The Minnesota safety will miss the entire 2026 NFL season after suffering a torn right quadriceps tendon
By Brandon Dack, Columnist | August 25, 2026
Vikings defender Jamal Adams, who was carted off in the Vikings preseason game versus the Giants early in the second quarter, rolled over and grabbed his right knee, diagnosed with a season-ending knee injury, a source says.
His season was over before it began. Specifically, coach Kevin O’Connell said Jamal Adams tore his quad tendon, with a lengthy and brutal recovery coming.
O’Connell stated the veteran safety is expected to stay around the team. Adams will miss the 2026 season because of a right leg injury he suffered in the Minnesota Vikings’ 13-10 preseason victory over the New York Giants. The Vikings placed him on injured reserve on Monday and signed cornerback Bryce Phillips. Coach Kevin O’Connell had expressed concern about the injury during and after the game, saying that he was “crushed” for Adams and that “we’re going to miss him.”
Early testing didn’t look good, O’Connell said, but the team wanted to wait until further imaging to take place tomorrow before making a definitive projection about Adams’ absence.
Additional testing revealed the malady is a torn right quadriceps tendon. The injury occurred early in the second quarter when Adams stumbled in pass coverage with no contact and fell to the turf at MetLife Stadium. Why is it that the plays where there is no contact with another player seem to be the plays where season-ending injuries seem to happen the most?
I guess that’s one of the questions about which I will probably never know the answer: Why is it that it always seems to me that no-contact plays with another player are most common in these instances in the NFL?
The Vikings signed Adams, 30, on the eve of training camp in part because of his familiarity with general manager Nolan Teasley when both were members of the Seattle Seahawks. Drafted as a safety by the New York Jets in 2017, Adams moved to linebacker last season with the Las Vegas Raiders and initially worked there with the Vikings as well. After a week of training camp, however, the Vikings changed his number from 54 to 32 and began using him at safety.
Adams had received heavy first-team reps during practice in the Vikings’ three-safety packages. He was playing with the second-team defense Saturday when the injury occurred. Injuries have plagued Adams for much of the second half of his career. He played only one game in 2022, nine in 2023 and five in 2024 before making it through all 17 games with the Raiders as a part-time player last season. Phillips, an undrafted rookie out of San Diego State, had initially signed with Kansas City but was waived when the Chiefs signed defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah last week. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed on Monday what many had already expected:
“Super bummed, I know it’s been reported, but testing did confirm a quad tendon tear for Jamal [Adams],” said O’Connell on Monday. “Which was an absolute killer, just from what he had meant to us in such a short amount of time. He’s had such a great impact.”
The former All-Pro safety/linebacker joined the Vikings in late July and had been considered a potentially valuable veteran addition to Minnesota’s defense. Adams was carted off the field after suffering a non-contact injury in the second quarter of the Vikings’ preseason win over the Giants.
This is the same injury that previously derailed Adams’ career, but in a different leg. Following a severe quad injury early in 2022, Adams fought to feel like himself again. He appeared in nine games for the Seahawks in 2023 after returning from injury. He played briefly for the Tennessee Titans and Detroit Lions in 2024 before spending 2025 with the Raiders, appearing in all 17 games with Las Vegas.
“That’s a tough injury,” Adams said on July 29 when talking about the 2022 injury. “It’s probably the toughest injury you can go through in all of sports. It’s not an ACL or an Achilles, no offense to anybody that has that, but it’s a different level. It’s an intense level. When you tear your tendon, it takes time. It takes years to really get back to yourself. You might heal, but you’re not back to yourself mentally and physically.”
Adams, who turns 31 in October, isn’t necessarily old. But after suffering another severe injury just four years later, the veteran’s career may now be in jeopardy. In addition to missing all of this season, he might not be back to 100 percent until 2029, which would be his age-33 season.
While the injury will keep Adams off the field, O’Connell said it won’t keep him away from the team.“He’ll have a procedure to have that fixed,” continued O’Connell. “Then he’s going to be with us all season long. I think it’s really important that Jamal knows, and I’ve talked a lot to both him and his family, about his impact on this organization, his ability to help young players, his ability to be a real beacon of energy.”
“Obviously he’s going to be focused on getting healthy and getting the initial stages of his rehab going, but we’re going to have him with us. You guys will see him around, see him out here, see him around the building, because he’s a Minnesota Viking now and we want to make sure that he knows how important he will be to our players and team.”
