The Minnesota Vikings barely escaped their Week 16 game against the New York Giants, coming away with a 27-24 victory as Greg Joseph nailed a career-long and franchise-record 61-yard field goal at the buzzer. The victory kept the Vikings’ slim hopes of winning the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC alive, but it didn’t come without a cost.

To earn the No. 1 seed, the Vikings will have to win their remaining two games in the regular season while the Eagles will need to lose both. While not likely, there is a chance that happens as Philadelphia is dealing with injuries to key players.

At this point in the season, every team is dealing with some sort of injury and the Vikings are not immune. In the game against the Giants, defensive lineman James Lynch suffered a shoulder injury.

The injury is bad enough that he has already been ruled out for the remainder of the regular season. The team is hoping that he can get back on the field for the postseason after some rest and rehab in the coming weeks. Minnesota will likely be hosting a game on Super Wild Card Weekend on January 14th, 15th or 16th.

Lynch was an important part of the team’s rotation along the defensive line. He had played in all 15 games thus far, starting two of them. He was mostly used as a space-eater in the middle, picking up 20 combined tackles with one tackle for loss.

Depth pieces like that are important and Lynch’s absence will be felt despite him playing only 26 percent of the defensive snaps this season. He was also a contributor on special teams, playing 51 snaps there as well.

With Lynch sidelined, the Vikings could opt to use defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson for a few more snaps per game to help compensate for the loss. Khyiris Tonga could also get on the field for a few more plays as he was also a rotational piece along the defensive line this season.