![\"Medical](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/medical-staff-looks-ryan-kelly-117709447.jpg\")
Medical staff attends to Ryan Kelly #78 of the Vikings during a game against the Giants on Dec. 21, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much respect for Ryan as a player,\u201d Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell told reporters, \u201cand the way he took the amount of time he did and was fighting to get back on the field and felt ready to go. We were holding back a little bit beyond that. And then, when he returned to the field, the impact he\u2019s had on our offense over these last few games have been massive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly, who according to ESPN has six documented concussions during his 10-year professional career, was concussed during Weeks 2 and 4 and was on injured reserve for roughly two months before returning in Week 12.<\/p>\n
He switched his helmet and began wearing a Guardian Cap, a padded covering that goes over a helmet, when he came back.<\/p>\n
![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2252295244.jpg\")
Ryan Kelly Getty Images<\/p>\n
A first-round pick by the Colts out of Alabama in 2016, Kelly spent nine seasons in Indianapolis, earning Pro Bowl nods in 2019, \u201920, \u201921 and \u201923.<\/p>\n
He joined the Vikings this year on a two-year, $18 million contract and has earned $77.35 million during his career, according to Spotrac.<\/p>\n
When he signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension with the Colts in 2020, it made him the highest-paid center in the NFL at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A four-time Pro Bowler\u2019s NFL career is seemingly in jeopardy after suffering his third concussion in three months.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":471403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[213963,9002,8812,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-471402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-concussions","9":"tag-indianapolis-colts","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115782063732292189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}