Now More Than Ever, The Vikings Miss a Pass Rusher Hunting Havoc in Houston
The Vikings miss Danielle Hunter.
Last season, the team didn’t fare too poorly without him. He was offering sensational play over in Houston — a city handy to where he played high school football — but the Vikings were getting exemplary play from Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel. Fast forward into 2025 and Hunter is lapping the Vikings’ top pass rushers, creating some havoc in Houston by piling up 11 sacks within his eleven games.
The Vikings Miss Danielle Hunter
There’s no hyperbole in insisting that Mr. Hunter is among the great Vikings draft picks in franchise history.
Chosen at No. 88 in the 2015 NFL Draft, Rick Spielman pulled a remarkably athletic edge rusher out of LSU. The college production was skimpy but Hunter was a marvel on the football field. The soft-spoken Jamaican stands at 6’5″ and weighs 263 pounds. He has super long arms and is deceptively fast (as any quarterback who has gotten chased down from behind can attest).
Shining with the Vikings didn’t take long.
Some will think of the difficult injuries that robbed him of all of 2020 (the infamous neck tweak) alongside the injury that stole most of 2021. Those developments were incredibly discouraging, playing no small part in the downfall of the Rick Spielman/Mike Zimmer era.
Step back, though, to consider what he did while wearing a purple uniform.
Danielle Hunter played in 119 games as a Viking, starting 90. He piled up 462 tackles, 87.5 sacks, 134 quarterback hits, 11 forced fumbles, and 108 tackles for loss. One of his most impressive Vikings seasons came within his final one, the year when Mr. Hunter got to work alongside Brian Flores. Hunter offered his team a sizzling 16.5 sacks alongside 4 forced fumbles, 22 quarterback hits, and 23 tackles for loss. Elite.
During his current season in Houston, Hunter has picked up 37 tackles, 11 sacks, 18 quarterback hits, 11 tackles for loss, and 2 forced fumbles. His PFF grade is coming in at 87.8, a tremendous number that’s sitting at eighth in the league.
Most promising is that he’s a key facet within Houston’s 2nd-ranked defense in the NFL. The Texans — largely due to the tremendous coaching from DeMeco Ryans, a brilliant defensive strategist — are allowing an average of 16.5 points against per game.
Right now, the Vikings are sitting at 18th in the NFL, allowing north of 23 points against per game (23.2, to be exact). As a team, the Vikings have 27 sacks, coming in at 13th in the NFL. The leading player for sacks is Jalen Redmond, who has 4. Solid for a defensive tackle, but modest for a team leader.
Re-inserting Danielle Hunter into the mix would have quite an effect.
The grand caveat is the grand contract. The $35.6 million annual average comes in well ahead of Greenard and Van Ginkel. In fact, combining Van Ginkel and Greenard means arriving at a $42 million average. The pair do outpace the former Viking, but not by a mile.
Danielle Hunter wouldn’t be the antidote to all of the poison that’s working through the roster. But then there’s also the reality that inserting an elite player — one who plays a premium position — into the team would help considerably. Hunter is missed.
The Vikings have been working through no shortage of criticism lately. We’ll see if Minnesota curbs the criticism with a Week 13 win over the Seahawks. Getting a great pass rush would help.
