The Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills released their first injury reports in advance of their matchup on Sunday at Lambeau Field. Neither team held actually practiced on Wednesday, so these are estimates.
Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers
Injury Report Terms and Glossary
- FP = Full participant in practice.
- LP = Limited participant in practice.
- DNP = Did not participate in practice.
- NIR = Not injury related.
- PUP = Physically unable to participate list.
- IR = Injured reserve. Note: only starters on IR are listed.
- Player Name* = Starter.
Injury designation definitions:
Probable = the league defines a Probable injury designation as a 75% or greater chance of playing. Historically, 95% of players designated probable are active and played on game day.
Questionable = the league defines a Questionable injury designation as being ‘uncertain’
of whether the player will play or not. This replaces the former definition of having a 50% chance of playing. Historically, 70-75% of players with a Questionable injury designation were active and played on game day.
Doubtful = The league defines a Doubtful injury designation to mean the player is unlikely to participate in the game. In practical terms, teams use the designation when a player has less than a 50% chance to suit up, and active game appearances from this designation remain rare. Historically only around 6% of players with a Doubtful designation are active and played on game day.
Out = will not play. Players with this designation are not active on game day and league rules prohibit them from playing.
Notes on Injured Players
For the Vikings, Blake Cashman is the most significant player on the list as he is in concussion protocol. It is not typical for players to clear the concussion protocol and not miss at least one game, and this being a short week makes if probably even less likely. We’ll see how he progresses but it’s reasonable at this point to expect that Cashman will miss the Packers game.
Cashman was the only player Kevin O’Connell pointed out in his press conference on Wednesday, meaning he was the one most at risk of not playing on Sunday, although Kyler Murray isn’t likely to be active for Sunday’s game either. We’ll see how the others progress tomorrow and Friday- obviously not good to have so many with estimated DNP statuses but that may change beginning tomorrow.
For the Packers, Josh Jacobs broke his finger and is scheduled to have surgery on it this week so he is unlikely to play on Sunday. He is expected to miss at least a couple weeks. Micah Parsons has had his 3-week window open to return from the PUP list, but I suspect the plan has always been for him to return after the Packers bye-week, which follows Sunday’s game. He was also suffering from an illness on Wednesday. But I don’t see that he’s been ramping up much yet where he would play on Sunday, although he is expected to participate in some 11-on-11 activities in practice this week.
The Packers interior offensive line starters are all on the injury list. Aaron Banks has been on the injury list pretty much the whole season for the Packers and hasn’t played much, so difficult to tell whether he’ll play on Sunday or not. He has a new hip injury. Center Sean Rhyan being a DNP is notable and not a good sign for his availability on Sunday having missed the last two games with the same ankle injury. Kevin Zeitler’s ankle seems more like something he can play through at this point. He was just inserted into the starting offensive line last week after spending several weeks ramping up after being acquired.
Defensively, outside of Parsons, Lukas Van Ness, Javon Bullard, and Zaire Franklin are players to watch. Both are starters that had DNP statuses on Wednesday. Franklin has missed the last three games so his not practicing isn’t a good sign for Sunday availability although Packers head coach Matt LaFleur expressed some optimism about him being able to practice later this week. He also didn’t completely close the door on Rhyan being available on Sunday. Van Ness’ injury is new, so unclear how severe it is at this point. Javon Bullard had to come out of the game a few times last week due to injury so unclear if his injuries will keep him out or not.
Lastly, Packers kicker Trey Smack is dealing with a calf injury on his kicking leg, so another player to watch later this week.
We’ll have updates tomorrow and Friday with injury designations.
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