The Utter Necessity of The Gruesome Twosome
K. Joudry
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If Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter aren’t excellent in the 2022 season, the Vikings will have a difficult time bouncing back. To be excellent, both will need to be healthy. At this stage, health is the main concern. No one seems to believe that a fully available pair wouldn’t do great things during this upcoming season.
To get a sense of what they can do, take a peak at these videos:
And here is Smith:
It’s very important that these two combine to form a gruesome twosome, a truly intimating pair of edge rushers who cause opposing OCs to lose a lot of sleep. If successful, the offense will continually feel like they’re in a bind, thereby restricting which plays they feel capable of running.
Having Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter on the field ought to make life easier for essentially everyone else, including each other. They demand so much attention that the DTs and LBs will have an easier time avoiding blockers. The defensive backs will need to cover for less time because the QB will know that he doesn’t have a lot of time before needing to get the ball out of his hands.
When Hunter last played a healthy season, he accumulated 14.5 sacks. When Smith last played a full season, he accumulated 12.5 sacks. The math wizards in the crowd will tell you that those two numbers combine for 27 sacks. Given that there are now 17 games and they’ll be able to open room for each other, Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith could reasonably combine for 30+ sacks in 2022.
Indeed, the Vikings defense will largely follow their two EDGE players. If those two are a fearsome duo, then Minnesota will have a legit shot at putting together a considerably better defense in 2022.
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