Josh Oliver injury: status, history and who gets his targets if he is out

Minnesota Vikings · Tight end · status this week: ON RESERVE / IR (ESPN)

Checked Oct 21, 2026.

Over his 6 full seasons on record, Josh Oliver played 81 of 101 regular-season games (80%), and 3 of 5 so far in 2026. Season by season.

No absence modeled for week 7. There is no week 7 projection for him, so there is no “if he sits” to model this week. This page showed who gained while his absence was modeled earlier this season; that table returns whenever the model covers him again. His status and injury history below are current.

Injury history

Over his 6 full seasons on record, Josh Oliver played 81 of 101 regular-season games (80%), and 3 of 5 so far in 2026.

Season	Team	Played	Missed	Listed out	Injuries listed
2026	MIN	3 of 5	2	0	—
2025	MIN	15 of 17	2	2	Foot
2024	MIN	15 of 17	2	2	Ankle
2023	MIN	17 of 17	0	0	—
2022	BAL	17 of 17	0	0	—
2021	BAL	13 of 17	4	0	—
2019	JAX	4 of 16	12	6	Hamstring

Regular season only. Games played counts games with at least one offensive snap; designations are from the official weekly injury report, which does not list players on injured reserve, so a long absence shows as missed games rather than as weeks listed out.

What the data says happens

Measured across every regular-season game from 2018 onward, each beneficiary compared against his own trailing four-game form and net of what the same players do in weeks the room’s number one actually plays.

When a team’s number-one tight end does not play, what each position group gains:

Room	Receptions gained	n	t
Receivers	+0.107	2,160	2.29
Tight ends	+0.492	1,024	9.57
Backs	-0.045	1,259	-0.92

The room total is predictable. Which player takes it is not. Every candidate predictor of who gains — pecking order, snap share, route depth, trailing targets — correlates at roughly r = 0.02. In any single week one player usually takes about 60% of what was vacated; it is simply not predictably the same one.

Josh Oliver’s full stats and usageSnap share, target share, game log and this week’s projection

Cascade effects 2018–2026, paired within player, net of control · projections as-of-week with no lookahead · 2026 week 7