Tyler Batty’s rise from Payson to the NFL has hit a painful pause.
The Minnesota Vikings announced that the second-year outside linebacker will miss the 2026 season after tearing his ACL. Batty has been placed on injured reserve after suffering the injury in Friday’s preseason finale against the Denver Broncos.
The setback lands just days before the regular season begins, and it leaves Minnesota even thinner at outside linebacker. Batty had been trending toward a major role in the rotation, working behind starters Andrew Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner and turning heads throughout training camp. Now the Vikings head into the season with only four outside linebackers on the roster.
Tom Pelissero first reported the severity of the injury on Saturday, and Alec Lewis later noted that Batty’s strong camp made the loss sting even more for a team already dealing with depth concerns off the edge.
Batty’s football path has been built on steady growth. He starred at Payson High School, where he picked up first-team all-region and all-valley honors, then joined BYU in 2020. As a freshman in 2021, he led the Cougars with 3.5 sacks and finished with 43 tackles.
His role kept expanding. In 2022, Batty served as a co-captain and was a candidate for both the Wuerffel Trophy and the Ted Hendricks Award.
The next year, during BYU’s first season in the Big 12, he led the team in tackles for loss, sacks and quarterback hurries and earned All-Big 12 second-team recognition. By his senior season, he was a first-team All-Big 12 pick and received honorable mention for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.
Across four college seasons, Batty finished with 224 tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss, 16.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and two interceptions.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2025, made his debut in Week 7 against the Philadelphia Eagles, and played in 12 games as a rookie. Most of that work came on special teams, and he finished the year with 12 tackles, including two for loss.
Now the priority is recovery. Batty will spend 2026 rehabbing the torn ACL, with a return in 2027 the goal.
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