Two Vikings Listed as Questionable for Sunday
Josh Frey
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Throughout the 2022 regular season, the Minnesota Vikings have continued to have great injury luck. That is, unless you’re a member of the Vikings rookie class. That group has been as banged up through five weeks as any in the NFL with Lewis Cine going down for the season, Andrew Booth missing four straight games, and Ty Chandler hitting IR.
However, it appears that everyone other than Chandler and Cine will be back for Week 6 in Miami. Only two Vikings have been listed as questionable for Sunday’s game: RB Alexander Mattison and EDGE D.J. Wonnum.
Mattison is battling through a shoulder injury this week that has kept him as a limited participant in practice throughout the week. If Mattison is unable to play, that leaves just Dalvin Cook and Kene Nwangwu as options out of the backfield for Minnesota.
Of course, the Vikings likely are fine as long as they have Cook, but it will be interesting to see whether or not Nwangwu gets a little more run with the offense on Sunday given Mattison’s injury. The second-year RB had 13 carries for 61 yards last season, but he is yet to take an offensive snap in 2022.
Wonnum, on the other hand, has been going through an illness this week. It appears Wonnum came down with the illness on Thursday as that is when he appeared on the injury report He did not participate at all in that practice.
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On Friday, Kevin O’Connell stated that Wonnum is “feeling better”, but the edge rusher missed practice again. However, O’Connell also said that he expects Wonnum play on Sunday, and they will monitor him into the weekend.
The third-year EDGE has recorded 2.5 sacks so far this season, which ranks second on the Vikings. He sits just ahead of Daniell Hunter with 2.0 sacks and behind Za’Darius Smith with 3.5.
If Wonnum is unable to play, that could open the door for more playing time for Patrick Jones II. Jones has played 25% of the defensive snaps in just one of the Vikings five games so far. Over the 14 NFL games he’s played, Jones still has zero sacks. Against a weakened Dolphins offensive line and a seventh-round rookie QB, perhaps it could finally happen for the promising 2021 third-round pick.
Overall, the main takeaway remains the fact that Minnesota’s rookie class looks like it is continuing to get healthy. We finally could see second-round pick Andrew Booth play on the defense this week. The Clemson product was one of the most coveted cornerbacks in the entire draft class, and he can finally back up the hype this week. We’ll see how the young Vikings perform in Miami.
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.