{"id":109202,"date":"2025-08-31T19:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109202\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T19:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:04:08","slug":"sources-vikings-optimistic-jalen-nailor-will-play-in-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109202\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources – Vikings optimistic Jalen Nailor will play in opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kevin SeifertSep 1, 2025, 04:32 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Kevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Vikings<\/a> are optimistic about receiver Jalen Nailor<\/a>‘s availability for their Week 1 game at the Chicago Bears<\/a> next Monday night, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Nailor injured his left hand Aug. 14 during training camp and has not been seen on the field since. At the time, coach Kevin O’Connell classified Nailor’s injury as “week-to-week.”<\/p>\n

Nailor’s absence, along with the three-game suspension of receiver Jordan Addison<\/a>, helped spur the Vikings to acquire receiver Adam Thielen<\/a> via trade.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

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Thielen is likely to play a prominent role, and potentially start, alongside Justin Jefferson<\/a> against the Bears. Nailor’s availability would give the Vikings a reliable set of veterans for their three-receiver sets.<\/p>\n

The only other receivers on the Vikings’ 53-man roster are both rookies: Tai Felton<\/a>, a third-round draft pick from Maryland, and Myles Price<\/a>, an undrafted free agent from Indiana. The Vikings lost receiver Rondale Moore<\/a> for the season during the preseason because of a left knee injury.<\/p>\n

Nailor caught a career-high 28 passes for 414 yards and six touchdowns last season. His contract will expire after the 2025 season, at which point he will be an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin SeifertSep 1, 2025, 04:32 AM CloseKevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-109202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}