There's plentiful reasons why March 15, 2024, has the potential to be a historic date in Vikings lore.

Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel are two of them.

The 27- and 29-year-old outside linebackers sensed what they were signing up for when they were two of a handful of headline free agent signings by the Vikings on that immeasurably fruitful spring morning.

Greenard was drawn to an organization that wanted him after measured steps in Houston preceded a big leap in 2023 on the Texans but didn't pay off in a second contract offer by the franchise that drafted him. And Gink' was eager to play again under Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores, who was Miami's head coach when Van Ginkel was drafted to the "Fins" and privy to the linebacker's all-purpose skills.

They sensed what was achievable in 2024 before the rest of the world witnessed it.

Greenard and Van Ginkel played 81 percent of Minnesota's snaps on defense across 17 regular-season games – that amounted to 19- and 15-percent bumps for the players from the previous year. Furthermore, in the team's abrupt playoff loss, they were indispensable, not once leaving the field.

With pressures, sacks, forced fumbles, interceptions and impactful moments that transcended continental barriers, Greenard and Van Ginkel were elected to the Pro Bowl for the first time in their careers. Gink' received Second-Team All-Pro distinction, as well, and became the first player since Pro Football Hall of Famer Jason Taylor in 2006 with 10-plus sacks and two picks for TDs in a single season.

Pat Jones II, Jihad Ward, Dallas Turner and Bo Richter joined in making impacts in different phases.

With free agency ahead of him, Jones submitted as many sacks in his first four games as he did in his first three seasons combined (5); Ward, signed five days after "J.G." and Van Ginkel, was an underrated disruptor and valued for his ability to insert inside so Minnesota could maintain its best assembly of pass-rushers on important downs; Turner occasionally flashed unteachable traits and handled his main role of understudy in a crowded room with grace and precocious wisdom, and Richter wore his undrafted free agent badge with honor, doubling as a special teams and look squad star. (Gabriel Murphy, another UDFA, buzzed in training camp and appeared twice after healing from an August injury.)

All told, labeling Minnesota's outside linebackers an agent of its success doesn't do the group justice.

Together, they expertly dispatched the dark arts of pass-rushing. They created momentum from thin air and swung it when they were pressed against the wall. Also, they powerfully set edges to subdue opponents' run games, deked quarterbacks with versatile, sometimes phony pre-snap stances and were behind-the-scenes stars of the Vikings league-leading 24 interceptions and their 33 total takeaways.

On any given snap, it felt like any one of them was a candidate to make a game-changing play.

Notable Numbers

84 – Greenard's total pressures via Pro Football Focus, tied with Rams rookie phenom Jared Verse for most in the NFL. The only others to stack more than 80 were Cincinnati's Trey Hendrickson, Cleveland's Myles Garrett (both 83) and Denver's Zach Allen (81). Greenard had 5-plus in 11 of 18 games and was held off the pressure sheet just twice all year, against Atlanta in Week 14 and at Jacksonville in Week 10.

2.41 – Seconds that it took Greenard to assail Bears quarterback Caleb Williams with a chop-rip pass rush on a third-and-9 in Vikings territory on Monday Night Football. The time was tracked by Next Gen Stats and ranked as the eighth-fastest sack in the regular season (Cody Barton of the Broncos owned the quickest at 2.18). Greenard's collision caused a fumble that Blake Cashman recovered. Ironically, the sack was at the other end of the speed spectrum from Greenard's overtime takedown of Williams at Chicago three weeks prior, which took Greenard about nine ticks to power through two blockers and get home.

212 – Coverage snaps for Van Ginkel per PFF. Two other "edge rushers" dropped into assignments more than 100 times (Byron Young and Michael Hoecht of the Rams each did so on 149 snaps). Van Ginkel, obviously, flourished in his two-way role, pairing two pick sixes with 11.5 sacks and 18 tackles for loss.

14 – Quarterback knockdowns (plays where a passer tasted turf after a throw) contributed by Ward. Impressively, that tally was tops on the Vikings and tied for 12^th most in the league. Greenard wound up second on the defense with 12, and Van Ginkel was third with nine. Also, Jones had five, Turner had two and Murphy, who played the bulk of his 35 total snaps on defense on Dec. 8 against Atlanta, nabbed one.

(Note: Stats from PFF are through the Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs.)

Regular-season statistics

The Highest High

Minnesota's OLBs accounted for 34.5 of the team's 49 sacks (70.4%) and Greenard, Jones and Van Ginkel posted three games apiece with multiple. One of those efforts must be included in this section … right?

Wrong.

We're picking one of Van Ginkel's two pick sixes – the longer one, the pluck in London, the play that Jets QB Aaron Rodgers playfully, but also probably painfully, referred to as an early Christmas gift for Gink'.

Every part of the moment was perfect.

Van Ginkel disarmed Rodgers' protection check to his side by faking a blitz and pivoting to the shallow hook zone. Rodgers blinked, missing Van Ginkel, and zipped a pass intended for receiver Garrett Wilson.

Amazingly, Van Ginkel batted the ball with his right hand into his left, switched it back to his right, breaking a century-old ball carrier rule to tuck away from danger and in the arm closest to the sideline and fastened it under his armpit. Off to the races! Van Ginkel stiff-armed Mike Williams, outran Olu Fashanu and followed a Vikings caravan 63 yards into a Purple painted end zone 4,000 miles from home.

Adding to its incredibleness is the later-discovered fact that Van Ginkel intercepted Brett Rypien, the esteemed leader of the Vikings scout offense, in practice on the exact same concept and blitz disguise.

In a short stint with the Jets, Rypien learned some of Rodgers' go-to checks and favorite designs, trying to add to his wheelhouse, then imitated the all-timer in practice on a triple-slant play against pressure.

