The Vikings are Sending a Message to Opposing QBs
Coming into the season, there was a decent bit of optimism about the revamped front seven.
Yes, seeing Danielle Hunter depart was disappointing, but the additions of Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner, and Blake Cashman were reason for optimism (which is to say nothing of guys like Jihad Ward and Jerry Tillery). The Vikings appear to be in a good spot when it comes to impacting the QB.
The Vikings and The QB Pressure
Andrew Van Ginkel has been better than anyone could have hoped. The wild thing is that expectations were high.
The word was that Minnesota was getting a smart, hard-working, versatile defender who would be the queen on Brian Flores’ chess board. All of that has proven to be true but it still falls short of just how excellent he has been in 2024. The man has consecutive weeks of picking up a sack and has been an overall menace.
The two-year, $20 million commitment is looking like a bargain.
The wild thing is that it feels like Greenard — signed to a four-year, $76 million agreement — is just scratching the surface. He snagged a pair of tackles yesterday to stand alongside his sack, but there’s more meat on the bone. His Week 1 involved being really disruptive but not getting rewarded with any statistics to show for it. Week 2 had the aforementioned stats; any chance his Week 3 effort against his former team is when he’ll explode?
And the Blake Cashman pickup looks like a wonderful fit. He moves so well, playing a style that complements the players around him. The veteran had the sack on Brock Purdy but he also had 13 combined tackles, confirming the eye test that he was all over the place.
Brock Purdy did a lot of good things on Sunday. He went 28/36 for 319 yards and a touchdown. So, the dude hung in there. The issue is simply that he was sacked 6 times and under pressure in several other instances.
In Week 1, the Vikings got to Daniel Jones on 5 occasions, bringing the season-long sack total to 11, leading the NFL. Averaging that out to a full season — 5.5 sacks per game across a 17-game season — would involve snagging either 93 or 94 sacks. Last season, the league leader in sacks were the Ravens, a team that finished with 60.
So, the Vikings are producing at an unsustainable pace. The upside is simply that the contributions have been coming from different players.
Van Ginkel, Greenard, and Cashman have all gotten involved, but it’s Patrick Jones and his 4 sacks that are leading things. Right now, Jones is in a tie for 2nd in the NFL for sacks, coming in behind Aidan Hutchinson’s 5.5.
Otherwise, each of Dallas Turner and Harrison Phillips have chipped in with a sack apiece.
Next up is C.J. Stroud, a young player who looks to be among the next generation of great QBs. The Vikings will obviously be looking to make him skittish in the pocket, especially since his pass catchers — Stefon Diggs, Nico Collins, & Tank Dell — are so impressive.
Keep an on the pass rush during the upcoming games. Flores has his guys producing at an elite level, so we’ll see if the good times can keep rolling in a tough Week 3 game that will be taking place at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
