Matthew Coller: Future of the Vikings, Part 5: What's next on the D-line?

Will the Vikings look to invest more on the interior of the D-line? What's next for Dallas Turner?

Jan 13, 2025; Glendale, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) drops back to pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half in an NFC wild card game at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Vikings top-five ranked defense was driven by the men in the box. In the middle they were a blue-collar, unheralded unit that clogged up opposing run games and the edges were as flashy as could be. The pieces that shined this year on the D-line are going to be in place going forward with one particular area that they could take a step forward. Let’s have a look…

Edge rushers

Jonathan Greenard

Last offseason the Vikings took a risk by moving on from star defensive end Danielle Hunter and replacing him with Greenard. That risk paid off in spades forth both teams. Greenard had 12.0 sacks and was a pressure machine under Flores, finishing third in the league in total pressures only behind Myles Garrett and Trey Hendrickson.

Greenard was special in the biggest situations. PFF graded him the fourth best pass rusher when opposing teams were in “true pass set” situations i.e. when they weren’t running screens or play-actions. That means that he was at his best in spots like third-and-long where pass rush is at its most valuable.

Another remarkable part of Greenard’s season was that he was on the field non-stop in 2024. He racked up the third most snaps in the NFL among edge rushers after struggling to stay fully healthy earlier in his career.

The Vikings have a superstar in his prime going forward. Greenard’s cap hit is slated to go up from $5.8 million to over $22 million but OverTheCap.com’s numbers suggest they can restructure his deal to save nearly $14 million of that if needed.

Andrew Van Ginkel

The former Dolphin seemed to fly under the radar during his time in Miami, where he developed into one of the more dynamic outside linebackers in the NFL. That fact was not lost on Brian Flores, who coached the former Wisconsin Badger from 2019-2021, and had him toward the top of his free agent list heading into last offseason. Even Flores could not have predicted the way Van Ginkel elevated his game in Minnesota,, exceeding his previous career high in sacks by 5.5 and scoring two touchdowns.

His versatility goes way beyond the two pick-sixes. Van Ginkel dropped back in coverage more than any other edge rusher in the NFL and finished with an 82.3 PFF grade in coverage. No other edge player with at least 70 coverage snaps graded above 75.

Availability was also a great ability for Van Ginkel. He had the second most snaps of all edge rushers with 920, by far his career high.

There may not have been a better bang-for-buck signing in the NFL (aside from Sam Darnold) last offseason. Van Ginkel’s cap hit was just $3.4 million in 2024 and will go up to $12.4 million next year. They can restructure that to lower his cap hit by $7.7 if needed or the Vikings could give him a contract extension this offseason rather.

Patrick Jones

Jones racked up 5.0 sacks in the first four weeks of the season and it appeared he might be a breakout season for him. But he only ended up with 2.0 sacks for the rest of the season and finished with a 48.6 PFF pass rush grade. That ranked 67th of 69 rushers and he had the 8th lowest pass-rush win rate.

To Jones’s credit, the Vikings do not play traditional pass rushes so there is more to the story than winning one-on-one on every play but he only managed 56 pressures on 702 pass rush snaps over two seasons. That isn’t nearly enough to be an impact player.

Jones is a free agent. The Vikings should be looking to Dallas Turner to take over his role next season.

Jihad Ward

Flores moved Ward into an interior rushing role and it was occasionally effective. Among 47 interior pass rushers with at least 300 rushes, Ward ranked 29th in pass-rush win rate and 32nd in total pressures. For a $1.8 million situational player, he played a big number of snaps and remained healthy for 17 games but it’s clear that the Vikings need more from that role than what Ward was able to produce.

Dallas Turner

After struggling to get onto the field early in the season, Turner worked his way into the regular rotation over the final six weeks. After averaging just 15 snaps per game through the first 12 weeks and picking up just 1.0 sack and seven QB pressures on 79 pass rush snaps, he was given 25 snaps per game from Week 13 through the end of the year. PFF graded him a 68.8 during that stretch, which was 32nd out of 127 either starters or part-timers.

Turner’s grade was not so much based on a consistent impact but several spectacular plays, including a eye-popping sack against the Bears and an excellent interception versus Seattle. He only picked up five pressures on 65 rushes and ranked 107th of 116 in pass-rush win rate in those six games where he saw the field more often.

