The star Minnesota Vikings wide receiver is clearly not ready to return from his hamstring injury, so the team needs to give him more time to recover before he makes it worse.
Prior to Week 8, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen had never missed a game during his NFL career due to injury. However, after sustaining a hamstring injury early in the Vikings’ win over the Detroit Lions in Week 7, Thielen was kept out of Minnesota’s next matchup against the Washington Redskins.
Then came the Vikings’ big Week 9 showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs. Leading up to the game, it was expected by many that Thielen would be returning to action. He did, in fact, end up suiting up against the Chiefs, but the Minnesota receiver only lasted a few snaps before his hamstring was causing problems again and he had to take himself out of the matchup.
So now what? The Vikings have another big road game coming up in Week 10 against the Dallas Cowboys and obviously, Minnesota could use Thielen’s help.
But instead of him continuing to try and play each week with a hamstring that clearly isn’t close to being healed, the Vikings should just shut down their talented receiver for their next two games.
It’s not ideal to keep Thielen out against the Cowboys and then the Denver Broncos in Week 11, but it’s likely the best solution to get him back in the lineup for Minnesota’s final stretch of games this season.
Since the Vikings’ bye comes after the matchup against the Broncos, Thielen would have more than three weeks for his hamstring to heal if he were kept out of the team’s next two games. Hopefully, this amount of recovery time would allow him to return to action for Minnesota’s big road contest on Monday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13.
The Vikings were in a similar situation with Dalvin Cook last year. Cook tried to return too soon from his own hamstring injury and it ended up resulting in the running back missing a total of five games.
Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer did say on Monday that Thielen’s injury is not believed to be as severe as Cook’s was last season. However, the Vikings should still approach the receiver’s recovery with more caution than they did with their running back last year.
With or without Thielen though, Minnesota is fully capable of coming out of their next two games with wins. So why not let him rest a little more to ensure he’s available to help the Vikings make their push toward the playoffs during the final month of the season?