The bad news continued to hit the Minnesota Vikings today, as the team announced they have placed Matt Kalil on injured reserve, ending his 2016 season.
More bad news trickled in from the Minnesota Vikings today. Following the announcement that star running back Adrian Peterson would miss significant time due to his knee injury, some more information snuck in about another former first round draft pick.
Minnesota Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil was exercising his fifth year option with the squad during the 2016 NFL season. This was to allow the franchise to see if he could be the long-term answer at the position and give him the chance to redeem himself after some seasons where injuries hampered his effectiveness.
Sadly, injuries seem to have got to him again. The team announced today that Kalil would be placed on season ending injured reserve on their official Twitter account:
Coach Zimmer announces that @AdrianPeterson is having surgery tomorrow and the #Vikings have placed Matt Kalil on IR.
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 21, 2016
This comes as a surprise since Kalil did not finish the game with an injury or early exit. While he was struggling to be effective at left tackle against the Packers, there wasn’t any sort of indication to believe that the former #4 overall draft pick in 2012 would be in need of injured reserve.
This puts the Minnesota Vikings in a sticky situation where they need to plug in either a player with no NFL left tackle experience or a virtually unknown player to protect the blind side of Sam Bradford for the remainder of the 2016 NFL season.
Here is the team’s official statement on Kalil’s injury from Vikings.com:
"“Kalil’s streak of 66 consecutive starts to open his career will come to an end Sunday when Minnesota visits Carolina to play a Panthers team that features his older brother, Ryan Kalil, at center. The 2012 fourth overall pick played through a hip injury in weeks one and two. He missed just seven snaps (Week 16 against the New York Giants last season) in his first four seasons.”"
Next: Full game-by-game 2016 Vikings season preview
The Viking Age would like to wish Matt Kalil a full and speedy recovery. Hopefully, he can get healthy and return to the football field and be an effective pass blocking tackle in the future. In the meantime, this leaves the Minnesota Vikings hoping to fill one one of the most important positions in the NFL.