Brian Flores has more buttons to push with Vikings' defense this year

The Vikings' DC detailed some of his new pieces on Tuesday

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings’ defense wasn’t totally overhauled in the offseason. Harrison Smith came back rather than retiring and a number of key players from 2023 returned like Josh Metellus, Harrison Phillips, Cam Bynum, Ivan Pace Jr. and Byron Murphy. But both the starting lineup and depth groups feature a lot of change from last season and now the dust has settled on training camp and preseason, the 2024 group appears to give Flores more options than in his first year as defensive coordinator.

The change from last season that could most impact this year’s unit is in the outside linebacker room. They went from Danielle Hunter, DJ Wonnum, Patrick Jones and briefly Marcus Davenport to adding Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner and veteran Jihad Ward.

Hunter was clearly one of the best players at his position in the NFL, ranking ninth in total QB pressures in 2023 and fifth in sacks. The rest of the unit left something to be desired with a total of 11.0 sacks combined. Wonnum finished 46th of 59 by PFF and Jones was 59th of 59.

The pass rush now has the ninth and 22nd ranked PFF edge players and the 18th overall pick.

Greenard had 12.5 sacks last season but it’s been the other parts of the former Houston defender’s game that have impressed Flores.

“He has an all-around game, setting the edge in the run game, stunt footwork, he works well with others within the pass-rush games getting in gaps and making plays for other guys,” Flores said. “He has a lot of ideas, there is a lot of football chatter with him, which I like. He’s been a great addition. I’m excited to see what that looks like.”

Van Ginkel had one of the best all-around seasons for an OLB in the NFL last year, picking up 53 pressures on 6.0 sacks and playing 147 snaps in coverage to the tune of a 87.3 PFF grade. Flores used the former Wisconsin linebacker similarly when they were together in Miami with him playing coverage on 168 snaps and rushing the passer 307 times in 2021.

The two of them alone would likely cause more problems for a defense than relying on one player to create the vast majority of pass rush but the additions of Turner and Ward add extra layers to what Flores can do with the OLBs. Turner has put together a strong camp, working often against star left tackle Christian Darrisaw early in the summer when Van Ginkel was ramping up after a foot injury. The returns, Flores said, were what he was hoping for.

“Very athletic. Very smart. Tough. Nothing but positives, quite honestly,” Flores said. “One of the good things for him is that he’s in a room with guys like Greenard, Van Ginkel and he’s like a sponge and he’s good with that group as far as extracting information and finding ways for him to apply things with his skill set.”

How will Flores fit the rookie in the mix with the veterans? That answer is going to have to wait until game day.

“We have a role vision for Dallas…and that changes,” Flores said. “If he has the hot hand then we’ll leave him in. If it’s what we expected then we’ll keep it as we planned it out. We have a role for everybody. Nobody is ready to play 100% of the snaps.”

Ward will have a role of his own — one that is likely quite different from the one he had with the New York Giants last year. He played 661 snaps, started nine games and picked up 5.0 sacks for the G-Men. He’s much more likely to be a part of the third-down rushing scheme and spell the other edge players instead of carrying a heavy workload.

Disruptive,” Flores said of Ward. “He's got versatility – he's played inside, he's played outside, he's played really everywhere on the defensive line… There's a lot to like about him."

The interior has changed too — in some ways expected and some ways not. Adding veteran Jerry Tillery to the mix to give a little more depth and pass rush talent to the unit has looked like a good fit throughout the summer. But it’s hard to say that the Vikings would have expected the backup situation to look the way it does with seventh-round pick Levi Drake Rodriguez, former UFL’er Jalen Redmond and UDFA Taki Tiamaki as the next men up.

“This trio of D-linemen have done a really, really fantastic job of coming in, learning the system…the only way to get experience is to get them out there…like with most young players we try to give them a small package [of plays] and let them build and grow from there,” Flores said. “I’d be comfortable putting any one of those guys in there.”