Tag: Za’Darius Smith

Vikings vs Dolphins: Best and worst PFF grades from Week 6

The Vikings’ PFF grades looked pretty good from Sunday’s game

The Minnesota Vikings emerged from the depths of Miami with a 24-16 win over an injury-depleted Dolphins squad. That win puts the Vikings at 5-1 and has fans riding high going into the bye week.

Unlike previous weeks, the Vikings’ PFF grades were close to average. The offense couldn’t move the ball with any form of consistency but the defense stepped up in a huge way.

Here are the Vikings’ PFF grades from Sunday’s win in Miami.

Vikings Studs & Duds in Week 6 win over the Dolphins

The Vikings’ studs & duds are loaded with stars after Sunday’s win

The Minnesota Vikings held on in an ugly game against the Miami Dolphins by a score of 24-16.

It was a game that saw the defense make a lot of plays to help the struggling offense. Their six sacks and three turnovers helped earn the entire defense game balls from head coach Kevin O’Connell.

Despite a game that didn’leave a great taste in your mouth, there were plenty of individual performances that were good to great.

Let’s take a look at the week six studs and duds.

Za’Darius Smith has his best game as a Viking vs Dolphins

Za’Darius Smith has arguably been the defensive MVP for the Vikings through six games

In the Minnesota Vikings 24-16 win over the Miami Dolphins, it wasn’t necessarily a great team performance but quite a few individual performances that helped the Vikings get their first win in Miami since 1976.

One of those players was edge rusher Za’Darius Smith. In his time with the Vikings, he had 3.5 sacks along with 18 pressures heading into Sunday’s game against the Dolphins. Those numbers went up considerably as Smith was in the backfield constantly. He ended up with four tackles, four quarterback hits, two sacks and two tackles for loss.

His first sack came when he rushed around left tackle Greg Little with ease on Teddy Bridgewater.

He was also the catalyst behind Patrick Jones II’s first sack as he was his partner in executing a perfect stunt.

The Vikings hit in a big way in signing the often-injured edge rusher from the Green Bay Packers.

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Vikings final injury: Akayleb Evans clears concussion protocol

The final Vikings injury report is down to two names

The Minnesota Vikings have a big game coming up against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon and the final injury report came out in their favor.

After seeing five players on it on Thursday afternoon, the Vikings saw three players come off of it including rookie cornerback Akayleb Evans, who cleared concussion protocol after suffering one this past Sunday against the Chicago Bears.

Here is the rundown of what is going on with the Vikings injury report.

Vikings injury report adds D.J. Wonnum: two others improve status

The Vikings’ injury report saw some significant changes on Thursday

The Minnesota Vikings concluded their second-consecutive day of practice indoors on Thursday due to the cold weather in the Twin Cities and have released an updated injury report that had a few changes on it.

The biggest change of them all was seeing edge rusher D.J. Wonnum added with an illness. He did not practice on the day and his current status is in doubt moving forward.

It was great to see rookie cornerback Akalyeb Evans be upgraded to a full participant in practice. He is currently in the concussion protocol and that makes it more likely that he will suit up on Sunday.

We also saw edge rusher Za’Darius Smith be upgraded to a full participant. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that they are taking it easy on him during practice as he has played the last two weeks since suffering the injury at the end of the game against the Detroit Lions in week three.

Wide receiver Jalen Nailor was still a full participant and running back Alexander Mattison was still limited putting his status for Sunday’s game very much in doubt.

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Vikings injury report is nearly all clear

The initial injury report looks pretty clean for the Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings face off against the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon on Fox.

Over the first four weeks of the season, the Vikings have only lost four games due to injury. That will change this week as they lost safety Lewis Cine to a compound fracture in his left leg last Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

One of those games was cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. who has missed the last three games due to a quad injury he suffered against the Green Bay Packers in week one.

The first injury report for week five has the Vikings looking relatively clean.

Booth Jr. being limited in practice is a good sign, as is Za’Darius Smith. Against the Saints, Smith only played 25 snaps as the Vikings staff was really careful with him in coming back from a knee injury.

Cameron Dantzler being on the list is new but it shouldn’t be any kind of concern at this point. He practiced in full and didn’t miss any time against the Saints with an injury.

The report coming tomorrow will give us more clarification.

Vikings PFF Grades: Standouts from Week 4

The PFF grades are in and come across favorably for the Vikings

A 28-25 win in London over the New Orleans Saints has fans of the Minnesota Vikings feeling both positively and negatively about the team.

While the 3-1 record is objectively good, it hasn’t been the cleanest path to get there. They won their last two games with sub-par performances or in other words: clunkers.

Justin Jefferson was the key to the Vikings win getting 10 receptions for 147 yards and a rushing touchdown.

As the Vikings move forward to play the Chicago Bears on Sunday, PFF released their grades from Sunday’s game and there were some fascinating grades.

Ravens HC John Harbaugh announces status of DL Michael Pierce

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh announced the status of DL Michael Pierce following biceps surgery

The Baltimore Ravens signed defensive tackle Michael Pierce during the 2022 offseason. Pierce wanted to come back and play in Baltimore, reuniting after spending his first four years with the team. The signing of Pierce was paying off in a big way, but he suffered an injury in Week 3 that will keep him out for a long time.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh talked to the media after Friday’s practice before the team’s matchup with the Buffalo Bills, and was asked about Pierce’s status after he apparently had surgery for a torn bicep. Harbaugh confirmed the surgery, and said that the defensive tackle would miss the remainder of the season.

 

“He did, he had surgery to have his bicep repaired and that ends up being a season ending injury.”

In 2022, Pierce had a total of six tackles with a forced fumble.  He didn’t get to play long in the Week 3 matchup against the New England Patriots. Pierce still has two years remaining on his contract, so he’ll hope to rehab and make an impact during the 2023 season.

Vikings final injury report for Sunday’s Saints game improved greatly

Four names dropped off of the Vikings’ injury report

The Minnesota Vikings started the week with six names on the injury report for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

We knew about most of the names, including Harrison Smith who just left concussion protocol at the beginning of the week. We also saw a surprise in C.J. Ham with a foot injury.

The final injury report came out earlier on Friday morning and it has shown significant improvement over the prior two days.

This is a big deal as Dalvin Cook, Ham, Harrison Smith and Eric Kendricks were all removed from the report after practicing in full the last two days.

Booth Jr. is likely to be held out until he is at 100% since he is at the back end of the depth chart. Duke Shelley will likely be called up from the practice squad for the third-consecutive game.

Za’Darius Smith being questionable is the biggest element of the report. He didn’t practice until Friday where he was limited. Considering he did finish the game on Sunday against the Lions, this could be just a week of rest.

Vikings vs Saints injury report: Most players to date

The first injury report for the Vikings vs Saints has six names on it for the Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have had pretty good luck with injuries thus far. They have only had four games lost due to injuries in the first three weeks and have only had four on a single injury report just one time.

Compared to what the Vikings have had to deal with in past years, their injury luck has been relatively solid. Going into week four against the New Orleans Saints, things are a little more complicated than that.

For the first time, there are six players on the injury report for the first time.

Last weeks final injury report is also on here with Eric Kendricks and Harrison Smith both practicing in full while Andrew Booth Jr. still not practicing with his quad injury.

The new additions aren’t much of a surprise Dalvin Cook and Za’Darius Smith both got injured in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions and holding them out of practice is definitely a precaution.

The one that is somewhat of a surprise is C.J. Ham not practicing with a foot injury. With this being the first mention of an injury, there shouldn’t be any reason to be concerned. It is worth monitoring as the week goes on.