5 players the Vikings can’t afford to lose to injury in 2019
By Nik Edlund
![(Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Harrison Smith (Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Harrison Smith](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/https-3A-2F-2Fthevikingage-com-2Fwp-content-2Fuploads-2Fgetty-images-2F2016-2F04-2F1051852680-850x560-19d09c9a7c89f4c454c7141ffbc84720cb49223e7bcd4ed68f44ee4f444ae298.jpg)
No team wants to see any of their players get hurt, but it’s inevitable. Who are five players the Minnesota Vikings can’t afford to lose to in 2019?
The Minnesota Vikings are a team that has been bitten by the injury bug fairly hard the last few seasons. They’ve lost key players for extended amounts of times. Dalvin Cook, Pat Elflein, Anthony Barr, Everson Griffen, and Xavier Rhodes are a few of the key components of this team that missed portions of the season just a year ago.
The Vikings aren’t alone when it comes to having players injured. Every single team in the NFL has to deal with losing key players for certain lengths of the season.
Some injuries can impact teams harder than others though. Whether a team is forced to turn to inexperienced talent on their depth chart behind the established starter or maybe the guy who goes down is a high-level player who is irreplaceable, there are multiple factors that go into how much a certain injury will impact a team.
So for Minnesota, which five players, if lost for a significant portion of the 2019 season, would be a catastrophic blow to their chances of being successful?