The Minnesota Vikings primary injury concern after Sunday's win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers centered around the health of former Offensive Player of the Year Justin Jefferson, who left the game late on in the first quarter with an ankle injury and did not return for the remainder of the bout.
Right at the end of the game, Minnesota subsequently lost another pass-catcher: tight end Josh Oliver.
It was believed that Oliver may have torn his right biceps early on Monday morning, and testing later on in the day ended up confirming the unfortunate diagnosis, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.
"Oliver does have a torn bicep and will need surgery, which will be done soon, per source. Most likely a long shot to return this year, at least for regular season." Fowler posted on social media on Sep. 28.
For most teams, losing their second-string tight end would be sad and certainly a detriment to the team, but it would not necessarily have serious adverse effects. But for the Vikings, Oliver plays a far bigger role than any ordinary TE2.
Oliver brings a highly useful hybrid blocking-receiving skill-set to the Vikings' offense, which A to Z Sports' Tyler Forness goes so far as to say will "change everything" for Minnesota on the offensive side of the ball.
"This honestly changes everything about how the Vikings are going operate offensively. Josh Oliver's blocking has given them so much flexibility up front, and not having him will change the math for Kevin O'Connell", Forness posted, quoting Fowler's breaking news report.
Through three weeks, Minnesota has operated a two-tight end set for much of their offensive personnel setups. In the first two weeks of the season Oliver and TE1 T.J. Hockenson both saw the field on 60% + of offensive snaps – although that number did dip to 41% this past weekend.
The next man up at tight end is 2025 sixth round pick Gavin Bartholemew, who has played just 4 regular season snaps on offense in his professional career to date.
Considering the Vikings may also be without Justin Jefferson for the foreseeable future, losing Oliver is a crushing blow for an offense that is already struggling both running and passing the ball just a few games into the season.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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