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In a Super Bowl beatdown for the ages, the Philadelphia Eagles spanked the one and only Patrick Mahomes while shining the brightest of all lights on the increasing importance of interior pressure by defensive tackles in a four-man rush in today’s NFL.
Per usual in a copycat league, other teams took sharp notice. Even the Vikings and blitz-happy defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who rushed five or more defenders a league-high 38.9% of the time a season ago.
As a new Vikings season dawns Monday night in Chicago, all eyes will be on first-year starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy and a revamped offensive line sporting an all-new interior. But let’s not forget the added layer of havoc the Vikings believe they now have in store for Bears second-year starting quarterback Caleb Williams and his improved line.
Let’s not forget the $81 million spent on free agents Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave — two of the best pass-rushing defensive tackles of their era. And let’s not forget about the other four promising young pass-rushing interior linemen the Vikings kept in former UFL player Jalen Redmond, 2024 seventh-round draft pick Levi Drake Rodriguez, 2025 fifth-round draft pick Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and undrafted rookie Elijah Williams, who is fresh off being a rookie minicamp tryout guy after setting Morgan State’s career records for tackles for loss (52) and sacks (31).
“What we have is a beautiful thing,” Vikings defensive line coach Marcus Dixon said. “It really is. When you can roll a wave of guys up front who can put pressure on the quarterback like we can, it’s exciting to see. And I can’t wait to see it come alive on Monday night against Chicago.”
There’s that word again.
“Wave.”
A year ago, the Vikings had seven defensive linemen play 90 games with 47 starts and 2,467 snaps. Gone are five of them who played 75 games (83.3%) with 45 starts (95.7%) and 2,253 snaps (91.3%). Only Redmond (13 games, two starts) and Rodriguez (two games, zero starts) return.
Credit for that turnover, at least partially, goes to the world-champion Eagles, who have established the template for interior defensive line quality and quantity in recent years. In last season’s 40-22 Super Bowl victory over the Kansas Chiefs, three of Philly’s sacks and 10 of its pressures came from interior defensive linemen Milton Williams, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo.
STRIB
“I love Mahomes, but I really loved that Super Bowl,” Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard said. “Four defensive linemen getting after Mahomes like that? That was music to my ears.”
In Flores’ 3-4 defense, Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel are outside linebackers. In their Vikings debut seasons a year ago, they combined for 41 quarterback hits, 36 tackles for loss and 23½ sacks. In Year 2, they believe they can be even better.
Why?
Because Flores is armed with yet another wrinkle — a 4-3 look that could reduce the amount of blitzing that’s necessary, put seven defenders in coverage and keep the heat on quarterbacks with Greenard, Van Ginkel and two inside rushers beefy enough to stop the run, too.
“Rush four, cover seven has always been the recipe for success,” Greenard said. “It’s just not always easy to do. It’s gotten a lot easier for us this year.”
The Vikings went into last year’s season opener with seven defensive linemen who had a combined total of 42 sacks in 359 games. Allen and Hargrave by themselves head into this season with a combined 87½ sacks in 239 games. Allen and Hargrave also top the previous in career tackles for loss (115-72) and quarterback hits (197-143) in 120 fewer games.
Now the tricky part: How to get the most out of Allen and Hargrave without wearing them out. Hargrave is 32 and missed 14 games with a triceps injury with the San Francisco 49ers last season. Allen is 30 and missed nine games with a torn pectoral with the Washington Commanders last year.
“I wouldn’t call it an art or a science, it’s more of an awareness thing,” Dixon said of monitoring snap counts for all his big fellas. “What’s the situation? Down and distance, two-minute, third down? The beauty of what we have is guys with position flexibility who we can roll in anywhere.”
A lot goes into spreading snaps around at defensive line. Dixon and assistant line coach Imarjaye Albury keep track of how many snaps in a row each player has been on the field.
“Three to four straight snaps is pretty typical for D-linemen, some guys five to six,” Dixon said.
But, again, it depends. Some snaps are hard, some easy. Some snaps require specific personnel because of the situation and/or the play call that comes from Flores.
“You just never know,” said Redmond, who became a starter in the base defense when Phillips was traded. “When you watch a game, look at how close the backups are to Coach Dixon on the sideline. The backup offensive linemen, they can go sit down because they never sub offensive linemen.
“Defensive linemen, we’re standing in Coach Dixon’s hip pocket. He calls your name, you can’t be off looking for your helmet.”
Allen has played 5,212 regular-season snaps. His career high for snaps is 868 in 2023 (79%), while his career high for percentage of snaps is 82% in 2022 (802).
Hargrave has played 4,859 regular-season snaps. His career high for snaps is 728 in 2021. His career high for percentage is 64% in 2022 (712) when he helped the Eagles to the Super Bowl before landing a mega deal with the 49ers.
“A deep D-line has kind of always been Philly’s thing,” Hargrave said. “I didn’t think about snap counts. We went until we got tired and someone else came in. We had the same thing in San Francisco. And now I look at these young guys coming up here, I think we’ll have the same thing with the Vikings, too.”
Dixon called the Vikings a great place to be for defensive linemen because of Flores’ creativeness and this sudden D-line “wave” that’s star-heavy at the top and itching to prove itself beyond that.
“When our guys up front are fresh and ready to go,” Dixon said, “it’s going to be exciting and something that can make this team really deadly.”
Anyone else got Marcus Dixon higher on their radar this year?
I know I do...
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