Minnesota’s star receiver remains a limited participant in practice and with a bye week coming it’s possible the Vikings could wait to take him off IR until after the Bears game.
It’s still looking like the Bears will miss facing Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson for a second time this season.
According to Will Ragatz of Inside the Vikings, the All-Pro wide receiver is keeping everyone in the dark about whether he’ll return from seven weeks away with a hamstring injury.
“I’m not sure,” Jefferson said when asked. “We’ll see. We still have more days to practice and really evaluate everything. We’re gonna weigh options correctly, making sure that I’m feeling well and prepared to play a game. And if I’m feeling good, I will play.”
Jefferson still hasn’t gone through a full practice so this is something to watch on the Saturday injury report. However, with a full extra day after the final injury report gets released, it wouldn’t be a shock if Jefferson turns up able to play.
If he has a full Saturday practice it might seem almost likely for his return.
The Vikings receiver is on injured reserve and it’s in the middle of his 21-day window to return.
“I’ve been getting to top speeds, I’ve been running well,” Jefferson told reporters. “Still on the same thing, a day-to-day process.”
Like the Bears, the Vikings have a bye after Monday night’s game so they likely are looking to make sure he’s entirely healthy in order to have him for the stretch run to the playoffs.
They already beat the Bears once without Jefferson, but they did have Kirk Cousins in that game at quarterback.
Early in the week, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell labeled his star receiver “questionable” for the game. Saturday afternoon the actual injury labels come out for this game.
