Can the Vikings’ Terrifying Trifecta Top 30 Sacks?
If all goes well, the Vikings’ terrifying trifecta — edge rushers Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Dallas Turner — will be causing a lot of sleepless nights for opposing offensive coordinators.
Recently, former Vikings GM Jeff Diamond spoke about the pass rushers on Vikings Territory. “I thought the Vikings should’ve kept Danielle Hunter,” Diamond argues, “but if the trio of Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Dallas Turner can produce 25 or so sacks (as Hunter and D.J. Wonnum did), then it’s a big win for the organization to move on to younger and less expensive players.” Is the bar being set too low? Is 30 sacks a reasonable benchmark?
The Vikings’ Terrifying Trifecta at Edge Rusher
Last season, Minnesota mostly relied on a top twosome for sacks: Danielle Hunter and D.J. Wonnum.
Combined, the pair had 24.5 sacks, an excellent amount for a couple of defenders. The critical detail, of course, is that Hunter was far outpacing his counterpart, accounting for 16.5 of those sacks while Wonnum tossed in 8.
Part of the problem was that there weren’t too many other players capable of getting to the QB.
A hodgepodge of talent added onto the team’s sack total, but no one got anywhere close to Hunter and Wonnum. Harrison Phillips and Harrison Smith offered 3 sacks apiece. Josh Metellus and Ivan Pace each tossed 2.5 sacks onto the team’s total. Jonathan Bullard had 2, Marcus Davenport had 2, and then everyone else was in the single digits.
In other words, no collection of three Vikings would have led to 30 sacks. What makes that basic statistical fact even more discouraging is the brilliance of Mr. Hunter, who gets more than halfway there all on his own. Will the new pass-rushing group fare any better?
Last season, Jonathan Greenard had a career-high 12.5 sacks while Andrew Van Ginkel similarly posted a career high. The difference was that the versatile Van Ginkel was down at 6 sacks. Simply replicating those numbers would mean sitting at 18.5, leaving the rookie Dallas Turner with the ambitious task of needing to pickup 11.5 to hit the notable benchmark.
More likely, perhaps, is a season where Van Ginkel again picks up a career high. Yes, 6 sacks aren’t that many, and yet some of the other signs of pass-rushing health are there for Mr. Van Ginkel. He hit the QB 19 times last season, a strong number suggesting he was in the backfield a decent bit. In his final season with Flores in Miami, Van Ginkel had 4 sacks and 20 QB hits.
Envision a scenario, then, where Van Ginkel rises to 8 sacks. Meanwhile, Greenard puts up 12. Can Turner toss on 10? Ambitious, yes, but not impossible for the youngster with a killer spin move.
In 2023, only five teams surpassed 50 sacks. Only the Ravens hit 60. The Vikings were roughly in the middle of the pack, finishing with 43 sacks despite blitzing a league-leading 51.5% of the time.
Don’t be surprised if 2024 involves seeing Minnesota flirt with the 50-sack benchmark as a team even as they blitz less. Being able to get there will involve the aforementioned terrifying trifecta living up to their potential.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.