More Reminders This Week That the Vikings Injury Troubles Could Be Much Worse
Josh Frey
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The Minnesota Vikings have gone through a few injury “scares” in the past couple weeks that have had fans wiping a bit of sweat off their brows. Firstly, and most notably, Irv Smith Jr. will be out for the remainder of training camp and preseason with a thumb injury. When I initially heard the news, I was one of the folks that panicked. Partly because it was the first real padded practice Minnesota, and of course, it was Irv Smith that went down with an injury. While it is certainly concerning that the Vikings are relying largely on Johnny Mundt and Zach Davidson behind Smith, things could be a lot worse for a couple reasons.
- Smith is expected to be back for the season opener against the Green Bay Packers
- This latest injury is completely unrelated to the meniscus tear that kept him out of the entire 2021 season
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1071615″ player=”26281″ title=”Don't%20Panic%20about%20the%20Vikings%20TE%20Room” duration=”719″ description=”Dustin Baker explains why the Vikings TE room isn’t a panic-worthy situation.” uploaddate=”2022-08-08″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/snapshot/1071615_th_1659983174.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/sd/1071615.mp4″ width=”16″ height=”9″]
Albeit it would certainly be nice for Smith to get some more practice reps in the Kevin O’Connell/Wes Phillips offense, it’s more important that the Vikings have their best pass-catcher at the position for the regular season. Additionally, we can’t count out CJ Ham’s ability to take reps as a de facto tight end no matter where he lines up in the offense.
But let’s get out of the Vikings scope for a second and take a look around the league at some of the injuries striking teams. Just this week, there have been multiple significant injuries across the league.
The New Orleans Saints have seen QB Jameis Winston go down with a sprained foot. It’s unclear as to when he’ll be back, and while this isn’t the most severe injury, imagine if Kirk Cousins’ status was suddenly in question in Minnesota. We would all be quite nervous about the prospect of either Sean Mannion or Kellen Mond being forced to take meaningful snaps, and rightly so.
Then if we head out east, the New York Jets left tackle Mekhi Becton is likely out for the season after suffering a fracture in his knee. The Jets spent the 11th overall pick on him in 2020, and he has played a total of 15 games. Imagine Brian O’Neill or Christian Darrisaw going down with this type of injury.
We could even look back into last week and the Denver Broncos who lost budding producers RB Damarea Crockett and WR Tim Patrick to season-ending knee injuries on the same day. Just yesterday, guard Netani Muti also went down with a knee injury. While he was expected to be the backup guard, he had impressed coaches enough to take first-team snaps during practice. These injuries are the equivalent of Kene Nwangwu, KJ Osborn, and Ed Ingram getting hurt all in the span of a few days.
None of this is to meant to berate the Vikings fans out there that have any concern about Smith’s or any other player’s injuries. Jesse Davis’ lingering knee trouble is another ongoing situation that comes to mind. Obviously, we all want to see these guys well enough to go out there on Sundays and perform at the best of their ability.
That said, in all likelihood, Minnesota’s current injuries will be an afterthought by the time mid-September rolls around. The Vikings have been one of the teams in recent years that have had to deal with multiple season-ending injuries to contributors, but this summer they’ve been blessed with overall good health. Hopefully this will continue throughout the year.
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