Minnesota Vikings News and Links: Early Returns Suggest Turner, Jefferson Avoid Major Injury after Sunday Scares

Say it with me friends: WHEW

The Vikings came into the 2024 season with a pretty clean injury sheet, and through two weeks are still in reasonably good shape despite a couple of hold-your-breath injuries thus far, including those to wideouts Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

But it appears that the Vikings have yet again avoided serious issues with Jefferson and rookie edge defender Dallas Turner, who limped off the field with a knee issue against the 49ers. Turner had a pair of tackles but also had a rookie moment when attempting to down a punt and stepped into the end zone for a touchback.

Teams all over the league have gotten some pretty bleak injury news — look no further than the Packers playing this week without Jordan Love, for one — but it seems like the Vikings are doing OK in that department (for now).

ESPN’s NFL Nation put out its weekly super thread, and gave the Vikings some big ups while questioning what physical condition the team will be in next weekend when the Texans come to town.

NFL Week 2’s big questions, takeaways: Jefferson leaves Vikings’ big win over 49ers with injury

That’s not in terms of conditioning — KOC and friends ran a notably tough training camp in that regard — but in terms of general condition, as even though the Vikings seem to have avoided serious injury, there’s always that week-to-week stuff that can cost a player a game or two (which feels notable with Jefferson, Turner and to some extent, when Addison returns as well).

Minnesota Vikings News and Links

Sam Ekstrom and the boys over at Locked On Minnesota called this one a “credibility builder” for the Vikings, and it’s impossible to disagree. While it was easy to scuttle last week’s win over the hapless Giants — who lost 21-18 because the opponent kicked seven field goals on Sunday — the 49ers are widely considered to be among the best teams in the NFC, and the Vikings made them look fairly mortal at the Bank on Sunday.

Joining Ekstrom were Lukes Inman and Braun and Arif Hasan, who did their usual terrific analysis over an hour — including an interesting dive into Patrick Jones II, who was tremendous against the Niners.

I’m an unabashed fan of Pro Football Focus — as a tool, not as a be-all, end-all — so I predictably enjoyed this post from one of my favorite Vikings content creators, Nick Olson.

Here, he shares how the Vikings have graded out through Weeks 1-2 on PFF, and there are certainly some surprises in there.

The surprises I see include Blake Brandel at left guard (good), Jalen Nailor (good), Blake Cashman (good) and also Ivan Pace Jr. (not good).

Maybe it’s because I edited him for a few years at Zone Coverage, but Arif is one of my favorite Vikings writers because he scorns all forms of general writing rules and instead just writes and writes and writes to make sure he drives points home in a way everyone can easily understand.

The Minnesota Vikings are the Durable Fragility of Hope (sub req’d to read whole article)

Arif brings the hammer right away with a callback to the game the Vikings won where Kirk Cousins got hurt, but offers his typical A+++ analysis here. I highly recommend subscribing, but even the free stuff here is worth your time.

Finally, over at Zone Coverage, site co-founder Tom Schreier says he thinks it’s time for the Vikings to get greedy.

The Vikings Need To Get Greedy

He means that if the Vikings can protect the football and clean up some of their early mistakes — which haven’t cost them, in direct contrast to the start of last season — they can be more than the Little Engine that Could.

Rather than being the fourth team in a three-team race in the NFC North, the Vikings can be the team everyone else is attempting to knock off the throne, as they are two games into the season and alone in first place.

Baby steps, friends.

In the news

• Joe Mixon is dealing with an ankle injury this week — one which necessitated a blue medical tent visit in the third quarter but did not wholly bounce him from the game — which could mean Cam Akers is the lead back on the Houston rushing attack against the Vikings next weekend. Dameon Pierce could figure into the mix, but he was inactive this week with an ankle issue of his own.
• Justin Jefferson wasn’t the only uber-talented NFC North wideout injured on Sunday. Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown was hit by Lavonte David and landed awkwardly, but appears to have suffered only a contusion and cramping rather than a serious injury. He also balled out on Sunday, catching 11 passes for 119 yards.
• Here’s how some former Vikings fared in Week 1 (please comment any I miss so I can add them): Eric Kendricks had eight total tackles for Dallas in the loss to the Saints, while Linval Joseph added two stops; Eric Wilson had one tackle, one pass defensed and an interception in Green Bay’s win over the Colts; Tyler Conklin caught one pass for 10 yards in the Jets’ win over the Titans, while Chazz Surratt added two total tackles and Jalyn Holmes added one stop; KJ Osborn caught 1 of 2 targets for seven yards in New England’s loss to Seattle; Adam Thielen caught 2 of 3 targets for 20 yards in Carolina’s loss to the Chargers; Jordan Hicks had three total tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, two passes defensed and two quarterback hits while Dalvin Tomlinson picked up a pair of tackles in Cleveland’s win over the Jaguars, while ZaDarius Smith played 37 snaps but did not record any statistics; In Las Vegas’ upset win over Baltimore, Alexander Mattison rushed four times for one yard and a touchdown while Ameer Abdullah rushed twice for one yard and caught two passes for one yard while adding a tackle and two kickoff returns for 60 yards, as well; Michael Pierce had a tackle, a quarterback hit and 0.5 sacks for the Ravens; Cordarrelle Patterson rushed twice for three yards in Pittsburgh’s win over Denver while MyCole Pruitt had a tackle (but also suffered a knee injury); Cam Akers rushed seven times for 32 yards and caught a pass for three yards for Houston and lost lost a fumble, while Stefon Diggs caught 4 of 6 targets for 37 yards, while Danielle Hunter had five tackles, 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterbacks hits in a massive effort, and Kris Boyd had a single tackle, too.
• In our rookie quarterback watch-along, they were again mostly bad. Jayden Daniels again led the way, completing 23 of 29 passes for 226 yards but he did not find the end zone and took five sacks. That comes out to a 99.1 passer rating, which is about the same as Bo Nix (55.2) and Caleb Williams (51.0) combined. Through two weeks, J.J. McCarthy is tied for the lead among rookie quarterbacks with zero touchdown passes. Yes, you read that right. The trio of active quarterbacks has combined for zero touchdown passes and six picks.
• In related news, Sean Payton said he’s “encouraged” by Nix’s Week 2 performance. In short? LOL.

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