Vikings are dealing with multiple injuries on defense, have hope they will return vs. Bears
Injuries are a part of the game and the Minnesota Vikings are dealing with them just as much as any other team in the National Football League. You have a few guys on the injury report every week and you try to mitigate small injuries from becoming big. Last week was no exception for the […]
Injuries are a part of the game and the Minnesota Vikings are dealing with them just as much as any other team in the National Football League. You have a few guys on the injury report every week and you try to mitigate small injuries from becoming big.
Last week was no exception for the Vikings. They had seven players listed on the injury report going into Sunday's win over the Atlanta Falcons, including both cornerback Stephon Gilmore and edge rusher Pat Jones II missing the game with injury.
Kevin O'Connell gives updates on multiple Vikings injuries
Dealing with the injuries are a problem that every coach has to deal with but things are looking better. Head coach Kevin O'Connell talked about how they were having a padded practice on Wednesday and then gave updates on Gilmore and Jones.
"Today, there will be a few guys that will either take limited work or we’ll hold some guys out based on where they are at coming off of Sunday and/or as they work through their timelines. Both those guys, we’ll kind of progress throughout the week and we will see what they are able to do as we get toward Friday or Saturday and just be smart about getting them out there if we can. We’d love to have both guys, if not, we know we have guys that can step up."
Having both guys back would be great, especially with the Chicago Bears coming to town on Monday night. They love to use three wide receivers with Keenan Allen, D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze, which is why having Gilmore would be huge.
In Jones's place was rookie Gabe Murphy, making his NFL debut, who played well in the 28 snaps he played. The Vikings just asked Murphy to play the Jones role and he did so pretty well.
The other player that could be returning soon is defensive tackle Taki Taimani, who has played well for the Vikings in the running game. He suffered an ankle injury in November and was placed on injured reserve shortly after that. O'Connell said that he believed Taimani could return.
"Yes, he is a guy that could come back. Just continues to work through the later parts of his rehab just making sure he is 100% healthy when we need to call upon him."
Getting these players back would be huge for the Vikings' defense to grow and keep players fresh as we enter the stretch run.
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