Vikings to start QB Wentz against Bills with Murray injured - ESPN

EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings have once again hopped on their quarterback carousel. Backup Carson Wentz will start Monday night's game against the Buffalo Bills, coach Kevin O'Connell announced Thursday, because starter Kyler Murray is nursing a strained hamstring.

The change marks the 14th time the Vikings have shifted from one quarterback to another during a season, either because of injuries or for performance reasons, since Kirk Cousins tore his right Achilles tendon midway through the 2023 season.

Murray suffered the injury while running on a read-option play early in the fourth quarter of the Vikings' 19-15 loss last Sunday to the Detroit Lions. Murray also struggled to connect with open receivers throughout the game, leaving receiver Justin Jefferson so frustrated that he declined to speak with reporters afterward.

The Vikings have only scored 12 touchdowns of any kind this season, the second fewest in the NFL after the Chargers (9). Minnesota's 12 touchdowns are tied for the fewest by any team to start 6-1 or better through seven games in the last 90 years.

O'Connell said that putting Murray on injured reserve is not a consideration.

«I don't believe it to be much more than a week-to-week kind of thing right now,» O'Connell said. «But for him, his movement skills and the way he plays the game, we do feel like we'd be putting him at risk of possibly turning this into a more significant injury than it is by trying to have him work through it here early on.»

Murray scrambled seven times during a Week 4 game against the New Orleans Saints but has run only 13 times in his five remaining starts. But O'Connell said the injury would affect more than simply his ability to run.

«It's more the explosive movements,