vikings' Coach Carter's old-school toughness
That philosophy, or at least Carter's style in imposing it, did not always sit well with some Titans and Jets players. Former Titans tackle Taylor Lewan wrote in a 2024 Instagram message that he loved the Titans' coaching staff with the exception of Carter. Then-Jets tackle Mekhi Becton and running back Breece Hall appeared to support Lewan's position in subsequent social media comments.
The criticisms were not specific, but Lewan ultimately said on the "Bussin' with the Boys" podcast that Carter's approach seemed more like a "dictatorship" when he first arrived in Tennessee. Their relationship ended much better than it started, according to Lewan.
"Those players saying those things and making those comments," Carter said, "forced me to really dig deep and ask, 'Why do I do what I do? How do I have to communicate with these guys?' So they don't see it as punishment, but they see it as value to the game that they're playing. It's already a hard game, and here I am asking them to make it harder. And so there's so much that goes into it.
"I think those comments, they were needed. They've really helped me become a better coach. I hope it shows up in wins and losses this year and how we play. But I know just how it's really helped me to communicate with the guys and keep me grounded to why I do what I do, and not let some of the other stuff get in the way of that."
Left tackle Christian Darrisaw nodded his head vigorously this week when asked if Carter's explanations have landed.
"Absolutely," he said. "I see no ill intentions coming from anything like that. He pushes us hard, but we know the intentions behind it, the details and just the things that he's coaching us on. You kind of sometimes need that refresher.
"All the things that you hear around the league, and then being on the practice field with him since April, he's not that guy. We know he might get on us, but we know the purpose and the intention that's coming from him."
Daily updates from every NFL training camp
Latest buzz and notes by team: ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND JAX | KC | LV | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF SEA | TB | TEN | WSH
If anything, Vikings linemen wanted to be coached harder.
"I love that approach to the game," Brandel said. "What's most important is violence and speed and effort, and that's what he really coaches us on."
Said left guard Donovan Jackson: "He brings the juice every day. His philosophy is a little bit different than maybe some other coaches, but it's O-line play. It's going to be physical regardless."
The impact of Carter's approach has stood out numerous times since the start of camp. During a full-pads practice last week, O'Neill, Huber and Brandel could be seen sprinting behind running back Jordan Mason after he broke free on an outside zone run. The point, Carter said, is clear.
"If you were to break down the job of an offensive lineman," Carter said, "it's to protect the guy with the ball. So as long as there's somebody with a ball in their hands still running, we believe our job is to continue to block or go protect him when he's getting tackled."
On the first play of Saturday's preseason game, running back Aaron Jones Sr. gained 18 yards in part because Darrisaw drove New York Giants defensive lineman Darius Alexander five yards downfield. Five plays later, Mason gained 15 yards in part because Fries pushed the Giants' Leki Fotu from one hash mark to the other, creating a gaping hole for Mason to run through.
"That little bit that we were able to showcase," Fries said, "it makes it kind of exciting to see what we can do over the course of the whole season."
O'Connell hired Carter as an assistant offensive line coach prior to the start of the 2025 season, saying he was a "tough, kind of gritty guy" and acknowledged reporters would "find something about him in regards to being tough on his players."
But he said he thought Carter would be "really good for us." In promoting him to replace the fired Chris Kuper in February, O'Connell said that he spent the 2025 season getting to know Carter, as well as giving him a chance to learn the players and "really have a full-scale understanding of how to individually coach" each one.
"I've had nothing but a good experience so far playing for him," Fries said. "I'm a believer in what I think, and what I see, and I want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Nobody's perfect. If you ask anybody, have they made mistakes in their past? Absolutely. I know I have.
"And I think that if you're able to learn from those things that you want to get better at, it makes you better as a person, as a man, as a coach. And I think that we've seen that in him."
