B.J. Dubose likely out for season with torn ACL

B.J. Dubose became the first casualty of the Vikings’ offseason program, tearing his ACL in Wednesday’s OTA session.

A very tough bit of luck for Vikings defensive lineman B.J. Dubose. A league source has told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Dubose suffered a torn ACL during Wednesday’s OTA practice and it is a season-ending injury.

The team has yet to provide any official word on the nature of Dubose’s injury or his future status. The Star-Trib says the injury happened in a non-contact 11-on-11 drill.

The 24-year-old Dubose was a sixth round pick of the Vikings in the 2015 draft. He toiled away on the practice squad for the entire regular season but was promoted to the active roster right before the playoffs.

Now it appears that Dubose’s budding career has been seriously if not permanently derailed.

Honesty compels me to report that Dubose had only a very slim chance of making the Vikings’ 53-man roster anyway. But if you’re going to go down, you at least want to go down fighting, not because of a torn ACL in an OTA drill.

Every year we see several of these early injuries and they’re always a real bummer. Probably the most memorable example of a player being felled by an OTA injury was Dallas’ Sean Lee, who missed the entire 2014 season after tearing an ACL.

Jacksonville Jaguars first-round draft pick Dante Fowler didn’t even make it to OTAs in 2015, going down to a season-ending injury during rookie minicamp.

Next: Berger, Sullivan get first-team reps

B.J. Dubose is certainly not as important a player as either Lee or Fowler, but his injury does serve as just one more example of why a lot of people dread the whole idea of rookie minicamps, OTAs and even regular minicamps.

Some might even argue that the NFL should do away with these offseason programs and protect players’ health, but at some point you do have to get on the field and practice. And with all on-field activities, even practice activities, there is going to be at least some risk.