Anthony Barr out for season with torn pectoral

It’s been pretty rough going for the Minnesota Vikings’ defense over the first two games of this 2020 season, and they got news on Monday that’s going to make it that much rougher going forward.

The team has placed linebacker Anthony Barr on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle, and his season is over after just two games. He was injured in the second quarter of the team’s 28-11 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Barr was the first draft pick of the Mike Zimmer era for Minnesota, as the Vikings took him with the ninth overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft out of UCLA. The next season, the Vikings paired him with his UCLA teammate, Eric Kendricks, and the two of them have made up one of the league’s better linebacking duos ever since.

In his first six seasons in Minnesota, Barr has garnered four Pro Bowl berths (2015-2018). He has 417 tackles in his career with the Vikings along with fifteen sacks and a pair of interceptions.

No word yet on how the Vikings intend to try to replace Barr, but I would suspect that rookie Troy Dye is going to see his role in the defense increased significantly in the wake of this news. The team also has linebackers Blake Lynch and Hardy Nickerson on the practice squad.

Once again, the 2020 season is over for Anthony Barr, as the team has placed him on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle.