Vikings at Bengals: Initial injury reports

Who’s practicing and who’s not?

In as sure a sign as any that the 2021 NFL season is upon us, the injury reports are officially back, baby!

Yes, the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals have both released their first injury reports of the week as they prepare for their Week 1 contest. Who’s practicing? Who’s not? What ailments are they dealing with? Well, let’s not mess around any longer and get to it.

As always, we start with the visiting team.

Minnesota Vikings

Did Not Participate

No names listed

Limited Participation

• LB Anthony Barr (knee)
• TE Tyler Conklin (hamstring)
• OT Christian Darrisaw (groin)

Full Participation

• RB Alexander Mattison (ribs)
• S Josh Metellus (ankle)
• WR Dede Westbrook (knee)

It’s not surprising to see Barr on this list, given that he’s been dealing with his knee injury since early August. Mike Zimmer has said that he’s “working on it,” but we don’t know yet if he’s going to play. It’s encouraging to see Darrisaw getting back at it as well, but after not really having practiced it’s hard to imagine him playing a big role. Conklin has been saying that he’s good to go for a couple of weeks now, and hopefully he will be.

Seeing Westbrook as a full participant is encouraging as well but, again, he saw limited preseason action so we’ll have to see what sort of role, if any, he plays on Sunday.

And now, on to the home team.

Cincinnati Bengals

Did Not Participate

• CB Trae Waynes (hamstring – already declared out)

Limited Participation

No players listed

Full Participation

• G Trey Hill (hip)
• TE Mitchell Wilcox (concussion)

That’s a pretty short injury report for the Bengals. We’ve already been over Waynes not being ready to get a shot at his former team, which is going to leave the Bengals pretty thin at corner.

Those are the first injury reports of the week for the Vikings and the Bengals, folks. We’ll have the interim update tomorrow afternoon for your reading pleasure.