Kevin O’Connell gives multiple injury updates, including positive news on Vikings Pro Bowler

Injuries continue to hinder the Vikings

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
Add as preferred source on Google
Jan 13, 2025; Glendale, AZ, USA; Minnesota Vikings tackle Brian O'Neill (75) against the Los Angeles Rams during an NFC wild card game at State Farm Stadium.
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Injuries have been the story of the 2025 Minnesota Vikings thus far. Even so, they have started 2-2 on the season and played relatively well on Sunday morning against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

One of the main reasons for the Vikings’ loss to the Steelers was due to injuries. They lost two offensive linemen during the game with Donovan Jackson out with a wrist injury. Losing Brian O’Neill was rough, but managable with chipping, but things took a more negative turn when Ryan Kelly ended up leaving the game with a concussion.

Brian O’Neill will not go on the injured reserve

Arguably the biggest piece of information that head coach Kevin O’Connell told the media on Tuesday morning concerned O’Neill. He confirmed the reports from Monday night that he will be week-to-week, and will avoid injured reserve.

“He avoided the serious-nature knee injuries that, when you first go out there as a head coach and you see him down like that, you’re glad you can rule out a lot of those other things,” O’Connell said about O’Neill. “I would consider him week-to-week, and with where our bye is, I don’t necessarily see short-term IR (Injured Reserve) as being a necessity at this point, just because, with the rules of that not counting toward that time frame.”

“What this allows him to do is he can be totally, 100% committed to his rehab here, because he’s doing his rehab where he sleeps. It’s as simple as walking down the hall to go to [Vice President of Player Health and Performance] Tyler [Williams] in the group’s [rehab] room, and then, during the bye week, we’ll get him wherever we can, and then we’ll see where he’s at coming out of the bye.”

We don’t know much more on Kelly, who continues to deal with concussions and is in the protocol again after suffering his first one against the Atlanta Falcons. O’Connell did give an update on edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, who is not going to practice this week.

That likely means that Van Ginkel isn’t going to play on Sunday, but having an extra week to get right with the bye week could be huge for the Vikings. Being that it’s a neck injury, there are more questions than you’d like to see. However, the optimism that O’Connell has talked about him over the course of the last few weeks has been a positive.

Related Articles