Following their European sojourn, the Minnesota Vikings are officially back on this side of the pond. They’ll now be getting one of the earlier bye weeks in the league, as they’ll be sitting at home for Week 6. Anyone who’s been around this website for a long enough amount of time knows that yours truly is not, generally, a fan of early bye weeks, but it’s coming at the absolute right time for a Vikings team that needs to get some players healthy.
During a press conference on Monday, head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters that the team should be getting some players back at practice before the team’s Week 7 matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium. Specifically, he mentioned linebacker Blake Cashman, offensive linemen Donovan Jackson and Michael Jurgens, and quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
McCarthy was injured in the team’s Week 2 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football, and has not practiced very much since that time. The team elected not to put him on injured reserve, a move which would have caused him to miss a minimum of four games. He’s missed the last three, with Carson Wentz taking over at the quarterback spot while Max Brosmer served as the primary backup. It seems that the team wants to get McCarthy back into the lineup as quickly as possible, but it’s too early to tell whether or not that will be right out of the bye or not.
Jackson underwent a procedure on his wrist after the Vikings’ win over Cincinnati in Week 3. The expectation since he underwent the procedure was that he would be back after the bye, and it sounds like he’s still on track to make that happen. Jurgens was injured in the team’s loss to Pittsburgh in Dublin in Week 4 and was ruled out of Sunday’s game against Cleveland with a hamstring issue.
Cashman has also been dealing with a hamstring issue, suffering the injury in the fourth quarter of the team’s victory over Chicago at Soldier Field in Week 1. He was placed on injured reserve shortly after the injury happened, and now that he’s missed the mandatory four games he is eligible to come off of IR. While the Vikings’ defense has continued its strong play in Cashman’s absence, it would certainly be nice for Brian Flores’ crew to get him back in the middle of the defense again.
Two players who, from what I can see, were not mentioned by O’Connell are offensive tackle Brian O’Neill and outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. Van Ginkel is dealing with a neck injury that has caused him to miss three of the Vikings’ four games since the season opener. He did play in the game against Cincinnati but was limited to eight snaps (and still managed to record two sacks). O’Neill injured his MCL blocking on a field goal attempt against Pittsburgh and was diagnosed with an MCL sprain, the severity of which has not been specified anywhere that I’ve seen.
The Vikings need to get themselves healthy, folks, and hopefully this bye week will give them an opportunity to do just that.
See More:
