NFL: Minnesota Vikings at New York Giants
Minnesota Vikings linebacker Jamal Adams (32) celebrates with safety Theo Jackson (26) during the first half against the New York Giants on Aug. 15, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
It didn’t take veteran defender Jamal Adams long to endear himself to his new teammates. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings in the early stages of training camp and immediately made his presence felt.
Not only did Adams show the versatility required to succeed — he played both linebacker and safety — he carried himself with a confidence that made it easy to see him emerging as a leader. There were certainly going to be contributions from Adams in some way, shape or form.
Now the Vikings must trek on without him.
A few minutes before practice on Monday at TCO Performance Center, head coach Kevin O’Connell met with a group of reporters and confirmed that Adams suffered a torn quad tendon in his right knee. He has officially been placed on injured reserve, which effectively ends his campaign before it ever got started.
“It’s an absolute killer,” O’Connell said. “He meant so much to us in such a short amount of time.”
The injury occurred on Saturday at MetLife Stadium in the Vikings’ 13-10 victory over the New York Giants in their exhibition opener, when Adams crumbled to the turf without taking any contact. He managed to get to the sideline under his own power before ultimately being carted to the locker room.
It was a heartbreaking scene.
Though the initial prognosis didn’t look good, O’Connell said after the game that he didn’t want to confirm anything until additional testing was complete. Unfortunately for Adams, the imaging revealed exactly what everybody feared.
“He was genuinely carving out a significant role for himself, and he was doing that just by totally being all in on the process,” O’Connell said. “There’s a lot of guys in there that are crushed for him.”
After having surgery at some point in the near future, Adams is expected to still be around the Vikings as he works his way through the recovery process.
“He’s going to be with us all season long,” O’Connell said. “I think it’s really important that he knows — and I’ve talked a lot both to him and his family — about his impact on this organization and his ability to help young players.”
This is the latest bout with adversity for Adams, who previously suffered a torn quad tendon in his left knee, which stole a good chunk of his prime. Now he’s staring down another lengthy recovery process as he tries to keep his NFL career afloat.
“We are going to wrap our arms around him top to bottom in our organization,” O’Connell said. “We’re going to support him, because he has earned a lot of people’s respect in a very short amount of time, and that’s what he deserves.”
How do the Vikings move forward without Adams in the mix? That remains to be seen.
It’s pretty clear defensive coordinator Brian Flores was slowly but surely figuring out a way to put Adams in positions to help the defense. Whether he was going to be used as a linebacker or safety, Adams seemed to be growing into a role as a blitzer.
Now the Vikings need to find another player to step up to fill that void.
Briefly
After officially placing Adams injured reserve on Monday the Vikings signed rookie cornerback Bryce Phillips. They also signed edge rusher Kenny Dyson and released edge rusher Arden Walker in a corresponding move.
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