Matthew Coller: Andrew Van Ginkel is NFL's most unique defensive player

Vikings DC Brian Flores talked about how rare Van Ginkel's role is.

Nov 17, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Minnesota Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel (43) sneaks a peak into the backfield against the Tennessee Titans during the second half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

EAGAN — Comparables only seem to be used in football during draft season but they can be useful with established players to give us some context about what a player is accomplishing or the way they are being used.

In the case of Andrew Van Ginkel, it’s not that easy to compare him to anyone around the league currently because his muti-faceted role and performance are so hard to replicate. The NFL posted on Twitter/X that Van Ginkel is one of only three players since the to have at least 8.0 sacks and two pick-sixes in a season and the other two are Terrell Suggs and Jason Taylor.

Van Ginkel has his 8.0 sacks while ranking 44th among edge players in pass rush snaps. That’s not because he isn’t on the field — he’s top 10 in overall snaps. It’s because he’s so often being used as a coverage player. No outside linebacker or defensive end has been used in coverage as much as Van Ginkel and it isn’t remotely close. He has 133 coverage snaps while the next highest mark is 82.

How unique is that?

“It's very rare, I would say,” defensive coordinator Brian Flores said. “To have a guy who you feel comfortable at that size… most outside backers, from a height-weight standpoint aren't comfortable in space with receivers so it's very rare to have a guy who can play in space and then get on the line of scrimmage, set edges, play off the ball, play on the ball, blitz drop, it's rare. That was part of the kind of evaluation and the vision for him. He's to play these multiple roles, but I think he's even exceeded what my vision was going to be for him and he's done a phenomenal job.”

Van Ginkel’s two pick-sixes are certainly great for the defense but the down-to-down value exists in opposing teams never knowing what he’s going to do on a given play or where he’s going to be. Oftentimes you will see Van Ginkel starting to rush and then dropping back or vice versa.

We have numbers to tell us about the craziness of his alignments. Per PFF, here’s his snap count distribution:

— Left outside linebacker: 256 snaps

— Right outside linebacker: 172 snaps

— Left inside linebacker: 25 snaps

— Right inside linebacker: 36 snaps

— Slot corner: 25 snaps

What types of problems does that cause for the quarterback?

“Gink [Andrew Van Ginkel] nine times out of 10 is gonna end up in a weird spot just causing a little bit of [discomfort for the offense,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “Maybe that's just targeting him in the run gam,e maybe that's targeting him in protection knowing that he's a known rusher, but where he's aligned you really can't get him blocked as a known rusher unless you distort your Day 1 training camp rules.”

What O’Connell means by “distorting” the rules is that teams can’t play their typical blocking schemes when Van Ginkel is wide outside the tackle or when suddenly he’s over the guard and Patrick Jones is on the edge and they don’t know which one of them is going to rush.

“That's what Flo’s [Brian Flores] defense as a whole does a really good job of is just creating pressure points both mentally and physically for the players on the field,” O’Connell said. “Just by the nuances of just the adjustments…I think it keeps people really honest from a standpoint of that play sheet as large as they're getting round the league from a size standpoint. You better not go in with too much, because if you overextend yourself and you're not ready for some of those adjustments, we've been able to capitalize on some of those things.”

There are other players like Seattle’s Boye Mafe and L.A.’s Byron Young who line up on both sides but don’t spend anywhere near the amount of plays in the middle of the field as Van Ginkel.

The other L.A. player who has gotten a lot of coverage snaps is DL Michael Hoecht, who led the NFL last year and ranks second to Van Ginkel this year. But there is an important difference: Van Ginkel is good at it. Hoecht has a 51.2 PFF coverage grade this year and and 49.1 last year vs. AVG’s 86.5 and 87.1 (out of 100).

Since nobody presently is playing the same role as Van Ginkel, we can look back in history to gauge his uniqueness. How many OLBs have played over 200 coverage snaps, which AVG will certainly reach this year, and graded by PFF over 70 coverage grade?

There have only been a few other players to play 200 coverage snaps. Tyus Bowser, 2021 with the Ravens. Barkevious Mingo, 2018 with the Seahawks. Albert McClellan, 2016 with the Ravens. Connor Barwin, 2015 with the Eagles.

Something interesting happens in 2014 when you go back through the data.

Calvin Pace with the Jets, played over 200 snaps and posted a 70+ PFF grade in coverage that year. That same year, Clay Matthews, Justin Houston, Derrick Morgan and Courtney Upshaw all had over 70 grades with 150 coverage snaps. Players like Tamba Hali, Von Miller and Ryan Kerrigan also had over 100 with solid grades.

In 2013, there were three players with 200+ coverage snaps and Pace again was over 70 grade. Manny Lawson, Buffalo, had a 90.2 coverage grade with 228 snaps.

The last year of the data is 2010, which shows James Harrison with 281 snaps and a 79.2 grade.

Those were the final days of the true 3-4 defenses. We don’t have data to show how often the classic Steelers from the 90s used players like Jason Gildon or the early 2000s Belichick Patriots used Willie McGinest in roles that included rushing and coverage but we can assume that it was something like what Van Ginkel is doing now. The modern twist is moving the player around like crazy and using defensive alignments that put everyone up at the line of scrimmage.

That can only happen if you have the player to do it. When Flores was with Van Ginkel in Miami, he used him somewhat similarly but Van Ginkel has improved since then and become a better cover man, giving Flores more options schematically.

“He's grown and he's evolved and learned how to play,” Flores said. “He's worked at it, whether it's the weight room and getting stronger in the weight room so that he could set edges or working pass rush, you know, on his own and with his coaches and then working with his teammates to get somebody else free or to get himself free…It's been great to watch the growth…He didn't have the football IQ when I first got him, and he does now, and that's just a testament to his work.”

Flores’s point about Van Ginkel’s dynamic role impacting others can be spotted as well if we look close enough. The Vikings have the No. 1 pressure rate in the NFL according to Pro-Football Reference and yet they rank 25th by team pass rush grade by PFF. That suggests that they aren’t individually destroying offensive linemen (outside of Jonathan Greenard) but they are working together to create havoc. The Vikings have seven players between 10 and 30 pressures this year, for example.

On Sunday we can expect Flores to use all of Van Ginkel’s versatility to his advantage against the Chicago Bears, who have allowed the second most sacks in the NFL this year.