There is good news and bad news about Turner’s rookie season. The good news is that he did show those flashes and that he’s one of the youngest players in the league. There is plenty of time to develop along the same path as other young, raw edge players like Baltimore’s Odafe Oweh (who had just 8.0 sacks in his first two seasons but got 10.0 this year) or Green Bay’s Rashan Gary (2.0 sacks as a rookie) but the bad news is that the Vikings expected more from Turner when they traded up in the first round and now there will be a lot of pressure for Turner to take an enormous step forward.

What will be interesting to see is how he ends up being used within the scheme. Will he put on muscle and become more of a pass rusher? Or do they see him as playing a more hybrid role like Van Ginkel? Either way, this is a big offseason for him in terms of growth. The expectation is that he will grow into a major impact player in the future.

Bo Richter

After impressing during the preseason as an undrafted free agent from Air Force, Richter was quickly bumped up to the active roster where he played a key special teams role. He was on the field for 265 plays and scored a 77.1 PFF grade, the third highest among Vikings special teamers.

Richter is a tremendous athlete, who caught the NFL’s attention with his pro day and production as a pass rusher during his last year in college. The way he performed during camp and preseason made him an intriguing development project who might carve out a role next season.

Gabe Murphy

The fact that Murphy went undrafted was a big surprise to the draft analysis world considering he was among the top pass rushers in college football in 2023. In the early part of training camp, the ex-UCLA defender flashed some skill that drew attention from coaches and onlookers. But Murphy got banged up and did not see the field until Week 14. In a game against the Falcons, he played 28 snaps as a situational rusher and got one QB pressure. He only saw action for seven more defensive plays the rest of the year.

Defensive tackles

Harrison Phillips

Because the Vikings rotated their defensive tackles more in 2024 than they did in 2023, Phillips played a more reasonable amount of snaps with 672 in the regular season rather than the 838 that he played last year.

The thing about evaluating Phillips statistically is that defensive tackles that do the dirty work in Brian Flores’s system rarely get big PFF scores. The number of splash plays created for other players like Ivan Pace Jr., Josh Metellus and Blake Cashman that involved Phillips doing his job is enormous but his job doesn’t often land TFLs, QB pressures and sacks. What we can say statistically was that he played a vital role in the No. 2 rushing defense in the NFL and graded by PFF as a top-10 tackler. Phillips had the ninth best missed-tackle rate among starting DTs.

Phillips signed a two-year, $15 million contract extension this year. He will carry a cap hit of $9.6 million in 2025.

Jonathan Bullard

Similar to Phillips, the veteran DT scored high marks in the areas involved with stopping the run. He was the fifth best tackler by PFF and cracked the top 25 in run defense (out of 67). That’s a lot of bang for buck when you consider Bullard only took up $2.2 million on the cap and played 571 snaps.

As a pass rusher, Bullard was much more involved in moving blockers for blitzes to get home than he was going straight up field. He had just six pressures on the season.

Bullard is a free agent. Flores has praised Bullard as one of the veteran players he leans on for feedback on his scheme. Combined with his effectiveness against the run, that might result in him coming back at a reasonable price.

Jerry Tillery

All the DTs come with the same caveat about their PFF grades but it was hard to find many silver linings to Tillery’s stat sheet. In true pass rushing situations, where he made some impact with the Raiders in 2023, he ranked 93rd of 122 in pass-rush win rate and 71st in pass-rush productivity rate.

After regularly playing more than 30 snaps per game early in the season, his usage was chopped down by one-third over the final five games of the season. Overall he played a lot of snaps for $2.7 million but did not take a big step forward as the Vikings might have hoped when they signed him.

Tillery is a free agent. It would be surprising if he returned.

Jalen Redmond

Jalen….Redmond? It isn’t often that a player from a spring league like the XFL or UFL becomes a difference maker in the NFL but that was the case for Redmond in a small sample in 2024. Early in the season he was bumped up to the active roster and played a handful of impressive snaps against Houston in Week 3.

He didn’t see significant playing time again until Week 8 against Los Angeles but graded as one of the best defensive players on the field that night. And then he had a breakout game against Arizona in which he chased Kyler Murray all over US Bank Stadium, earning a 91.1 PFF grade for the game. After that, he was a regular, playing between 21 and 38 snaps every game down the stretch.

