:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65798081/1189178946.jpg.0.jpg)
Since injuring himself in the first quarter of the team’s Week 7 victory over the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver Adam Thielen has played just a handful of snaps, all coming in the loss to Kansas City when he tried to come back too soon. It sounds as if he’s determined to not make the same mistake twice.
Following the Vikings’ Friday practice in Eagan, Thielen said that he would not play in Monday night’s big tilt against the Seattle Seahawks if he wasn’t at 100%.
#Vikings WR Adam Thielen said he won't play Monday if not 100%: "Probably not, no, just because I know that if you’re not 100%, you’re just going to come out five plays into the game anyway. So that’s probably the biggest difference with hamstrings from a different injury.''
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) November 29, 2019
We’ve mentioned this several times over the course of the past few days, but with the Vikings releasing Josh Doctson earlier in the week, they now only have four wide receivers on the 53-man roster (Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Olabisi Johnson, and Laquon Treadwell). Since rolling into Seattle with just three wide receivers would probably be a really bad idea, the Vikings appear to have put themselves into a bit of a bind.
The Vikings do have three wide receivers on their practice squad in Davion Davis, Alexander Hollins, and Dillon Mitchell. Davis has been bounced back and forth between the active roster and the practice squad a couple of times this season, and would likely get the call once again if Thielen was unable to go. Davis has appeared in two games for the Vikings (Week 8 against Washington and Week 10 against Dallas), and has yet to record a catch this season.
We’re still waiting for the Vikings to release their formal injury update for today, and we will definitely be keeping an eye out for the final injury report when it comes out on Saturday afternoon.