Vikings Health Update for New Defender is Positive
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell spoke to the media on Monday, allowing for a Vikings health update to occur.
As Janik Eckardt notes, Minnesota has moved tight end T.J. Hockenson and special teamer NaJee Thompson to the PUP list. Backup running back DeWayne McBride has been placed on the NFI list. The missing name? New edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, who is progressing nicely.
Vikings Health Update on Andrew Van Ginkel is Positive
Minnesota tends to be very cautious with injuries, so it’s certainly a positive that the edge rusher isn’t spending any time in the infirmary.
“Just with Van Ginkel,” O’Connell notes, “he should more than likely be able to start working himself into a pretty regular workload to start hopefully training camp. He has not yet, obviously, worked with that group full speed, so we’ll probably use the ramp-up period and maybe a few of those days beyond to kind of gauge and see exactly how he’s working through that early kind of participation.”
He goes on: “But the expectation is we should be able to get him rolling here pretty good.”
So, optimism.
During free agency, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah tossed over a two-year pact to the former Dolphin for a total of $20 million. In 2024, the cap charge is sitting at just $3.4 million but it will jump up to $12.4 million next year. Currently, the 2026 offseason is scheduled to take on some dead money from the Van Ginkel deal since void years are being used to keep the short-term cap hits down.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Van Ginkel thrives while in Minnesota, bouncing back to full health and playing so well that he demands an extension. That’s the best case, the one where dead money in 2026 doesn’t materialize.
The 29-year-old defender is coming off a great season with Miami. He picked up 69 tackles to stand alongside 6 sacks, 19 QB hits, and 8 tackles for a loss. He also tossed on 8 passes defended as well as an interception. He even scored a touchdown.
The advanced metrics were impressive, as well. PFF gave him a sizzling 91.1 grade for his efforts. The pass rushing and pass coverage skills were particularly impressive, coming in at 7th and 1st in their rankings. Proving the versatility a little more is that the defender soaked up 561 snaps along the defensive line but he was also in the box as a linebacker for 105 snaps and even had 56 snaps as a slot corner.
Brian Flores, in short, is going to have a lot of fun deploying the versatile defender.
Andrew Van Ginkel should be considered the favorite to start alongside Jonathan Greenard at edge rusher. Rounding out the top options is Dallas Turner, the No. 17 selection in the draft who will also get plenty of snaps. The trio is being leaned on to ratchet up the pressure in Minnesota.
If successful, then a lot of the concerns about the secondary will go away.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap 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.