Redmond finished with 14 defensive stops (forced negative plays for the offense) in just 208 snaps, which is more than Tillery had in nearly 300 more snaps. Among players with at least 200 snaps, the ex-Oklahoma Sooner had the 13th best PFF grade.

Of course, we’re still talking small sample but he proved to be an exciting prospect for the future.

Taki Taimani

Tiamani made the team out of training camp and saw between 6 and 14 snaps in every game for the first eight weeks of the season. He suffered an injury and did not return to the field in 2024. At 330 pounds, we can safely say that Taimani projects as a pure run stuffer going forward. He should have a chance to carve out a role again in 2025.

Levi Drake Rodriguez

The seventh-rounder from Texas A&M Commerce got some work with the first team in training camp, raising the level of intrigue that was already surrounding him because of his unique background. In the regular season, however, he was rarely active and only played seven snaps in one game against Seattle. Rodriguez did make a couple plays in those snaps with a run stop and a pass batted down. He will be one of the most interesting players in next year’s camp as he tries to take a big step forward as an interior pass rusher.

Free agent options

Top tier DTs

Osa Odighizuwa (Dallas) — Over the last two years, Odighizuwa has become one of the top interior pass rushers in the league in terms of creating pressure. He ranked 3rd in total pressures in 2024 and 9th in PFF pass rush grade. While he only had 4.5 sacks, 14 of his 60 pressures were QB hits. The former third-round pick of the Cowboys is still only 26 years old and could potentially take another step like Jonathan Greenard did for the Vikings this season. Odighizuwa will be highly sought after in free agency.

Javon Hargrave (San Francisco) — Between 2022 and 2023, Hargrave became an elite interior rusher with 18.0 sacks over that stretch. In ‘23, he graded as the fourth best pass rushing DT in the NFL and totaled the 12th most overall pressures. At 32 and coming off a season-ending injury that he suffered early in the season, there is risk involved with the former Steeler and Eagle. The upside, however, is very high. The question is whether Hargrave’s injury hurt his value

Jarran Reed (Seattle) — The long-time Seahawk has always been a problem for opposing interior linemen. He has been consistent in terms of staying on the field with at least 675 snaps every year since 2020. Last year he finished 21st in total pressures and 13th this year. There are two factors to Reed as a top DT target: 1) Age: 32 2) fit. He spent 2020 in Kansas City and 2021 in Green Bay and did not produce at the same level. In Seattle, Reed averages about 5.0 sacks per year but he only totaled 5.0 in his two years away. Can he thrive elsewhere?

Milton Williams (Philadelphia) — The second highest graded interior pass rusher in the NFL this year, Williams took an enormous step forward this season from 22 pressures and a 58.8 pass rush grade to 40 pressures and a 90.4 grade. His sacks also rose from 0.5 to 5.0. Is Williams a product of the beefed up Philly D-line or did he just hit his stride? Will the price tag reflect an up-and-down first three seasons or his recent breakout?

BJ Hill (Cincinnati) — As solid as they come, Hill has been a pillar of consistency since joining the Bengals. Every year since 2021 he’s picked up between 3.0 and 5.5 sacks, played over 500 snaps, picked up 29 or more pressures and graded in the top half of the league among DTs. He isn’t a megastar with double-digit sack potential but he’s an every-down impact player who will just be turning 30 next season.

Levi Onwuzurike (Detroit) — Talk about breakout players. The Vikings were on the wrong end of this one as the 2021 second-rounder exploded this season with 45 pressures, including 9 against the Vikings in Week 18. He only managed 1.5 sacks but managed 13 hits and ranked 10th of 47 starting DTs in pass-rush win rate. Will his under-the-radar numbers land him a big contract or will he be a steal in free agency?

Poona Ford (L.A. Chargers) — After several strong seasons to start his career, Ford was not a fit in Buffalo as a free agent in 2023 and only managed nine pressures. But he bounced back big time with the Chargers, picking up 23 pressures and grading as the sixth best run defender. He was a huge steal for the Chargers at $1.7 million in 2024. Could he be a value pickup again?

Role players

Tershawn Wharton (Chiefs) — Undersized DT who emerged this year with career-high 6.5 sacks and 33 pressures.

Morgan Fox (Chargers) — Proven veteran rotational rusher. Only had 3.5 sacks in 2024 but 12.0 between 2022 and 2023.

