Vikings officially place Marcus Davenport on IR, activate Kene Nwangwu to 53-man roster

Making moves ahead of Monday night

On this Wednesday morning, the Minnesota Vikings have made an expected move to add a player to their injured reserve list while bringing another player off of it.

The team has officially placed outside linebacker Marcus Davenport on injured reserve, as was speculated might happen earlier this week. To fill his spot on the 53-man roster, the Vikings have activated running back/kick returner Kene Nwangwu.

Davenport suffered a high ankle sprain in the Vikings’ win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Soldier Field. His recovery time is expected to be four to six weeks, which made him a candidate to be placed on injured reserve. Hopefully his recovery time will be on the low end of that figure so that the Vikings can get him back. While he’s been limited this season by injuries, he has been a difference-maker when he’s gotten on the field.

Nwangwu was placed on IR just after the team’s final cuts after suffering an injury during Training Camp. The team designated him to return last week and he began practicing with the team, but the Vikings held him back for Sunday’s game in Chicago. He will, presumably, return to his kick return duties, which to this point have been handled by Ty Chandler among others.

Nwangwu has three kick return touchdowns in his first two seasons, and it will be interesting to see if he can still serve as a weapon for the Vikings in that capacity given the league’s changes to the kick return rules this season.

We’ll be keeping you up to date on any other moves the Vikings make as they prepare for Monday night’s game against San Francisco. With the game on Monday, the first injury reports of the week won’t be out until Thursday.