A rookie's ankle sprain complicates Vikings' cutdown
Jacob Thomas played his way from undrafted long shot into the safety picture all summer, then went down on the seventh snap of the preseason finale — one of several pieces still moving before Sunday's roster deadline.
The ankle that couldn't have come at a worse time
Jacob Thomas wasn't supposed to be a name anybody outside the building knew in April. He signed with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent out of James Madison, and by the time the preseason opener against the Giants rolled around he'd already forced his way into the conversation with an interception and four tackles. A quad injury to Jamal Adams — season-ending, surgery required, the same tendon he tore with Seattle in 2022 — blew the safety competition wide open, and Thomas kept answering: six tackles and an 84.6 PFF grade against the Ravens, then first-team reps in joint practices where he held his own against Lamar Jackson's offense. Kevin O'Connell had already called him a 'great find,' someone who was 'really instinctive' and 'taking advantage of his opportunities.'
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell doesn't rule out keeping four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. t.co/6b7yNgmT70
Then, seven plays into Friday's finale in Denver, Thomas suffered an ankle sprain, ESPN's Kevin Seifert reported, with an MRI to follow. It's a brutal moment for a player who spent all summer building a case that had nothing left to prove and everything to lose in the final ninety minutes before cuts.
Thomas wasn't the only piece of the puzzle still moving on cutdown weekend. J.J. McCarthy never got a chance to play his way into anything Friday — his ankle, which had bothered him through the week, kept him out of the finale entirely, a call Kevin O'Connell explained days earlier when he told Vikings.com the team was giving McCarthy 'a rest day today just to see if we can put the ankle behind him,' adding they'd split his reps in hopes he could still start. He didn't; Carson Wentz did, going 3 of 4 for 15 yards and shaking off a fumble he recovered himself. With McCarthy's health still a question mark two days before the deadline, Pro Football Talk reported Saturday that O'Connell 'doesn't rule out keeping four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster' — a sign the position isn't as settled as it looked a week ago.
Three subtractions before the cuts even start
The safety and quarterback rooms weren't the only spots in flux this week. Cornerback Tyreek Chappell and defensive tackle Taki Taimani both reverted to injured reserve Tuesday, per the NFL's official transaction log, and cornerback Dwight McGlothern Jr. followed a day later — three depth pieces off the 53 before General Manager weekend even begins in earnest.
Wide receiver Jeshaun Jones, meanwhile, will be unavailable regardless of whether he'd have made the roster: the NFL suspended him three games this week for violating the league's substance-abuse policy, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reported. Add it to the pile of subtractions Minnesota has to sort through before Sunday's deadline — a defense and receiver room both a little thinner than they were a week ago.
The preseason ends with a lopsided finale in Denver
Minnesota closed out the exhibition slate with a 34-6 loss at Denver, finishing the preseason 1-2 after the August 15 road win over the Giants and the August 22 home loss to Baltimore. It was the kind of night that mattered more for who played than for the number on the board.
Giants13-10
Ravens3-13
Broncos6-34Will Reichard kept making the loudest case of any Viking for a locked-in job, connecting from 46 and 28 yards. Demond Claiborne carried it eight times for 21 yards and added two kickoff returns for 55 yards, exactly the kind of special-teams value that shows up on a 53-man roster spreadsheet in August. Carson Wentz, filling in for the injured McCarthy, went 3 of 4 passing for 15 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
The #Vikings fell to the Broncos Friday night in the preseason finale. @tatumeverett and @nacholeber had the full postgame breakdown. t.co/IAZkn4h7P5
Tatum Everett and Nacho Leber broke the loss down on the Vikings' own postgame show, embedded below — as good a look as any at how the building is framing a night that will be forgotten the moment the games start counting.
The Border Battle opens the real thing
All of that preseason noise clears out now. Minnesota opens the regular season Sunday afternoon vs. the Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium — the NFC North's annual Border Battle, and the first game all year that will actually count.
Green Bay comes in 2-1 in its own exhibition slate, its last tune-up a 42-38 shootout over the Cardinals. The Vikings opened as 1.5-point favorites at home, with the total set at 45.5 — a number that reads middling rather than a shootout projection for two teams that spent August finding out who they are.
For a club that just spent three weeks sorting out its quarterback room and its back end, there's a certain irony in opening against a division rival that already knows exactly who's throwing the ball.