How will the Vikings deal with Danielle Hunter's absence?
Will Ifeadi Odenigbo get his chance to start after all?
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What will the Minnesota Vikings do with Danielle Hunter out of the lineup for (at least) the first three weeks of the 2020 season?
Well, we have no idea based on recent history. They simply have not faced this problem before at any point during his career as a starting left defensive end.
The Vikings’ potential options are likely limited to three players: Ifeadi Odenigbo, Jalyn Holmes and Eddie Yarbrough. How they decide to divide up Hunter’s snaps between the three D-ends will be one of the most interesting things to watch on Sunday.
Odenigbo spent the entire offseason expecting to start at right defensive end in place of Everson Griffen. When the Vikings traded for Yannick Ngakoue, it appeared to bump Odenigbo out of the starting lineup but he may get the call in place of Hunter.
However, Odenigbo played every snap of the training camp practices open to the media on the right side. He has barely played left D-end at all, lining up there only 18 times last season.
While he picked up 7.0 sacks last season, a lot of Odenigbo’s damage was done as a rotational rusher lining up all over the D-line, including at defensive tackle in obvious passing situations. He might be more dangerous in that role than trying to shoehorn him onto the left side. Odenigbo’s sack numbers were also better than his overall pass rushing success. He created pressures on 6.2% of snaps, which ranked 66th among players who played at least 20% of snaps (per PFF).
Holmes played in Hunter’s place during the entirety of camp and has a small sample of playing there in 2018. During Week 6 and 7, he spent 27 total snaps at left end and created two hurries and one sack.
Holmes dropped weight this year to prepare for the move back to defensive end from D-tackle but he still comes in on the larger side at around 280 pounds. We might see Holmes get the call on early downs to give the Vikings a better chance against the run and the others play on passing downs.
Yarbrough is a wild card. In 390 career pass rush snaps he has 23 pressures with just one sack. He did not see the field at all last season but emerged as an impressive pass rushing threat during training camp.
Earlier this offseason Yarbrough said that working with Andre Patterson has taken his game to another level. Generally speaking you might shrug that off but Patterson’s track record suggests it should be taken seriously.
“One of the things I've seen is his attention to detail,” Yarbrough said. “A lot of coaches around the league will preach it and just send it our there as just a word byte, but he actually preaches it and expects it and he drives it home every single day, so he's big on details and that's one of the things that I feel that coming here has helped my game grow.”
The other option is to add someone remaining on the free agent market. Ziggy Ansah and Jabaal Sheard are the most proven players still available. Pickups like those could come after Week 1 because of the rules on veteran guarantees.
Whoever plays in Hunter’s spot will have massive shoes to fill. Last season Hunter ranked second in the NFL in total pressures and fourth in pressure rate, creating a QB hurry, hit or sack on 9.7% of passing plays.
The Vikings’ one advantage is that Green Bay’s right tackle situation is still up in the air. Listed starting RT Billy Turner did not practice on Wednesday, making it unclear who will play in that position.
Still the onus to create pressure on Aaron Rodgers may come on the shoulders of Ngakoue and Mike Zimmer.
“We love having the disruption he brings,” Harrison Smith said of Ngakoue. “That’s what we’re about. We love having guys who can get after the quarterback... He’s one of those guys who can cause a lot of problems for offenses and quarterbacks. As a defensive back, we love that.”
Over the last three seasons, Ngakoue has created pressure rates of 6.5%, 8.1% and 9.5% so he is capable of being a game-wrecking defensive end and carrying the Vikings over the first several weeks of the year.
One option could be to move Ngakoue to left D-end to allow Odenigbo to play on the right side and to gain the matchup advantage over the Packers. Last year the former Jaguar lined up nearly 282 times on the left side out of 774 total plays (per PFF).
Zimmer’s blitzes have also been problematic for opposing quarterbacks for the entirety of his time in Minnesota. Last year non-defensive linemen created 57 pressures including seven sacks. The Vikings may have to find other sources to create havoc for opposing QBs.
However, blitzing like crazy isn’t always a great solution versus veteran quarterbacks and the Vikings see three of them in the first three weeks.
The bottom line is that replacing Hunter is downright impossible. The Vikings will have to have a group effort that sees multiple people — even someone like young defensive tackle Armon Watts or rookie DJ Wonnum — rise to the occasion in order to provide even remotely comparable QB pressure from past years.
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Time for the youngsters to step up!!!! Patrick over at TVA thinks we should look at three DE prospects to replace Hunter... How can we bring anyone in with our current pay cap situation?