Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray slides defended by New Orleans Saints safety Justin Reid during the second half at Caesars Superdome
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray slides defended by New Orleans Saints safety Justin Reid during the second half at Caesars Superdome
The 2026 Minnesota Vikings are 5-0, but they’ve done it while missing important pieces to their offensive and defensive puzzles in all five wins. In fact, their injury issues began almost immediately after the regular season kicked off.
On the 11th snap back in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, newly-signed starting quarterback Kyler Murray left with a concussion, after a late slide got him lit up and knocked him out for the rest of that game and the Vikings’ Week 2 win over the Chicago Bears.
Kyler Murray is being evaluated for a concussion after this hit https://t.co/EsUhu7gTok
— ThatsGoodSports (@BrandonPerna) September 13, 2026
Thankfully, Murray shook off his concussion symptoms pretty quickly, returning to Vikings practice on a limited basis just days after suffering the scary head injury above. On September 21, Kyler cleared protocol and returned Week 3 against the Bucs.
While most football injuries are freak accidents and unavoidable, there are others that can be avoided with the right precautions. For quarterbacks, there’s been a long-held belief that sliding baseball-style is one way to avoid big hits.
Alex Smith says QB should STOP sliding
Of course, as you can see from the video above, that’s not always the case. In fact, there’s one former NFL quarterback who is convinced that sliding makes quarterbacks MORE likely to get injured.
On Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN this weekend, former No. 1 overall draft pick Alex Smith explained quite convincingly why quarterbacks should almost never slide the way they’ve been taught for decades, and why the new way of teaching should push QBs to fall forward instead.
Smith starts with Josh Allen, who took a shot last year against the Pittsburgh Steelers and decided that he was better off delivering blows with his shoulder down than taking them while sliding and unprotected.
On Sunday NFL Countdown this week, Alex Smith urged all quarterbacks to forget what they’ve been taught for decades about protecting themselves on the run by no longer sliding feet-first. He argues that it hurts more QBs than it keeps safe and I couldn’t help but think about Kyler Murray’s head injury as I watched this…
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) October 19, 2026
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But even for smaller QBs, who aren’t built like linebackers, Smith argues that falling forward (a) leaves ball-carriers less vulnerable to big hits and (b) sends a much different message to opposing defenders who are playing on football instincts.
Why sliding hurts more QBs than it helps
And that is where he convinces three-time Super Bowl champion linebacker Tedy Bruschi, who confirms that defenders will switch from hit stick mode to self-protect mode when they see a quarterback diving to the ground, as opposed to sliding.
Smith: “I know Josh Allen’s a freak. He’s in a different class, but no quarterback this day and age at any level should be sliding, especially in traffic. And even Josh had to learn it the hard way. Take a look at this play from last year … Even me, this is something for me, had to learn the hard way. This is hard for me even to watch. I mean, the dumbest play of my career.”
“Look, [I’m] relaxed, I am not protecting myself, and to get bounced off the turf like that, the worst hit of my career. These plays, they happen so fast. I’m not saying these are defenders’ faults, but as an athlete, as a quarterback, all of a sudden you’re running and you’ve been taught your whole life, ‘slide, slide, slide,’ and all of a sudden you relax and drop down and think you’re protected.”
“We’ve been athletes our whole life. Maintain being an athlete and aggressively get down head first. You’re still tense, I’m still protecting myself, and as I get down aggressively at Tedy’s feet, he has to protect himself as well.”
Bruschi: “So as a defender now, I see that picture, and if I’m here, my inclination is to lean forward because this picture still, you’re possibly a runner. So I’m leaning forward, and that’s how those hits happen. Now, it’s totally different when you put your head down.”
“You see that, naturally as a defender, when we see the player go down, we immediately get into a different pose, and rather than an aggressive hitting position here, it’s protect our legs, tap off on the runner. It’s a clearer picture for us.”
ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown
Since returning from the concussion, Murray has led the Vikings to three straight wins, completing 66 of 96 passes (68.8%) for 644 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, while adding 84 rushing yards on 18 carries.
Minnesota Vikings QB still sliding… for now
After Week 1, Murray admitted it was “kind of an awkward slide situation.” It also wasn’t the first time. Murray told ESPN his only other concussion came in 2015 as a freshman at Texas A&M, and it also came at the end of a slide.
His best rushing day as a Viking came in their last win, a 23-13 victory over the New Orleans Saints, when he ran 10 times for a season-high 51 yards. Seven of those carries were scrambles that went for 54 yards, and he moved the chains on three third downs with his legs.
However, we have yet to see him really adopt the dive forward method.
A small thing that caught my eye. Kyler Murray had basically the exact same scramble against the Saints that he did against the Packers. It might seem small, but it’s a big improvement. https://t.co/QKQ8ZCOVlr
— Eric Polzin (NinetoFiveSports) (@925_Sports) October 12, 2026
He went down sooner, which was an improvement, but a dive in the play would have scored him a few more yards and protected him better. Instead, the Vikings settled for three yards on what looked like a nice little first down gain.
I’m interested to see how Kyler Murray gives himself up on run plays going forward. If you go back to his Week 1 injury, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell actually brought up the head-first slide while defending Packers safety Javon Bullard’s hit.
As fast as those things happen, it would be one thing if there was a head-first slide and a clear declaration, but I don’t put any fault on anybody there.