The Vikings activated Patrick Peterson from injured reserve on Saturday afternoon, making the cornerback's widely expected return from a hamstring injury official the day before Sunday's game against the Packers.

Peterson injured his right hamstring on a deep ball to D.J. Moore during the Panthers' game-tying touchdown drive on Oct. 18, leaving the game with what the team initially called cramps. The 31-year-old cornerback said this week he'd never had a hamstring injury before, and didn't think it was anything more serious than cramping when he first went down.

He went on injured reserve before the Vikings' bye week, however, missing time because of an injury for the first time in his career. Peterson stayed at the Vikings' facility to rehab during his three-game absence, stretching with the team each day and traveling to road games in Baltimore and Los Angeles during his absence.

During the three games he missed, Peterson requested a headset so he could listen to coach Mike Zimmer's defensive calls from the sideline and gain a different perspective on the coach's approach.

"You know, [you] kind of get a beat, trying to get a feel for the offense and understand how you want to call certain defenses, understand when you want to send pressure," he said this week. "When you're in the game, you can't really hear the calls. You're just waiting for the call to come out, so being on the sideline and able to hear the call and hear him relay the message to Nick [Vigil] or Anthony [Barr] or whoever the [line]backer is in that game, it was a lot more eye-opening for me to understand and kind of see where Coach is coming from when he calls certain things."

The Vikings also activated defensive back Myles Dorn from the practice squad for Sunday's game as a COVD-19 replacement.