The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears have released their first injury reports of the 2025-26 campaign in advance of their showdown on Monday Night Football to start the season. Here they are:
Minnesota Vikings
Christian Darrisaw practiced yesterday, so apparently today’s day off may be part of the ramp-up program for him. I’m still guessing he plays on Monday night, but we’ll get more insight from the next two injury reports.
Harrison Smith has been dealing with an unknown illness for a few weeks now, which casts some doubt on his availability on Monday night. I’m a bit more doubtful with him being in football shape, but again, we’ll see what the next two injury reports have to say. Zavier Scott and Elijah Williams are a bit of a surprise, but as backups less impactful if they don’t play. Jalen Nailor, who had a hand injury and had a proceedure done on it in August seems on track to play on Monday night, as does Van Ginkel, who’s missed a lot of practice time last month with what we now know is a neck injury. Hopefully that’s not something that continues to come up during the season.
Chicago Bears
For the Bears, starting inside linebacker T.J. Edwards has yet to practice this week, which would seem to cast some doubt on his availability for Monday night. The Bears’ top cornerback, Jaylon Johnson, missed all of training camp with a groin injury and is ramping up now this week but has been limited today and yesterday. He said earlier this week that if the game were today, he wouldn’t be in shape to play, so there remains some doubt about Johnson’s availability on Monday night as well. Losing one or both of those two starters- and particularly Johnson, would be a big blow for the Bears.
Blackwell, Roschon Johnson, Monangai, Duvernay, and Robinson are backups for the Bears.
We will have updates on the injury reports for both teams tomorrow and Saturday- along with final injury designations for Monday night’s matchup.
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