It culminated in one of the best defensive plays of the year.

The Lowest Low

Minnesota fared much worse overall against the Rams in its second meeting and final game of the season, but the first, on Oct. 24, happened to be an anomaly from a pressure and pass-rush standpoint.

Very simply – and very costly – it was the lone game the Vikings defense was kept off the sack sheet.

In total, defenders inflicted 12 pressures on Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford sans a sack. There was some but not enough activity in the L.A. backfield; Van Ginkel and inside linebacker Ivan Pace, Jr., landed a hit each on Stafford, and Greenard and defensive tackle Harrison Phillips added five and three hurries.

What factored into Minnesota's unusually ineffective defensive front?

Vikings blitzes were bogged down by strong protection plus Stafford's zero-wasted-motion release and expeditious decision-making. On 13 dropbacks against an extra rusher, Stafford connected on 10 of 13 passes for 128 yards (9.8 yards per attempt), according to PFF. He carved the secondary when the defense depended on three- and four-man rushes, too, clipping 15 of 21 throws with four touchdowns.

Game specific data from Next Gen Stats, involving four Vikings players, reinforced that Minnesota's pass rush struggled to make a dent in the Rams security around Stafford: Greenard's average separation from Stafford on pass rushes was 4.68 yards; Jones was 5.02 yards away on average from the Super Bowl-winning QB, and Phillips' and fellow d-lineman Jonathan Bullard's average distances off were 4.92 and 5.06 yards. How does all that stack? Not well; the average separation across the NFL was 4.57 yards.

We feel obliged to mention there was improvement in getting after Stafford in the Wild Card loss.

Minnesota netted two sacks – lest we forget one resulting in what was first ruled a fumble and recovery for a touchdown but nullified by replay and deemed an incompletion – and 15 pressures in its rematch.

2 Pressing Questions for 2025

1. Is Turner ready for a larger role?

The 17^th overall pick and third defensive player chosen in last year's draft had a sort of redshirt year.

Turner received more than half of the team's snaps on defense in a single contest – the opener at the Giants, where he had a sack – then reverted to the shadows through the game at Los Angeles on Thursday Night Football, topping out at 18 snaps (26%) in Week 2 and bottoming at 3 (4%) in Week 8.

Finally, Turner cracked through the rotation against Indianapolis, playing 48% of the snaps. He fit somewhere between 20% and 49% the rest of the way. But, again, he assumed a teeny-tiny role (eight snaps) in the club's Wild Card loss, an absence that was magnified by Verse's dramatic scoop-and-score.

The reality is Minnesota had champagne problems at outside linebacker in 2024 – in other words, too great of depth and impact from seasoned players to really fret over Turner's lack of regular playing time.

When Turner was used, however sparingly relative to the whole group, he was hard to miss.

He had a sack and TFL in his debut. He laid a nasty lick on former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins when Atlanta visited in Week 14. He was untouchable like a ghost, recording a freakishly bendy and explosive sack dressed in all white on Monday Night Football and got to Jordan Love using pure hustle in Week 17.

Turner flashed coverage instincts, as well, jumping an off-balance throw and intercepting Geno Smith at Seattle; Turner dropped into pass defense 55 times, most among rookie "edges" per PFF and posted a 77.5 coverage grade, ranking 17^th at the position regardless of draft year. (Van Ginkel was 9^th at 81.0.)

Keep in mind, only six draft picks (out of 119 other defenders selected) produced more sacks than Turner: Braden Fiske (8.5), Chop Robinson (6.0), Jonah Elliss (5.0), Verse (4.5), Laiatu Latu (4.0) and Edgerrin Cooper (3.5). The only player in that group that's younger than Turner is Broncos OLB Elliss.

We note the age – folks, Turner was a 2003 baby and is turning TWENTY-TWO on Feb. 2 – because it's relevant; it's important; it's an element that factors into Turner's mental acumen and physical launchpad, and it's a major reason to be bullish on him as he garners tips and tricks from Greenard and Van Ginkel.

Our verdict, gleaned through limited reps and conversation, is Turner is capable of being the real deal.

2. What does the ceiling look like for Greenard and Van Ginkel?

Early in the season, in a 1-on-1 interview, Greenard emphatically stated a goal: 20 sacks.

It felt outlandish.

Greenard, after all, was credited with 12 pressures over his initial two games but still was searching for his first real sack (he was awarded one for being the last person to touch Brock Purdy when the 49ers quarterback went out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage on an anticlimactic play). So, really, 20?

Along came Houston.

When Greenard's original team visited his new stomping grounds in Week 3, he sacked Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud three times en route to NFC Defensive Player of the Week accolades. Suddenly, he had four sacks – not to mention a boatload of pressures that were fractions of seconds off from more.

In the end, Greenard reached 12, a half-sack shy of his career high accomplished in 2023. Due to his sheer amount of pressures – and the possibility he ups the ante in 2025 – 20 is pursuable and plausible.

One of our favorite parts of Minnesota's special season was watching Van Ginkel nearly match his bookend's pace, complementing Greenard and the club's full-fledged pass rush with a unique skill set.

Smart enough to disseminate verbal cues and outfox smart players such as Rodgers – check; twitchy enough to crouch in gaps then flip his hips and pop up in throwing windows – check; strong enough, both in a physical and mental sense, to beat linemen outright or outlast them for pass-rush wins – check.

Van Ginkel tapping into all of his abilities under Flores opened wide lots of eyes.

In regard to 2025, the Vikings likely will begin the season with Greenard and Van Ginkel rightfully tied to Defensive Player of the Year contention. Greenard put it best: "More is required. … Back to that lab."