Will Fries battled through 2025, now he's ready to show who he is
The Vikings' guard talked with Purple Insider about battling through his injury recovery
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings’ iron man on the offensive line last year was guard Will Fries. He played all 17 games, totaling 989 snaps.
When a player is on the field, we tend to assume that they’re healthy and good to go. But Fries was fighting a battle every week as he was still recovering from a brutal injury that he suffered in 2025 — a right lower leg tibia/fibula fracture that required a rod to be put in his leg.
The Vikings believed in his recovery to the point that they signed him to a five-year contract worth $88 million. They cleared him to return for training camp and he was on the field for the entire season. However, it was more of a grind for Fries to get through the year than he let on during the season.
“In the moment you want to tell yourself that you are good but in hindsight it was pretty difficult, it didn’t feel good the whole year but I think I’m better for it,” Fries told Purple Insider. “I learned how to push myself through that. I’m extremely lucky that it doesn’t hurt anymore and I feel great coming into this year.”
You can see on paper that the injury and recovery process that robbed him of a regular offseason took a toll. Through the first 12 weeks of the season, PFF graded Fries as the 13th best (out of 55 starters) guard in pass protection. Over the final six weeks of the year, he ranked 50th.
Make your “best shape of your life” jokes if you want but you don’t need a scale to see that Fries came into 2026 camp looking like he has had a very good offseason.
He went to Arizona during the spring to get ready for the season. One of his goals was addressing his diet and gut health but his leg still wasn’t feeling right when he first arrived in the desert. Then one day, it was like it returned to new.
“I had some really good coaches out there that got me in really good shape and one day when I was out there my leg just stopped bothering me,” Fries said.
That was a weight off his mind. Any time an injury doesn’t heal perfectly right away, there has to be a fear that it will never be the same.
Now that he is back to full health, Fries is setting the bar high for himself.
“My goal is to be the best Will Fries I can be,” he said. “I fully expect to be the best guard in the NFL and there’s no reason I can’t accomplish that. I believe I have the skillset to do it. Working with Coach Keith [Carter], I believe in his plan for me and I expect to play like the best guard in the NFL this year and I’m going to keep working every day.”
Before Fries got hurt in 2024, he was tracking toward being one of the top players at his craft, ranking as PFF’s second best guard through the first five weeks of the season.
The Vikings’ offensive line is coming into the season with high expectations. With Fries and Christian Darrisaw having full offseasons and the development of Dononvan Jackson combined with a new offensive line coach, they are looking to take a step forward from last year’s chaos.
“We’ve said the words play style and those things before, but I think there’s been a really intentional feel for those guys of really coming off the football,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said of the O-line. “In the run game, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage, getting that first significant touch in pass protections, throwing their hands, selling play action passes, selling the run, and really getting guys to step up.”
People have a tendency to ignore or gloss over just how difficult it is to come back from a major injury, and the amount of time it takes. Having the capacity to function at a minimal baseline is quite different from being capable of doing it at one’s highest level.
Following my own workplace injury - a fully-displaced ankle with a broken tibia - I was able to return to work three months after my surgery. But it took well over a year for me to trust the leg and feel one hundred percent functional. And I didn’t have 325-pound linemen beating the hell out of me on a daily basis.
Jamal Adams said the same thing. First year back he could play but was not himself... Jackson hopefully improving in a 2nd year and Fries (and CD) feeling better 2 years from injury and maybe we will have a very sold OL.. Would be nice