Pricey Vikings Addition Sees Snaps Fall Off a Cliff
In the NFL, there are different forms of currency.
Most obviously, there’s the cold, hard cash — the lifeblood for an NFL that lives to make money. Several free agents generated offseason headlines due to becoming pricey Vikings, new employees in Minnesota as a result of a hearty payday from GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (DT Jonathan Allen, DT Javon Hargrave, RG Will Fries, and so on). But then there’s another resource that may also be understood in terms of a cheap/expensive spectrum: a team’s draft picks. More specifically, one wonders where things are trending with young edge rusher Dallas Turner.
Pricey Vikings Addition Sees Snaps Drop Off
At 22, Mr. Turner is still in the process of improving his game. He does, nevertheless, need to elevate.
After all, Minnesota is now rolling with a 22-year-old J.J. McCarthy as the starting quarterback. He is coming off a game against the Lions where he wasn’t perfect but where he was still a difference maker (leading to an animated moment with Tom Brady). Is Turner capable of being held to the same standard? Can the edge rusher offer strong, promising football while nevertheless being allowed to make mistakes as he learns and grows?
On Sunday, Dallas Turner was kept on the bench to begin the game.
Reinserting Andrew Van Ginkel into the Brian Flores defense is akin to putting glasses on for the first time after needing them for far too long. All of the sudden, things just look crisp. Such is the case with an athlete as gifted as Van Ginkel, a phenomenal player who is still underrated even after earning Pro Bowl and All Pro respect in 2024.
Seeing Dallas Turner being benched for Andrew Van Ginkel isn’t cause for alarm. Athletically, Van Ginkel is pretty darn close to as good as it gets. What is concerning, however, is just how dramatically Turner’s snaps dropped.
Mr. Turner had 14 snaps on defense in Week 9, quite the drop off from the 54 he offered back on Thursday Night Football when Minnesota was getting eviscerated inside SoFi Stadium. Turner’s snaps were a season-low, the kind of number that was closer to how he was used in 2024 when he was slowly developing as the EDGE5 instead of the EDGE3 in 2025 after being hyped (by the coaches, mind you) as being essentially a starter.
The 14 snaps work out to just 21.9% of the defense’s plays. The next closest snap total for Turner comes in Week 1 when he put up 29 plays (43.3%) while playing the Bears at Soldier Field. Note: those 29 snaps are more than twice as much as the 14 that arrived at Ford Field in Week 9.
Another detail to illustrate where the playing time was versus the Lions: there were 16 plays for special teams coordinator Matt Daniels. Folks, special teams matter, but Minnesota didn’t forfeit all of those draft picks in the expensive trade up to gain a special teams player. Rather, the hope was to have drafted a sizzling, elite, inspire-fear-in-offensive-tackles edge rusher. So far, that hope remains unfulfilled.
Eating into Turner’s snaps isn’t just Van Ginkel. Eric Wilson, an off-ball linebacker, is being tasked with playing along the edge. He, too, is stealing playing time from the sophomore as Coach Flores continues to lean on Wilson alongside Blake Cashman as the starting pair of off-ball ‘backers.
At times, the defense swells to three off-ball ‘backers, allowing Ivan Pace to get onto the field (usually in attack mode) as Wilson jumps up to the end of the d-line.
Across five starts and eight games, Dallas Turner has 29 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 4 quarterback hits, and 3 tackles for loss. Could be worse; could be better.
More important than the basic statistics is the capacity to be a weekly difference maker. Consistently get offensive tackles on their heels. Generate holding calls, force the quarterback to throw the ball away, and set the edge so that the runner needs to cut into the meat of Minnesota’s defense rather than scamper into green grass on the edge. Sniff out a screen pass, forcing a quarterback to burn up a play by throwing the ball into the dirt; drop into coverage to force a quarterback off his first read. Doing all of those things (among others) would mean being a great player even if there haven’t been any numbers put into the sack column.
(But, to be sure, picking up sacks would be a welcome development in Minnesota).
At 6’3″ and 247 pounds, Dallas Turner has the length that coaches covet in edge rushers. Partner the build with a forty time that’s almost identical to Justin Jefferson and it’s easy to see the intrigue. Until the potential turns into strong play, though, there will be some lingering disappointment about where things have gone with the Alabama alumnus.
The next opponent is Lamar Jackson. Corralling the elusive quarterback who refuses to be corralled would be an impressive feat that would be fitting for such a pricey Vikings addition.
