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The Vikings have endured the last 2 seasons at the bottom of the defensive rankings, and watching Daniel Jones light up the defense in the Wild Card matchup was as helpless a feeling as I can remember. One of the issues was not creating enough interior pass rush. Rarely in the 2nd half of the season were the opposing QBs getting pressured consistently. That issue helped compromise a playoff run, and I fear we may be walking into a similar situation this year. The Vikings could possibly be entering the 23′-24′ season without the much needed rush from the DT positions. Kevin Williams is not walking through that door, and watching guys like Quinnen Williams(NYJ), Christian Wilkins(MIA), Dexter Lawrence(NYG), and Kenny Clark(GB) create such pocket disruption for their teams, well, I fear the Vikings just don’t have that type of player. So I’m curious where the interior pass rush is going to come from. However, Flores’ aggressive scheme will have guys like Harrison Smith, Brian Asamoah, and even DB’s in blitz packages early and often in games this year. Seeing Jay Ward come in off the slot in practice the other day was validating to every Minnesota fan who is thrilled Flores is here. It’s exciting to think about the different pressure packages he could work up with the personnel MIN does have. If MIN can supplement the pass rush with those blitz packages, maybe this won’t end up being an issue.
Another possible solution to the interior pass rush issue would be rookie DT Jaquelin Roy, the 2nd LSU draftee this year. The main knock on Roy coming out was he needed to get stronger against the run, but Roy shouldn’t concern himself with that outlook as MIN definitely has the right guys for that. If Roy can be the pass rush specialist from the DT position then I think my early concern on this may be a moot point. Hopefully that is the case and Flores implements the possibility of the blitzes coming from every defender on the field, so it’s harder to anticipate those slot and interior blitz pressures. I’m excited to see the aggressive approach, I will live with any big plays opponents hit vs the pressure. If a team hits those deep shots, tip your hat and move on. It’s far better than handing someone a needle and getting killed by 10,000 pin pricks. I hope that Flores can push this defense to maybe middle of the pack, if that happens this team has a shot vs anyone. Creating that interior push will be an important facet of the defensive improvement, and could be key to having the kind of season Vikings fans are hoping for.
I’m hoping the starting DT’s on the squad can produce the desired interior pressure by themselves, but if that’s not the case, I wanted to give some thoughts on where the interior pass rush could come from.