Week 9 Injury Report Brings a Surprise for Vikings
Minnesota Vikings fans were starved for an injury update on outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel — and they got the best kind of news on Wednesday.
The Minnesota Vikings released their first injury report of Week 9, and believe it or not, the team actually got some unexpectedly good news.
Van Ginkel certainly isn’t out of the woods, so to speak, but the week’s first injury report trended in the right direction.
Andrew Van Ginkel a Full Participant at Vikings Practice
Speak of the devil, Van Ginkel might be back.
Full Participation? Why, Yes, for Van Ginkel
Vikings.com‘s Craig Peters wrote Wednesday, “The Vikings returned to full practice at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center Wednesday ahead of visiting the Detroit Lions (5-2) in Week 9. Minnesota (3-4) will play its first noon (CT) road game of the 2025 season on Sunday, Nov. 2. The team is scheduled to practice again Thursday and Friday. Game status designations are to be announced by the teams on Friday. Outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel practiced in full Wednesday.”
Ordinarily, when a player practices fully, he doesn’t typically regress to “limited” or game unavailability, sans the strange example last week of Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.
Mystery Until Wednesday
All things Van Ginkel were ultra-mysterious — until Wednesday.
Van Ginkel suffered a concussion in the first game of the season, missed Week 2, and returned for the resounding win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3. But during that contest, he played just eight snaps — while logging 2 sacks — and evidently injured his neck along the way. Van Ginkel hasn’t played since that game (Week 3).
The team did not place him on injured reserve, which led onlookers to believe he would be back any day. That turned into weeks — six of them, in fact — and he’s now finally approaching game-readiness.
And when the coaching staff offered an update, it usually resulted in a cryptically positive statement that could best be described as cautious optimism. Turns out those updates were not off-base.
Closer to Full Strength on Defense
Minnesota’s CB3 Jeff Okudah did not practice on Wednesday, battling his second concussion in eight weeks. He’s on track to miss the contest at the Lions.
Aside from Okudah — who has struggled immensely this season — Brian Flores’ defense will basically be back to full strength for the time in 2025. Prior to this week, and assuming no surprise injuries emerge in the next three days, the unit always had at least one key starter missing, sometimes two or three.
The Flores defense has floundered in recent weeks, at least by his 2024 standards, so the unit should get a chance to strut its stuff for the first time this year.
… and They Will Need It against the Lions
The timing is grand. The Lions might own the best offensive roster in the NFL, meaning all of the Van Ginkels, Greenards, and Redmonds will be required to flirt with an upset.
Even when Minnesota’s defense is healthy, the Lions have thrashed the Vikings via air and ground over the last couple of seasons, always seeming to know where to poke and prod Flores’ scheme. Without Van Ginkel, the outlook might’ve been laughable. Now, Minnesota has a puncher’s chance.
Still, sportsbooks predict Detroit to win by eight or nine points.
Injury Mismanagement?
On Tuesday, The Viking Age‘s Adam Patrick criticized the Vikings‘ handling of injuries this year and mentioned Van Ginkel: “Van Ginkel has only appeared in two games for Minnesota this year as he’s been dealing with a neck injury. The injury forced him to miss a bunch of training camp this summer, too, so it’s something that the Vikings have known about for quite a while now.”
“After starting in Minnesota’s Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears, Van Ginkel sat out Week 2 and then attempted to return in Week 3, but he ended up only lasting on the field for a total of eight snaps. Since then, he hasn’t been active for a game, and his status for the rest of the season is unknown. Van Ginkel playing in Week 1 and Week 3 now looks like an awful decision, as he clearly needed more time to recover from his neck injury to begin the year.”
Patrick also claimed that the Vikings were too aggressive with J.J. McCarthy’s injury: “Midway through Minnesota’s Week 2 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, McCarthy suffered a high ankle sprain, and instead of taking him out of the game, he was allowed to continue playing, and it’s possible that he made the injury worse.”
“Had McCarthy been kept out of the contest right after injuring his ankle, perhaps he would have been able to return to the field sooner than the seven weeks that he has been sidelined since.”
Others have spent weeks saying Minnesota’s handling of McCarthy’s injury has been too cautious.
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