‘Good chance’ Xavier Rhodes plays on Sunday vs. the Patriots

The Minnesota Vikings have played mind games with injuries all season long, but head coach Mike Zimmer expects his star cornerback to be ready for New England on Sunday.

The Minnesota Vikings defense will need all hands on deck this Sunday when they travel to Foxboro, MA to take on the New England Patriots. With Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman leading the way, the Patriots have a potent passing attack that can hurt their opponents in many ways.

Coming into this week, there was a fear that the Vikings would be shorthanded in stopping New England’s offense after cornerback Xavier Rhodes went down with a hamstring injury during Minnesota’s 24-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers.

However, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer has been optimistic all week about Rhodes’ availability and during his Wednesday presser, he repeated what he’s been saying all week. Zimmer was asked about the possibility of his corner playing on Sunday and the head coach said, “I think there is a good chance, yes.”

Minnesota Vikings

Before we pen Rhodes’ name into the Minnesota’s starting lineup this week, one wouldn’t blame a pessimistic Vikings fan for a case a déjà vu. Minnesota has dealt with multiple hamstring injuries this season and in each case, it was played off as no big deal before it resulted in extended absences.

Vikings running back Dalvin Cook suffered a hamstring injury in Week 2 against the Packers and initially described the injury as a cramp. Cook would take the field in Los Angeles two weeks later, but he was eventually put on an on-again, off-again practice schedule until he made his complete return against the Detroit Lions in Week 9.

Minnesota linebacker Anthony Barr suffered his hamstring injury in Week 7 against the New York Jets and was described thought to be fine for the week after. But a couple of DNPs later and Barr wound up missing a month (three games and a bye week) before returning to the field last Sunday against Green Bay.

If you want to go deeper, safety Andrew Sendejo’s groin injury was supposed to be a short-term ailment as well. But after a setback in practice last week, the Vikings decided to put him on IR on Tuesday.

With Minnesota focused on playing so many mind games with injuries this year, it’s possible that Zimmer is just following his same script this season when it comes to Rhodes.

It’s also important to note that the Vikings head coach didn’t say that his top corner will start or even play extensively, but that he would merely be available.

Rhodes did not participate in Minnesota’s practice on Wednesday. So for now, we’ll still have to take Zimmer’s word that everything is okay.