It's official: The Vikings will be without four starters Sunday. They could also be without wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, whose roller-coaster season encountered another twist today.

First things first, let's start with the guys who are definitely not playing. Outside linebacker Anthony Barr, defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, safety Robert Blanton and left guard Charlie Johnson have all been officially ruled out after each missed all three days of practice this week.

Gerald Hodges will start again in place of Barr. Tom Johnson and rookie Shamar Stephen will split the snaps with Floyd out. Andrew Sendejo is expected to start at safety with Blanton out. And we can probably pencil in Vlad Ducasse at left guard because head coach Mike Zimmer has made it clear that rookie guard David Yankey will not be ready to see the field this season.

Now on to Patterson, who apparently injured his hamstring in practice today and therefore was a limited participant. The Vikings have officially listed him as questionable, a day after he said he had a "heart-to-heart talk" with Zimmer about something. He would not disclose the topic to us.

The injury report was released today after the locker room was closed to media. But Patterson appeared to be in good spirits after practice. He exited the showers with a boom box bumping rap music and casually chatted with a teammate as he got back into civilian clothes.

Patterson, of course, has played just four offensive snaps the past two weeks and fumbled on a kickoff return against the Jets. At the start of today's practice, before the media got the boot, Patterson was practicing kickoffs with Jarius Wright, Marcus Sherels and the rest of the returners.