Mario Edwards Jr. (Texans) — 31-year-old journeyman. Consistent rotational rusher with 3.0 sacks for Houston this year.

Sebastian Joseph-Day (Titans) — Ranked 8th in run defense grade. Added 2.5 sacks and 16 pressures.

A dozen other replacement-level guys — Here’s something I bet you didn’t know: Former Vikings Jaylin Holmes, James Lynch and Sheldon Day all saw a fair amount of playing time in 2024. There are a large number of DT free agents who will come at a low cost with limited ceiling that the Vikings could pick up to fill the spots if they think players like Redmond and Rodriguez are ready to step in. That strategy has not been particularly effective in the past.

Draft options

First rounders

Kenneth Grant(Michigan) — Enormous at over 330 pounds. Had 3.0 sacks, 24 pressures and a 75.3 pass rush grade. PFF Big Board rank is 18th.

TJ Sanders (South Carolina) — A true pass rusher at 290 pounds. Picked up 4.0 sacks, 31 total pressures and 81.9 pass-rush grade. Big Board rank: 32nd.

Walter Nolen (Ole Miss) — Productive with 6.5 sacks, 14 TFLs. Graded 75.0 pass rush and 91.6 run grade. Played 35 games, yet is only 21 years old. Big Board rank: 33.

Mid-round options

Omarr Norman-Lott (Tennessee) — Had 4.0 sacks, 27 total pressures, 81.5 pass-rush grade. Only 68.1 run grade. On the older side with 44 college games. Big Board rank: 50

Deone Walker (Kentucky) — Gigantic at 6-foot-6, 345 pounds. Blew up in 2023 with 7.5 sacks but only had 1.5 in 2024. Still produced a solid pass-rush win rate (10.3%). Big Board rank: 73

Derrick Harmon (Oregon) — 6-foot-5, 310 pounds. Produced 5.0 sacks, 55 pressures and astronomical pass-rush win rate (17.6%) and 86.2 pass-rush grade. Big Board rank: 83

Darrell Jackson Jr. (Florida State) — 6-foot-6, 330 pounds. Finished with 3.5 sacks, 30 pressures, 72.3 grade and 13.9% win rate. Big Board rank: 103.

The bottom line

With $71 million in dead cap space in 2024, the Vikings couldn’t be big spenders on every position on the field, so they elected to go after key edge players in Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel and then bargain hunt at defensive tackle. They did enough at DT to cobble together a quality run-stuffing unit who played their role effectively in terms of helping blitzers from the second level get to the quarterback.

That said, the Vikings need a big upgrade there next season if they are going to take another step as a defense. Too often they were forced to rush Pace Jr., Cashman or Metellus and vacate the middle of the field because they could not get interior pressure by rushing four defensive linemen. The three starting DTs totaled 38 QB pressures between them. There were 25 DTs who had more than that alone in 2024.

Luckily for the Vikings, this is a great year to need a defensive tackle. There are high-quality rushers at the top of free agency and potential major difference makers in the draft.

The question is whether they see DT as a position that is worth investing big money or draft capital. The position has exploded in price over the last few years with 14 DTs making at least $20 million per year. It’s likely that the top free agent Osa Odighizuwa will demand in that ballpark after posting 60 QB pressures for the Cowboys in 2024.

Second-wave type free agents also do not come cheap. Players like Ed Oliver or Dalvin Tomlinson, who are above average but short of superstar status, still land contracts in the range of $14-$18 million per year. We can expect to see top-20 interior players in pressures like Milton Williams, Levi Onwuzurike and Jarran Reed aiming for that range.

Going the bargain-shopping route isn’t often fruitful at this position, as the Vikings have seen in recent years. It has been since Sheldon Richardson in 2018 that they made a significant investment in the interior rush and it has shown in the results. The only player to register more than Richardson’s 4.5 sacks at DT for the Vikings was Armon Watts in 2021.

It’s time to go all-in and support the edge rushers and blitzing linebackers with a monster in the middle.

As far as the edge rusher position goes, the Vikings are spoiled there with two of the NFL’s best players in 2024, a first-round pick who gets time to develop and promising UDFAs. Still, there will be a spotlight on Turner in 2024 because his role will be expected to expand and his production grow along with it. Unfortunately, we can’t separate the player from what was paid to obtain the player, even if Turner is working on a different timeline than other pass rushers from his draft class.