Here’s Where the Vikings Defense Ranked in 2023
Josh Frey
|
The Minnesota Vikings finished their regular season on Sunday with a loss to the Detroit Lions.
Today, we will be breaking down where the Vikings defense ranked as a whole, and where individual players stood when the season came to an end. Shout out to Pro-Football-Reference, Pro Football Focus, and nfeloapp.com for the numbers that went into this article.
NOTE: Individual PFF Grades are sorted to include players with at least 50% of the league leaders for defensive snaps at each position.
Team Defense
Total Defense
- Points Allowed per Game: 21.3 (T-13th)
- Total Yards Allowed per Game: 333.2 (16th)
- Plays per Game: 64.4 (25th-fewest)
- Yards per Play Allowed: 5.2 (14th)
- First Downs Allowed per Game: 19.3 (16th)
- Takeaways per Game: 1.29 (T-19th)
- Third-Down Conversion Percentage Allowed: 41.4% (T-26th)
- Fourth-Down Conversion Percentage Allowed: 72.0% (32nd)
- Red Zone TD Percentage Allowed: 54.0% (14th)
- Overall PFF Grade: 68.4 (25th)
- EPA/play: -0.04 (19th)
The Vikings defense had about a 10-week stretch in the middle of the season where they were truly elite, but down the stretch of the year, it became clear that the injuries were simply too much to overcome. They spent time without starters like Jordan Hicks, Byron Murphy, and D.J. Wonnum and ended the year on a very bad note.
Pass Defense
- Completions Allowed per Game: 25.1 (32nd)
- Pass Attempts Against per Game: 35.6 (26th)
- Passing Yards Allowed per Game: 234.5 (24th)
- Net Yards Allowed per Attempt: 6.1 (14th)
- Passing First Downs per Game: 12.2 (28th)
- Passing TDs Allowed per Game: 1.35 (T-17th)
- Interceptions per Game: 0.65 (T-19th)
- Sacks per Game: 2.5 (T-19th)
- Coverage PFF Grade: 76.8 (16th)
- Pass-Rush PFF Grade: 60.0 (31st)
- EPA/pass: 0.01 (13th)
Run Defense
- Carries Against per Game: 26.2 (13th)
- Rushing Yards Allowed per Game: 98.7 (8th)
- Yards Allowed per Carry: 3.8 (5th)
- Rushing First Downs Allowed per Game: 6.12 (13th)
- Rushing TDs Allowed per Game: 0.82 (T-11th)
- Fumbles Recovered per Game: 0.65 (T-8th)
- Run Defense PFF Grade: 62.5 (T-18th)
- EPA/run: -0.13 (13th)
Minnesota’s run defense remained a very strong unit all season long, ranking among the top-10 teams in both total rushing yards allowed and yards allowed per carry. However, while the secondary did have a strong stretch in the middle of the year, they simply could not hold up down the stretch.
Injuries to both Mekhi Blackmon and Byron Murphy seemed to derail that unit, and Akayleb Evans seemed completely out of sorts over the final few weeks. The Vikings will need to take another look at that CB room heading into the offseason.
Individual Players
OLB Danielle Hunter
- Solo Tackles: 54 (T-109th)
- Tackles for Loss: 23 (T-1st)
- QB Pressures: 80 (10th)
- QB Hits: 22 (T-17th)
- Sacks: 16.5 (5th)
- Forced Fumbles: 4 (T-5th)
- PFF Grade: 78.0 (23rd among 59 qualifying EDGEs)
OLB D.J. Wonnum
- Solo Tackles: 33 (T-253rd)
- Tackles for Loss: 7 (T-106th)
- QB Pressures: 38 (T-85th)
- QB Hits: 15 (T-63rd)
- Sacks: 8.0 (T-37th)
- PFF Grade: 62.3 (46th among 59 qualifying EDGEs)
OLB Pat Jones
- Solo Tackles: 22 (T-388th)
- Tackles for Loss: 5 (T-176th)
- QB Pressures: 32 (105th)
- QB Hits: 8 (T-126th)
- Sacks: 1.0 (T-266th)
- PFF Grade: 37.9 (59th among 59 qualifying EDGEs)
DL Harrison Phillips
- Solo Tackles: 44 (T-160th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-337th)
- QB Pressures: 21 (T-154th)
- QB Hits: 6 (T-162nd)
- Sacks: 3.0 (T-147th)
- PFF Grade: 59.7 (T-47th among 73 qualifying DL)
DL Jonathan Bullard
- Solo Tackles: 24 (T-360th)
- Tackles for Loss: 3 (T-271st)
- QB Pressures: 9 (T-279th)
- QB Hits: 2 (T-298th)
- Sacks: 2.0 (T-198th)
- PFF Grade: 46.4 (66th among 73 qualifying DL)
LB Jordan Hicks
- Solo Tackles: 61 (T-75th)
- Tackles for Loss: 4 (T-220th)
- QB Pressures: 14 (T-221st)
- QB Hits: 2 (T-298th)
- Sacks: 1.0 (T-266th)
- PFF Grade: 74.5 (20th among 57 qualifying LBs)
LB Ivan Pace
- Solo Tackles: 63 (T-65th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-337th)
- QB Pressures: 15 (T-207th)
- QB Hits: 9 (T-109th)
- Sacks: 2.5 (T-178th)
- PFF Grade: 77.2 (15th among 57 qualifying LBs)
CB Byron Murphy
- Solo Tackles: 43 (T-168th)
- Tackles for Loss: 4 (T-220th)
- Passes Defended: 13 (T-16th)
- Interceptions: 3 (T-25th)
- PFF Grade: 57.9 (61st among 80 qualifying CBs)
CB Akayleb Evans
- Solo Tackles: 49 (T-132nd)
- Tackles for Loss: 0
- Passes Defended: 7
- Interceptions: 1 (T-104th)
- PFF Grade: 55.0 (71st among 80 qualifying CBs)
S Harrison Smith
- Solo Tackles: 60 (T-78th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-337th)
- Sacks: 3.0 (T-147th)
- Passes Defended: 3 (T-249th)
- Interceptions: 0
- PFF Grade: 67.9 (T-32nd among 63 qualifying safeties)
S Josh Metellus
- Solo Tackles: 78 (T-26th)
- Tackles for Loss: 7 (T-106th)
- Passes Defended: 5 (T-157th)
- Interceptions: 1 (T-104th)
- PFF Grade: 70.1 (23rd among 63 qualifying safeties)
S Camryn Bynum
- Solo Tackles: 94 (6th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-337th)
- Passes Defended: 9 (T-56th)
- Interceptions: 2 (T-44th)
- PFF Grade: 73.2 (14th among 63 qualifying safeties)
Here’s Where the Vikings Offense Ranked in 2023