Matthew Coller: The Vikings' pass rush begins with Jonathan Greenard

The veteran pass rusher crushed the Texans with three sacks on Sunday.

Sep 22, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings linebacker Jonathan Greenard (58) celebrates his sack against the Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) in the third quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images / Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

MINNEAPOLIS — Jonathan Greenard took it personally when the Houston Texans tried to block him with a tight end.

“Anybody else that wants to do that, they can try,” Greenard said. “If you line somebody up like that, it’s gotta happen.”

The result was exactly what you would expect from one of the NFL’s top edge rushers: CJ Stroud on the ground.

When you look at the play closely, you can see how defensive coordinator Brian Flores manipulated the look to get a favorable matchup for his star rusher. The Vikings lined up five players at the line of scrimmage with three to the offense’s right and Greenard and DT Jerry Tillery to the left. Tillery rushed inside toward the guard and the tackle followed him but on the other side Andrew Van Ginkel dropped back in coverage, leaving the right tackle blocking nobody on one side and a tight end on Greenard on the other. Total confusion.

“I love how we’re feeding off of each other,” Greenard said.

Through three games, opposing teams are having a nightmare time trying to identify Flores’ fronts and where the rush is coming from but that wouldn’t mean anything if the players didn’t take advantage. If Greenard didn’t smoke the tight end and sack Stroud, the scheme wouldn’t have anywhere near the same success.

“If you have a good pass rusher that can win one-on-ones, work edges, good with his hands, got an array of moves, he’s just going to win,” safety Harrison Smith said. “Sometimes you don’t have to overcomplicate it, just let him win.”

When the Vikings acquired Greenard in free agency to replace Danielle Hunter, they were pretty sure about his ability to smoke anyone off the edge. Last year he had 12.5 sacks had another 10 QB hits (per PFF) to add additional havoc for QBs. Through three games the former Texan has been impacting a lot more plays than just the ones where he has sacks, ranking fourth in the NFL in total pressures and 12th in pass rush win rate in true passing situations (per PFF).

“Just the explosiveness of his ability to get off the ball,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said, describing what he’s seen from Greenard. “And then speed, power, athleticism as a rusher really fits with how we want to play with the different variations of pressures. The sacks were going to come when you have the pressure rate that he had through these first two games leading into yesterday.”

The consistency in which Greenard has created pressure over the last year and three games is impactful on its own. Since Week 6 of 2023, he’s had nine games out of 12 with at least four QB pressures and 13.5 sacks.

“I think he’s just relentless,” said cornerback Shaq Griffin, who spent part of last season in Houston with Greenard. “One thing about a rush, it might start bad but he’s going to keep fighting to get every single inch.”

Relentless and well-crafted.

“Just the way he works and attacks it, he has a plan of attack and he executes it,” outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel said. “He’s got a bag full of tricks. He’s got speed, he’s got power, he’s got finesse, he has counters, he’s got the whole bag. When you can do that you can keep tackles on their toes and it puts pressure on them.”

Greenard is at the center of the best pass rushing team in the NFL. The Vikings are the first team in 20 years to produce at least five sacks in each of the first three games and Pro-Football Reference has them with the fourth highest pressure rate.

How much is that impacting opposing QBs? Through three games, Daniel Jones, Brock Purdy and CJ Stroud have faced pressure on 52 drop-backs and gained just 4.1 yards per play.

“It’s a sense of us starting to believe in it,” Greenard said. “The main thing is that we have to believe we can play with anybody.”