The Minnesota Vikings will get their starting quarterback back on Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as quarterback Kyler Murray has officially cleared concussion protocol.

Vikings QB Kyler Murray has cleared concussion protocol and will return to the starting lineup Sunday against the Bucs, sources tell @ringer @netflixsports. pic.twitter.com/ySVC0V5M9W

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 21, 2026

Head coach Kevin O’Connell is used to having backup quarterbacks in the game, and Carson Wentz was able to thrive in a multitude of ways across the first two games, but the limitations were a big deal.

Kyler Murray clears concussion protocol

It’s huge that Murray will be back for the Vikings. Over the last four games the Vikings have played, they have started four different quarterbacks, Murray included. That has been a big factor in the lack of overall success for the Vikings’ offense.

Now that Murray is back in, we can start to get the offense back into a flow. The good news is that the running game and protection overall might be the best we’ve seen in Minnesota since O’Connell came to the team in 2022. That will be huge in helping elevate Murray to being the high-caliber quarterback that we know he can be.

The real question with Murray is simple: what will this offense look like? It’s a question that we have yet to answer. Murray has played just 11 snaps this season. They started in the pistol and came out with an empty set on the following play. How O’Connell will attack defenses with Murray is still a relative unknown, including in the running game. They have been running the football significantly more, but the math changes when you have Murray in the game. Will that change the approach of O’Connell’s play calling?

There are a lot of interesting elements at play with the Vikings, but having Murray back at quarterback will be huge in developing chemistry on offense.