Joseph, Rhodes among those who could miss the Vikings’ season finale
By Adam Patrick
A handful of top players from the Minnesota Vikings roster could be out of action when the team takes on the Chicago Bears this Sunday.
It’s a pretty easy argument to make that this Sunday’s matchup against the Chicago Bears is the most important game of the season for the Minnesota Vikings.
With a win this week, the Vikings would clinch a spot in this year’s playoffs. If they end up losing, then there’s a very real possibility that Minnesota could find themselves missing out on extra football this season.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, a number of their top players are currently dealing with injuries and are in danger of missing this Sunday’s game against the Bears.
Six of Minnesota’s starters did not practice on Wednesday due to injury including C.J. Ham, Linval Joseph, Eric Kendricks, Mike Remmers, Xavier Rhodes, and Marcus Sherels. Ham, Rhodes, and Sherels were all unable to finish last week’s game against the Detroit Lions while Kendricks didn’t even suit up for the matchup.
It would be a tremendous blow to the Vikings if their defense was without Joseph, Kendricks, and Rhodes on Sunday against Chicago. Minnesota’s defensive depth has performed well this season, but these three specific players have been very vital to the defense’s success over the last few weeks.
While this is only the Vikings’ first injury report of the week, there’s still good reason to be concerned with the amount of key players that missed practice on Wednesday.
Last week, Joseph only participated in Friday’s practice due to injury and he ended up playing against the Lions. So this could end up being a similar outcome for him and some of the other players that appeared on Minnesota’s injury report on Wednesday.
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Given the importance of Sunday’s game against the Bears, it’s hard to imagine the majority of the guys who missed practice on Wednesday will sit out this week’s matchup for the Vikings unless it’s absolutely, physically impossible for them to take the field.