Vikings offense on track to be fully healthy vs. the Saints

The offensive starting lineup that took the field for the Minnesota Vikings back in Week 1 appears to be back and ready to take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Anytime the Minnesota Vikings are missing some of their most talented players due to injury, getting wins is likely going to be much tougher.

For a handful of weeks in 2019, the Vikings had to deal with the absence of receiver Adam Thielen from the offense thanks to him dealing with a lingering hamstring injury. Despite Thielen missing time, however, Minnesota was able to still be productive on the offensive side of the ball and increase their win total for the season.

When the Vikings had to compete without Dalvin Cook on the field this year, however, success was much harder to come by.

Cook only missed two games this season, but he also had to leave a few of Minnesota’s matchups before the final whistle. Not having their top running back on the field definitely had a tremendous impact on the Vikings suffering losses to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13 and to the Green Bay Packers in Week 16.

But for their playoff game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Minnesota is expected to have Cook back on the field

In addition to Cook, fellow Vikings running back Alexander Mattison is expected to play in New Orleans as well. Mattison has been dealing with an ankle injury and it caused him to miss Minnesota’s final three games of the regular season.

On Wednesday, both of the Vikings’ top two running backs were full participants in the team’s practice. Cook and Mattison both getting in full practices is great news for Minnesota’s offense, which will need to be playing its best if the team is going to pull off an upset over the Saints on Sunday.

No other offensive players appeared on the Vikings’ injury report on Wednesday besides their top two running backs. Meaning Minnesota will likely have all their full arsenal of weapons on offense when they attempt to come away with a win in New Orleans.

There has been a lot of talk about how dangerous the Saints offense has been this season. But it may actually be the Vikings offense that puts on a show this week.