The teams didn’t come together in the day before the game to hold a reunion bash, but they could have, Both rosters have multiple personnel with connections to the other side.
For the Vikings, that starts not only with Darnold but with HC Kevin O’Connell, who never played for the Jets but was on their roster for periods of the 2009-11 seasons. O’Connell’s assistant head coach/outside LBs coach is Mike Pettine, Rex Ryan’s defensive coordinator from 2009-12. Also on the Vikings staff is quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, who started 16 games at QB for the 2017-18 Jets.
Blake Cashman, Minnesota’s starting MLB, was the Jets’ fifth-round pick in 2019. Backup C Dan Feeney played 33 games with seven starts for the Green & White in 2021-22. Third QB Brett Rypien was on the Jets’ active roster for the final five games last season but never played a down.
On the green team’s roster, TE Tyler Conklin spent his first four seasons with Minnesota as a Vikings fifth-round draft choice in 2018 before becoming the Jets’ starting TE in ’22. Two current Jets defenders were also Vikes draft picks: LB Chazz Surratt in Round 3 in 2021 and DL Jalyn Holmes in Round 4 in 2018.
Among those not playing in this “old home week” game are two Jets starters. MLB and defensive captain C.J. Mosley, limited in practice all week by a toe injury and listed as doubtful for Minnesota, has been deactivated for the third straight game, with Jamien Sherwood continuing to step into the starting lineup for Mosley.
RT Morgan Moses will sit out his second full game with a knee injury, with first-round rookie Olu Fashanu making his second pro start on the right side.
These are the Jets’ seven inactive players for the game in London:
- WR Malachi Corley
- RB Izzy Abanikanda
- CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse
- LB C.J. Mosley
- T Max Mitchell
- T Morgan Moses
- DL Braiden McGregor
And these are the Vikings’ seven inactives for the game, not including starting LB Ivan Pace, who was inactive for Minnesota’s win last week at Green Bay: but will be active today alongside Cashman:
- WR Trishton Jackson
- QB Brett Rypien
- CB Fabian Moreau
- CB Dwight McGlothern
- DL Levi Drake Rodriguez
- DL Jalen Redmond
- T Walter Rouse
