50 days until Vikings season opener: Every player to wear No. 50

As we continue counting towards the start of the season, we look at everyone who’s worn No. 50 for the Minnesota Vikings.

It’s the final countdown…

Well, sort of.

The Minnesota Vikings will kick off their 2023 regular season in 51 days at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 10.

From now until then, we will take a trip down memory lane and count each day by revisiting the players that have worn that specific jersey number.

Defensive tackle T.J. Smith currently wears the number No. 50 for the Vikings, but Erin Henderson is likely the most recognizable name of the bunch.

With 51 days until kickoff, here’s a look at every player to wear No. 51 with the Vikings (via Pro Football Reference):

Former Vikings LB says Kirk Cousins can unleash with Mike Zimmer gone

Does he have a point?

There are a lot of differing opinions when it comes to quarterback Kirk Cousins’ fit with the Minnesota Vikings. It’s a strange situation to be in for a player that’s thrown for 4,221 yards and 33 touchdowns.

But you can count former Vikings linebacker Erin Henderson among the believers in the two-time Pro Bowler. In a social media post, he put the onus on Zimmer for all of the team’s previous struggles and even predicted a much-improved version of Cousins in 2022.

“Yall gonna love Kirk off his leash. I know yall seen what kind of ship Zim was running. No wonder everyone underperformed,” Henderson posted.

After Zimmer was fired as head coach by the Vikings, linebacker Eric Kendricks talked about a “fear-based” culture not working for the team. When asked about his personal relationship with Zimmer, he put the ball in his former coach’s court to answer that question.

It’ll be interesting to see how the team performs with a new coach overseeing things. Of course, there are still many of the opinion that Zimmer didn’t deserve to get fired after eight years with the team.

There’s plenty of blame to go around with the Vikings missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons, but it shouldn’t all land solely in the lap of the head coach.

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