3 Vikings Who Need to Take a Sophomore Leap
All of Minnesota’s roster holes can’t be patched up in free agency and the draft. Some of the help needs to come from within: internal growth from players already calling Minnesota home.
To that end, consider 3 Vikings who need to take a sophomore leap. A player’s second season can often be one where there’s a dreaded step back — there’s even a catchy name for it: the sophomore slump — but Minnesota will be looking for the opposite to occur with at least a trio of players. Since he missed all of his rookie season and there’s so much uncertainty surrounding the quarterback spot, J.J. McCarthy is being excluded from consideration.
3 Vikings Who Need a Sophomore Leap
Player #1 — Dallas Turner, Edge Rusher
Given the draft investment, Turner had to take the top spot in the list.
No one is questioning the pass rusher’s talent. Turner, 22, is coming off of a rookie season where he snagged 300 defensive snaps in sixteen games (28% of the team’s total). He picked up 20 tackles, 3 sacks, 5 QB hits, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 interception.
The 6’3″, 247-pound defender needs to become more powerful. He’s a wonderfully gifted athlete — he ran a blistering 4.46 forty, which is nearly identical to Justin Jefferson’s forty time — but may benefit from filling out a bit more.
Seeing Turner take a Danielle Hunter leap as a sophomore would do wonders for Minnesota’s front.
Player #2 — Will Reichard, Kicker
Sinking a draft pick into a kicker means believing he’s capable of being the team’s K1 for the next decade.
The opening several weeks of the season involved a flawless Reichard. A teammate of Turner at Alabama, Reichard was proving that the switch to the NFL wasn’t all that difficult. But then there was the leg injury that put him on the IR and then some inconsistency followed.
Add up the numbers and Reichard’s season ended having gone 24/30 (80%) on his field goals and 38/38 (100%) on his extra points. Obviously, the hope in Eagan is that he’ll improve on the first number while maintaining the second number.
Keep in mind that he drilled a kick from 58 yards. Anything from 60 yards and in seems to be within Mr. Reichard’s range.
Player #3 — Dwight McGlothern, Corner
What are realistic expectations for an undrafted corner? Simply making the team and contributing on special teams is a win. Can he ascend even higher?
Working in McGlothern’s favor is that he stands at 6’2″, giving him the length that defensive coordinators covet in boundary corners. Still only 23, McGlothern may be able to pack on a bit more muscle to his 185-pound frame, better equipping him to handle the NFC’s bully receivers like A.J. Brown, Mike Evans, Drake London, D.K. Metcalf, and Christian Watson (among others).
Right now, corner is perhaps the weakest spot on Minnesota’s roster. Seeing McGlothern push his game to a point where he becomes a viable CB4 — someone capable of jumping into action and doing reasonably well — would be a major win for the Vikings given that he arrived as a UDFA who commanded just $30,000 in guaranteed cash.
As a rookie, McGlothern played 19 snaps on defense alongside 17 snaps on special teams. Getting into the active lineup and contributing with regularity — even if it’s mostly on specials — would represent a nice step forward.
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.
