Bengals at Vikings injury report: Joe Mixon ruled out; Kyle Rudolph doubtful

UPDATE

The Bengals have downgraded Joe Mixon to out for Sunday. He didn’t pass a required part of the concussion protocol after initially being listed as questionable.

This also explains why the team signed running back Jarveon Williams off of the practice squad.

The Bengals could be facing the same issues they had last week again on defense. Vontaze Burfict and Nick Vigil will miss Sunday’s game against the Vikings after being ruled out on Friday.

The Bengals also placed Kevin Minter on Injured Reserve after suffering a hamstring injury. The team called up Brandon Bell from their practice squad to replace him on the active roster.

This will leave the Bengals with only Vincent Rey, Jordan Evans and Hardy Nickerson at linebacker. Looking on the bright side, we at least get to see if Evans con bounce back after his struggles last week against the Bears.

The Bengals may also be without Shawn Williams, who is questionable with his hamstring injury after missing the last three games. Clayton Fejedelem will probably take most of the safety duties as Josh Shaw will have to play some more corner with Dre Kirkpatrick still out with a concussion.

That does mean we do get another week of William Jackson and Darqueze Dennard evaluation. They will be paired up against an Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs duo that has been very good for the Vikings this season.

It looks like Mixon will be good to go, and that is great news for an offense that has struggled in his absence. Giovani Bernard has also been limited in practice this week with a knee injury, but he should be able to play Sunday. It will help he won’t have to carry all of the running back load like last week.

As for the Vikings, they will be missing at least on key pieces on offense in Kyle Rudolph and possibly Riley Reiff. Rudolph has been a touchdown machine for the Vikings this season. He has scored seven times so far. Reiff is in charge of protecting Case Keenum’s blind side.

Without Reiff, Carl Lawson could look to take a step closer to the Bengals’ rookie sack record against the Vikings backup left tackle.