Three key Vikings' defenders went down on Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers. Xavier Rhodes went down with an ankle injury, Harrison Smith said he had turf toe, and Desmond Bishop had pain in his knee. All three underwent MRI's for their injuries recently, and the news is promising for two but devastating for one.
The MRI's for Rhodes and Smith both came back negative, so neither has a serious injury and all likelihood will see the field sooner rather than later. This is extremely relieving news for the Vikings as losing either one of the two young bright spots in their secondary would have been almost unbearable at this point, since the team already is one of the worst in the NFL at defending the pass.
The news for Desmond Bishop isn't as pleasing. Bishop suffered a torn ACL Sunday, meaning his season is likely over and quite possibly, his career. Bishop signed a one year deal this offseason with the Vikings in the hope of getting through a year healthy and playing his way to a better contract, but it doesn't look like that's in the cards for him. The Vikings will most likely be forced to release Bishop, who just this Sunday had his first career start for the Vikings at the weakside linebacker position. In his absence, Marvin Mitchell will take control of the starting role once again, even though the weakside position doesn't see the field very often because it comes off the field in the Vikings' nickel packages, which they run most of the time. Bishop will most likely try to rehab and hope a team takes one last chance on his this offseason, but with his injury history it's very possible that Bishop may be forced to hang up his pads for good.
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