If there’s any team in the NFL that can blame a sluggish start on injuries, it’s the Minnesota Vikings.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell isn’t allowing injuries to be an excuse, but he did casually mention how the Vikings have already had half of their 22 starters on offense and defense go down with injuries in the first four weeks of the season.
“Yeah, you can look at some of the aspects of personnel and say OK, well maybe we’ll be better here or there or whatever it may be, but at the same time we’ve got to a find a way to play the game. Whatever’s required to give ourselves the best chance to win,” O’Connell said Tuesday from London during an appearance on KFAN-FM 100.3.
“That might not always tell the story in the stat sheet, especially early on in the year here where we’re trying to navigate playing our games in some capacity, where you probably look at it, hey, we probably had about 11 of our original 22 guys that we penciled in reporting to training camp. We’ve had 11 of those 22 guys not out there for certain chunks of time. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us in any capacity. We gotta find a way to win those games regardless.”
Well, it’s actually 14 if you include wide receiver Rondale Moore, running back Ty Chandler and fullback C.J. Ham. But it really is 11 projected starters who have been sidelined at some point through four games. In fact, they were down eight starters in Week 2 against Atlanta (loss) and seven starters in Week 4 against Pittburgh (loss). Here’s the list:
Against the Browns in Week 5, the Vikings will for sure be without five starters: McCarthy, Jones, Jackson, O’Neill and Cashman. It could be seven if Kelly and Van Ginkel don’t play.
O’Connell hinted that O’Neill might be able to return in Week 7 against the Eagles.
“We avoided the real long-term scare,” he said of O’Neill. “Consider him week to week at this point. We’ve been blessed with where our bye week is. Don’t think short-term IR or anything like that is going to be required.”
Kelly’s status for Sunday is unknown, though O’Connell sounded optimistic about the center’s health after suffering two concussions in 14 days.
“He’s in the concussion protocol. He’s feeling pretty good all things considered,” O’Connell said. “Form a medical side, I think we can feel pretty strong about the process Ryan’s going to be a part of and working his way back as well. But we obviously want to be smart with players with head injuries.”
Despite the injuries, the Vikings won’t have much of an excuse if they lose Sunday against the Browns, who are averaging 14 points per game and are expected to give rookie Dillon Gabriel his first career start at quarterback.
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