Adam Thielen officially is out. As of late Thursday morning, Davion Davis officially is in. And the Vikings will have only four receivers for Thursday night’s game against Washington.
The Vikings have spent most of the season with a skeleton crew of receivers, but this will be the first game that one of their top two receivers has missed in 2019. And that will allow Washington to focus on taking away Stefon Diggs.
Of course, it’s one thing to key on Diggs in obvious passing situations. It’s quite another to assign a pair of defenders to Diggs when all indications point to a run, because then it will be a run. And then when Washington keys on the run and quarterback Kirk Cousins fakes a handoff, rolls to the left, and begins to look for receivers who have gotten behind defenders who assumed they’d be chasing down running back Dalvin Cook, Diggs will simply have to beat one guy.
Beyond Diggs and Davis, the options at receiver will be Laquon Treadwell and Bisi Johnson. It also helps to have tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith. As long as Cook can run like he has all season, it will be easier for Cousins to find any of his options in the passing game, even without Thielen.