The 2022 Vikings Draft Class Can’t Catch a Break
Josh Frey
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Every year, NFL teams bring in rookies onto their roster, and excitement rises to see the future of the franchise get their first chances to step onto the field. Unfortunately for the Minnesota Vikings and their fans, that has not been the case for much of their draft class. Other than Ed Ingram, there hasn’t been a rookie to make a real impact on this team yet, and it doesn’t help that the 2022 Vikings draft class can’t seem to catch a break in terms of injury luck.
Obviously, Lewis Cine is done for the season after his injury in Week 4 against the New Orleans Saints. After him, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Vikings rookie that has had good health this far into the season. Andrew Booth Jr. has missed the last four games with a quad injury. In the one game he played, Booth appeared in just two snaps against the Green Bay Packers.
This week, things got even worse for the rookies. Jalen Nailor went to the inactive list prior to kickoff on Sunday with a hamstring injury. This opened the door for RB Ty Chandler and TE Nick Muse to get elevated to the 53-man roster, but of course, more injuries came.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1114796″ player=”26281″ title=”WATCH%20Washington%20Commanders%20drop%20another%20ugly%20game%20%203%20major%20takeaways” duration=”99″ description=”The Washington Commanders had an opportunity to take out the Tennessee Titans Sunday afternoon in Maryland. Washington had the ball at Tennessee’s two-yard line with under 20 seconds remaining while boasting a first down after a defensive pass interference penalty against the Titans.But like we’ve seen each of the past three weeks, Carson Wentz and Co. failed to come through when it counted the most. Wentz missed on two consecutive passes, both of which could have easily been intercepted. He then threw the game-ending interception into the hands of David Long to send Washington to its fourth consecutive loss by the score of 21-17. It was ugly.” uploaddate=”2022-10-10″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/1114561_sd_1665416492.jpg” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/1114561/1114561.m3u8″ width=”16″ height=”9″]
As it turns out, Ty Chandler broke his thumb during the game, and he’ll miss multiple weeks with the possibility of an IR stint looming. If that happens, he’ll be the third Vikings rookie to miss at least four games with an injury.
Additionally, CB Akayleb Evans left the game in concussion protocols, making a total of five rookies with some sort of injury this year.
In order to close this out on a positive note, it seems that Vikings fans can expect a return to the lineup for Booth. As it turns out, he was a game-time decision on Sunday, and the rookie guaranteed his presence in the lineup this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
It remains to be seen how Evans and Nailor are progressing from their injuries, but it seems safe to expect that they’ll be back in the lineup soon as well. The Vikings take on the Dolphins at 12 PM CST on Sunday.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing as well as minors in History, Human Biology, and Journalism. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys marathon training, playing video games, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. For more of his takes, NFL and otherwise, check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken