The Minnesota Vikings don't have anything to play for in Week 17. Therefore, they are going to rest Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook and Eric Kendricks, according to Courtney Cronin via Chad Graff of The Athletic.
The Vikings had a chance to take home the fifth seed in the playoffs by winning their last two games of the season, but a loss against the Green Bay Packers eliminated any chance of that. Minnesota has the six seed wrapped up and will go on the road to take on the third seed during wild card weekend.
With Cousins sitting, it's going to be back up Sean Mannion making his second career start. Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski said he expected Mannion would be ready to start if he got the call.
“We’ll see. Honestly I think Coach Zimmer will address those type of things as this week goes on, but I think whoever is out there, and I think our guys know that they got to be ready to roll, and that’s for every backup at every position in every game. So Sean (Mannion) has to be ready to roll like he was two weeks ago and ten weeks ago.”
Getting the fifth seed would be better, but this is the best possible way to handle this situation for the Vikings. Some of the backups like Mannion will be trying to win this game, but could also earn a new contract with the Vikings or another team with an excellent performance in this game.
It also gives guys like Cook and Kendricks an extra week to get healthy for their first playoff game during wild card weekend.
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