Minnesota Vikings: 3 Players that need to step up in Danielle Hunter’s absence
These Minnesota Vikings need to step up with Danielle Hunter missing time.
With the start of the 2020 NFL season here with game week in Week 1 finally among us, the Minnesota Vikings found out this week they will be without a key piece on defense for at least a little while.
On Wednesday, the Vikings placed veteran defensive end Danielle Hunter on the injured reserve list, with multiple reports suggesting the injury is a neck injury suffered by Hunter.
Throughout the offseason and leading up to the start of the year, Hunter’s status for the start of the regular season was put into question right away as the defensive end wasn’t present or taking part in many team activities in Minnesota while preparing for the start of the new season.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer didn’t really shed any light on the status of Hunter before Wednesday’s official team announcement, notably telling the media that we would find more out about Hunter as the season-opener inched closer.
The Pro Bowl defensive lineman has been sidelined for nearly four weeks, with the team saying nothing more than it was due to a “tweak” that they were taking precautions around before the year kicked off.
On Wednesday, ESPN reported that Hunter was previously held out of practice strictly due to precautionary reasons, but that Minnesota didn’t expect him to miss an extended period of time.
Now going into Sunday’s Week 1 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, the Vikings know they will be without Hunter for at least the first three weeks of the 2020 campaign, which is the earliest he could return to the field since being placed on injury reserve.
Minnesota will have its work cut out for it in trying to not only get off to a quick start in the season, but also fill the hole left behind by Hunter until he is able to get back to action at some point in the year.
With play set to begin this weekend, here are three players that will be worth watching and who we should expect to step up while Hunter is out of the rotation while battling back from injury.