Vikings Clips
The Vikings have quarterback Kyler Murray back in the lineup, but they may have lost their top wide receiver for the rest of the day.
Justin Jefferson left the game to get checked out in the sideline medical tent during the first quarter in Tampa and the team announced that he is considered questionable to return with an ankle injury. Jefferson had two catches for 32 yards on the opening drive of the game.
The Vikings kicked a field goal at the end of that possession and tacked on more points on a Myles Price punt return. The Bucs got on the board on their second possession when Baker Mayfield hit wide receiver Ted Hurst with a 40-yard touchdown to make it 10-7.
The Bucs have also lost a wideout to an injury and they say Jalen McMillan won’t return after hurting his knee.
The NFL’s first punt return touchdown of the 2026 season belongs to Vikings wide receiver Myles Price.
Price fielded a Riley Dixon punt at his own 14-yard line and broke loose for an 86-yard score. The touchdown pushed the Vikings’ lead to 10-0 with 8:43 left to play in the first quarter.
It was the first touchdown of Price’s NFL career.
The Vikings opened the scoring with a seven-play, 40-yard drive that ended with a Will Reichard field goal. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson caught two passes for 32 yards from Kyler Murray on the drive. Murray is returning after being cleared from his Week 1 concussion.
Linebacker Ivan Pace did not travel to Tampa with the Vikings on Saturday, but he made it to Florida in time to play on Sunday.
Pace was listed as questionable for personal reasons, but he avoided the inactive list and will be in the lineup against the Buccaneers. The 2-0 Vikings are trying to send the Buccaneers to their third straight loss.
The Bucs will not have defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches after he hurt his ankle during pregame warmups. Linebackers Rueben Bain and Josiah Trotter are also out with injuries for the home team.
Cornerback Ayden Garnes, guard Luke Haggard, and guard Billy Schrauth are also inactive for the Bucs. Punter Brett Thorson, cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, safety Jakobe Thomas, safety Tavierre Thomas, offensive tackle Caleb Tiernan, defensive lineman Elijah Williams, and quarterback J.J. McCarthy are inactive for Minnesota.
In the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Vikings-Bears game in Chicago, a wicked hit sent Minnesota running back Aaron Jones’s helmet flying. Jones remained in the game.
The player who delivered the hit has been fined.
The NFL imposed a $22,342 sanction on Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson for impermissible use of the helmet. The rulebook prohibits a player from lowering his head and making forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent.
The infraction was not flagged; it rarely is. Typically, the situation is addressed with the imposition of a fine.
Impermissible use of the helmet is not one of the five violations that will result in an automatic suspension if there are three violations.
Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray’s return from a Week 1 concussion adds a separate wrinkle to the Week 3 game against the Buccaneers.
The game means that former Oklahoma teammates Murray and Baker Mayfield will have their fourth NFL meeting. Murray leads, 3-0.
Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma in 2017. Murray replaced Mayfield in 2018, and then Murray won it.
Their personal rivalry takes a back seat to the bigger picture. The Vikings hope to get to 3-0, and the Buccaneers need to avoid slipping to 0-3.
And there’s one interesting wrinkle that plays into the home team’s favor. Mayfield has faced a Brian Flores defense twice in his career. In 2019, Mayfield and the Browns beat the Dolphins. In 2023, Mayfield and the Bucs stunned the Vikings in Flores’s first game as the team’s defensive coordinator. Mayfield had five touchdown passes and one interception in those two games.
The Buccaneers elevated safety Ifeatu Melifonwu from the practice squad on Saturday, the team announced.
It is the final elevation for Melifonwu, as he played in the first two games. The Bucs will have to add Melifonwu to the 53-player roster for him to play again this season.
Melifonwu’s elevation gives the Buccaneers help on special teams and insurance at safety. Starters Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith and backup Miles Killebrew are the only safeties on the 53-player roster, with rookie defensive back Keionte Scott playing in the slot.
Melifonwu has not played on defense, but he has logged 32 snaps on special teams.
He signed a one-year deal with the Bucs at the start of training camp after spending last season with the Dolphins. A third-round pick of the Lions in 2021, Melifonwu spent four seasons in Detroit.
He has appeared in 53 games with 22 starts and has totaled 125 tackles, 5.5 sacks, three interceptions and 14 passes defensed.
The Vikings traveled to Florida for Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers without linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.
Pace could still play.
The Vikings downgraded him to questionable upon announcing that he didn’t make the trip. Obviously, he’ll need to get to Tampa Bay another way.
Undrafted in 2023, Pace is in his fourth season with the Vikings. No longer a starter, Pace was on the field for 10 defensive plays against the Packers in Week 1 (plus 26 on special teams) and for 14 defensive plays against the Bears in Week 2 (plus 18 on special teams).
The Vikings have won seven games in a row, dating back to last season.
Vikings running back Aaron Jones worked his way up to a full practice on Friday and he’s set to play against the Buccaneers on Sunday.
Jones did not practice on Wednesday due to a knee injury and he was limited on Thursday, but the team did not give him any injury designation for the game. Jones has 35 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown so far this season.
Linebacker Jake Golday (ankle), running back DeeJay Dallas (toe), defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (oblique), tackle Brian O’Neill (knee). and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond (elbow) also avoided injury designations.
Punter Brett Thorson (hamstring) and center Nick Samac (knee) have been ruled out. The Vikings signed Johnny Hekker to the practice squad this week and he will be elevated for Sunday’s game.
The Buccaneers will be missing a pair of rookie starters on defense when they face the Vikings on Sunday.
Head coach Todd Bowles said on Friday that first-round pick Rueben Bain has been ruled out with a groin injury and that second-rounder Josiah Trotter will miss the game with a shoulder injury.
Bain has gotten off to a slow start. He has one tackle through two games and has not provided the kind of pressure off the edge that the Bucs were hoping to get when they snapped him up in the first round.
Trotter has made more of an impact. The linebacker has 24 tackles, a sack and an interception return for a touchdown so far this season.
Kyler Murray will be back at quarterback for the Vikings when they take on the Buccaneers this Sunday and he won’t be playing with fears of a repeat of what happened in Week 1.
Murray was knocked out of the Vikings’ opener against the Packers after suffering a concussion while being hit by Lukas Van Ness and Javon Bullard at the end of a run. Murray said at a Thursday press conference that he felt back to himself “pretty quickly” and that the injury was a result of an unwieldy slide that put him in position to take a big shot to the head.
“I’ve really never had an issue protecting myself,” Murray said. “I’d like to think I’m one of the least-hit quarterbacks in the league as far as just protecting myself, getting the ball out and stuff like that. That’s new for me to have to go through that type of situation, because that’s the last thing I ever expected is to get a concussion just because I am very careful with being in open field and I know that was kind of an awkward slide situation, but I’m always trying to protect myself. . . . Van Ness was behind me you’re moving fast. You charge it to the game. I don’t judge anybody over there for anything that happened. It’s part of the game.”
Murray has missed plenty of other games with injuries over the course of his career, but none have come in a similar fashion as the Week 1 concussion and the Vikings will be hoping that he’ll be able to avoid a repeat in the weeks to come.
