Lost in the unlikely euphoria from the Land of 10,000 Lakes is the fact that one of their newest weapons could be unavailable in the coming weeks.
Receiver Jerome Simpson, arguably the fastest man on the team and the only true deep threat in the passing game, emerged from Sunday’s 30-7 win with an injury to his lower leg. And he’s worried about it.
“Just being injured, my level of concern is always high,” Simpson said, via FOXSportsNext.com. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get through this and just keep the faith and just do what the doctors say.”
Simpson will undergo further testing on Monday regarding an injury that kept him out of much of the game, and that hindered him when he played.
“We are still trying to figure out exactly what is going on with his lower leg,” coach Leslie Frazier said. “Some of you may have seen us working him out early, trying to figure out if he was going to be able to go or not. We decided to let him play and he did a pretty good job, but he wasn’t himself.”
Frazier’s comments suggest the injury occurred before the game, but all indications are that the injury occurred at some point early in the contest. (Unless he did it while leaping high in the air during the pre-game introductions.)
“He wasn’t able to really push off and didn’t feel like he had the strength in the lower leg. We have to try to find out why, why is that the case,” Frazier said.
Nine different players had catches on Sunday. Simpson wasn’t one of them.
Though the Vikings were fine without Simpson, they’ll need him as the season continues to unfold -- and as the schedule eventually contains something more than one-win teams.
Yeah, Vikings fans, we know your team beat the 49ers. But the combined record of the other three teams the Vikings vanquished is 3-11.