The Minnesota Vikings 2021 defensive line won’t look anything like their 2020 defensive line. That’s a very good thing. The team’s leading sacker last season, Yannick Ngakoue, started only five games before he was traded to the Baltimore Ravens. For most of the season the Vikings starting defensive line looked something like this.
RE Ifeadi Odenigbo
DT Shamar Stephen
DT Jaleel Johnson
LE Jalyn Holmes
Only Holmes is currently on the roster and he’s likely competing this summer to stay on it. The Vikings defensive line of 2021 will be nothing like the Vikings defensive line of 2020. Last season, the pass rush routinely allowed opposing quarterbacks a comfortable pocket. That was the case even during the games in which Ngakoue collected his team-leading sack total. This season, the pass rush should be less like last season and more like the pass rush that routinely made quarterbacks uncomfortable over the first six years of Mike Zimmer’s time in Minnesota.
The difference between last season and this season starts with the return of Danielle Hunter. It’s impossible to lose a player of his skill and not take a serious hit in the pass rushing department. There’s also the addition of nose tackle Michael Pierce. He was the Vikings top free agent addition last season. He opted-out on the season for health concerns during a global pandemic. The Vikings defensive line didn’t just have pass rushing issues last season. There were games in which they had little to no defense against the run. Pierce will change that. As will this year’s top free agent addition, Dalvin Tomlinson. I’m so looking forward to seeing Pierce and Tomlinson in the middle of the Vikings defensive line. Other than the single season of Linval Joseph and Sheldon Richardson, the Vikings haven’t had a tackle combination this formidable since the “Williams Wall” days. Perhaps the most interesting competition of training camp will be the one to decide who starts at defensive end opposite Hunter. D.J. Wonnum started two games last season. I’d put him at the top of the right end depth chart entering offseason workouts and into training camp. He’ll compete with veteran Stephen Weatherly and perhaps one or both of 3rd-round pick Patrick Jones II and 4th-round pick Janarius Robinson. Mainly due to the fact that he was selected in the recent draft, I’m leaning towards Jones as the starter come September. Until I actually see that happen or there’s a stated starter, I have Wonnum at the top of the right end depth chart. Here’s an early May look at a potential starting defensive line of the Vikings.
RE D.J. Wonnum
DT Dalvin Tomlinson
NT Michael Pierce
LE Danielle Hunter
Co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach Andre Patterson has said in the past that he has no plans to move Hunter to right end. “Why mess with something that works.” Those plans could change. Until/if they do, Hunter’s the Vikings left end.
I like the potential of this defensive line. I really like the potential of any Vikings defensive line that starts with Danielle Hunter, Michael Pierce, and Dalvin Tomlinson. No matter which player emerges as the starter at right end, it’s a startling improvement over the defensive line that took the field for most of the 2020 NFL season.
Maybe it amuses only me but it amuses me that Dalvin Tomlinson’s initials are the position that he plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment