The Vikings' tight end-friendly offense will have to make due without John Carlson for at least two weeks. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test performed Tuesday night confirmed the initial diagnosis of a sprained right knee. It's a Grade 2 sprain to the medial collateral ligament, which coach Leslie Frazier said will take "maybe a week or two" to heal well enough for Carlson to return to the field. "A lot of it will depend on his pain tolerance," Frazier said. "Hopefully, in the next week or two, two weeks at the most, we'll have him back." That's both good news in that it's not a more serious injury requiring surgery and bad news in that offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave has designed a ball-control, multiple-tight-end offense that runs the ball and moves the first-down marker with high-efficiency throws to the tight ends. The position is so highly regarded that the Vikings targeted Carlson as their premier offseason free-agent aquisition, luring him from his visit to Kansas City with a five-year, $25 million contract. Source: Star-Tribune
