EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray will miss at least the next game because of a hamstring strain, the latest twist for the team at a constantly revolving position.
Carson Wentz will start instead against Buffalo on Monday, with Max Brosmer serving as the backup. Murray's status will be evaluated week to week, coach Kevin O'Connell said, with the hope he can be ready to play by Nov. 15 when the Vikings (6-1) visit Green Bay. Murray is not under consideration for injured reserve, O'Connell said, which would require a minimum four-game absence.
“We do feel like we’d be putting him at risk by possibly turning this into a more significant injury than it already is,” O'Connell said.
Murray was forced out of the season opener after 11 snaps because of a concussion that also kept him out of the following game. Wentz threw three touchdown passes in the rally to beat Green Bay and started the rainy victory at Chicago, going 23 for 39 for 276 yards with six sacks and no turnovers while Murray was out.
“Just physically felt like I still could do it, still could play, still could mesh with some of these receivers,” said Wentz, who had shoulder surgery last year. “It wasn’t perfect by any means, but at the end of the day the goal is to win and find a way to win, and we did that. I look forward to trying to continue that.”
Wentz, the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, went 2-3 as the starter last year while J.J. McCarthy was sidelined. O’Connell sidestepped a question about whether Wentz could keep the job with a strong performance even after Murray is cleared.
“There's a ton of confidence in Carson,” O'Connell said. “He's already helped us.”
Murray was hurt on a read-option run in the fourth quarter at Detroit last week when he turned the corner past star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson for a 9-yard gain. Murray remained in the game as the Vikings took their first loss, but an MRI exam on Monday confirmed the strain after he had reported soreness.
O'Connell, who declined to specify the severity of the injury, stressed the importance of a cautious approach with an injury that can linger if it's not fully healed. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson wound up missing seven games with a hamstring strain in 2023. With Murray struggling to find a rhythm throwing the ball, the Vikings will be wary to send him out if he can't run at full speed.
“Just knowing that Kyler needs his mobility, it's a big huge part of what makes him an effective player,” O'Connell said.
Since Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles tendon at Green Bay on Oct. 29, 2023, O'Connell and the Vikings over a span of 52 games will have switched starting quarterbacks for injury or performance 17 different times, including 14 in-season changes and five in-game.
The instability has undoubtedly contributed to a downturn in production for the offense since Sam Darnold departed in 2025 for Seattle, and as a result Jefferson's prime years are being underleveraged.
“It’s not really something that I sit up late at night and stress myself about. It’s more on what can I do to win the game, what can I do to cause some type of momentum, some type of energy on the sideline,” Jefferson said after practice on Thursday.
In his seventh season and still without a playoff-game win, Jefferson was particularly frustrated last week at Detroit and uncharacteristically skipped his postgame interview session with reporters.
“The potential and the guys that we have in that room is something very, very special, so I feel like we’re wasting that by not going out there and executing the plays that we have called,” Jefferson said. “Just not living to that standard.”
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray (1) runs against the Detroit Lions during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of three states administering the death penalty on the same day.
Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.
Hours earlier, Indiana executed a man for killing two children by setting a house fire in 2010, and in Alabama, a man received the last lethal injection of the day for his conviction in the killing of an elderly man and woman in a home robbery.
The executions took place the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced he will commute all 548 death sentences in his state, saying he believes “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values."
That contrasted sharply with the stance of Florida's outgoing GOP governor, Ron DeSantis, who has made aggressive use of the death penalty like few other governors. His state has carried out more than half of the 35 executions so far this year in the U.S., where capital punishment has come under renewed scrutiny following Tennessee's failed execution of Christa Pike in September.
It is the second time since August that three states had conducted executions on a single day, although it remains unusual. Previously, the last time it happened was 2010.
Guardado, 64, was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the death chamber curtain went up promptly at 6:00 p.m. Asked if he had a last statement, he replied, “I would like to once again apologize for the pain and suffering I’ve caused to the victim’s family and my own family as well.”
The drugs began flowing immediately afterward. About a minute later, Guardado began breathing heavily, followed by some sputtering and twitching. Soon after, a warden shook Guardado and shouted his name, but got no response and a medic then pronounced him dead.
DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has said he wants to bring justice to victims' families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out. He signed the death warrants that led to a state record of 19 executions in 2025. The state is planning two more executions later this year.
The victim’s son, Patrick Malone, spoke briefly to media afterward. Without directly discussing his mother or her murder, he questioned those who oppose the death penalty.
“Do such people ever think about what happened to the victim or consider the unending aftermath the victim’s family endures and relives every time that terrible event comes up?” Malone said.
In Alabama, Michael Taylor, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. local time after a lethal injection. The execution got underway shortly before 6 p.m. as Taylor replied “no sir” when asked if he had any final words.
He appeared to mouth “thank you” toward his attorneys seated in the witness room. Taylor’s spiritual adviser approached and prayed with him, and he closed his eyes, never opening them again.
In 1991, Taylor, then 19, fatally beat Ivan Moore, 83, and his 79-year-old wife Lucille with a metal bar during a robbery in their Gadsden, Alabama, home. Police arrested him in their Cadillac an hour away in Birmingham.
Death penalty opponents had urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, noting his age and immaturity then. She declined.
Ivey called Taylor's actions “reprehensible” in a statement afterward, adding the couple had opened their home to him and "Mr. Taylor repaid the Moores by beating them to death with a metal bar, all to rob them for money to buy clothing and jewelry.”
She also took a jab at California's Gov. Newsom for planning to commute all death sentences there.
“California may let their criminals escape justice, but not Alabama. Here, we enforce the law and always will,” Ivey said at end of the statement.
The victims' family thanked the state attorney general's office for bringing closure, but lamented having to wait 35 years for the death sentence to be imposed.
“We know that a person has the right to appeal, but there should come a time when the jury’s decision is final. For all these years, our family has had to live with the waiting, the delays, and the uncertainty," their statement read. "We have never forgotten our loved ones or what was taken from us.”
The state switched Taylor's execution method after a judge declared a nitrogen gas method unconstitutional. His attorneys objected since he selected nitrogen gas as his method years ago, but a judge ruled against Taylor.
The defense attorneys said Taylor “knew the depth of the harm he caused” and “grieved it for the rest of his life,” adding he became a changed person in prison and that “Michael’s life was proof that God isn’t finished with any of us."
In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at the state prison in Michigan City, said Noelle Russell, a Department of Correction spokesperson. He had no final words.
Weisheit had acknowledged killing his girlfriend’s two children in a house fire in the Evansville area in 2010 but had hoped Gov. Mike Braun would grant clemency and change his sentence to life in prison. Braun declined.
The execution provided “long-awaited justice for Alyssa Lynch and her brother Caleb, two innocent children whose lives were stolen in an act of unspeakable cruelty," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said.
This story has been updated to correct that Tennessee's failed execution was in September, not October.
Fischer reported from Starke, Florida, and Chandler from Atmore, Alabama. AP reporter Ed White contributed from Detroit.
FILE - Law enforcement vehicles sit parked outside the Florida state prison in Starke, Fla., on July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Fischer, File)
The entrance to W.C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is shown on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler) Photo taken with a smartphone.
This photo provided by the Indiana Department of Correction shows Jeffrey Weisheit. The Indiana Parole Board is recommending that the death penalty remain in place for Weisheit who killed two children in a house fire.(Indiana Department of Correction via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, shows Michael Taylor. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)
