Vikings EDGE Dallas Turner had an underwhelming season, but there shouldn’t be cause for concern

Don't be concerned about Dallas Turner's future

The Vikings made two picks in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft: quarterback J.J. McCarthy at 10th overall and edge rusher Dallas Turner at 17th overall. The thought was the Vikings would end up getting a lot of immediate production from both players this season.

Unfortunately, McCarthy tore his meniscus in August and he missed the entire season. With Turner, he did miss week three with a knee injury, but he played in every game since then. 

Despite playing in 17 of the Vikings' 18 games, there has been mounting concern about where he is at compared to his contemporaries Jared Verse and Chop Robinson, who were both excellent this year. ESPN's Kevin Seifert raised the latest concern about Turner after playing just eight snaps against the Rams, which is something that has been a common sentiment among the fanbase.

When discussing Turner, there needs to be a lot of context and nuance with that discussion. He didn't play very much throughout the season, never eclipsing 50% of the snaps in a given week.

• 310 defensive snaps
• 104 run defense snaps
• 151 pass rush snaps
• 55 coverage snaps
• 12 pressures
• 3.0 sacks
• 3.0 tackles for loss
• 20 tackles (12 solo)

Those numbers aren't great, but Turner's game needed to be developed in some aspects. He came into the league at 21 and needed to gain strength to play in the trenches consistently, whereas Verse is 24 and his frame has already filled out.

When he did play, Turner flashed a lot. His explosiveness and bend are evident when he's rushing the passer, including this sack against the Chicago Bears a few weeks ago.

Before the draft, there were many different comparisons to Turner, but the most common one came from former Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores: former New England Patriots LB Dont'a Hightower.

For the Patriots, Hightower was mainly used as an off-ball linebacker, but Bill Belichick and Flores both used Hightower as a chess piece on defense, putting him in positions to exploit the opposing offense, both on and off the ball.

We got a great look at that against the Seattle Seahawks when he dropped into coverage and got an interception.

Despite the limited amount of snaps, there has been a lot of intrigue with Turner and how little he's played. The real question is why Turner has played so little? Flores elaborated on Turner back in November when Van Ginkel got a little bit banged up.

"I know that's something that a lot of people have been talking about. I think you know, Gink (Van Ginkel) was a little bit not hurt, a minor thing that he was dealing with. So, you know, Dallas is the next guy in. He went in, you know, played well. Gink said he was ready to go back in, and we kept the same kind of grouping for the remainder of the game, and Dallas did a few good things as well. So again, that's a deep room. There's a lot of good players in there. And you know, by and large, we'll go to the hot hand."

The answer is in what Flores said: it's a very deep group. Turner wasn't getting a lot of snaps because Jonathan Greenard and Van Ginkel are both Pro Bowl starters with the latter also making second-team All-Pro. Are you going to give Turner snaps over either of them when they are dominating like that? 

Then you have Pat Jones II. While he missed the last two games, his role was much different than that of Turner. Jones was asked to play inside and do a lot of the dirty work, crashing in stunts and playing inside often. That isn't what Turner's role is in this defense. He's essentially being groomed to be the Van Ginkel replacement down the line.

On top of that, it's also not a huge deal if a rookie doesn't get a lot of playing time. If he were to have played double the snaps, his numbers would spike to having six sacks, 24 pressures, and two interceptions, potentially more as more snaps would help him get better quicker.

Should we really be concerned about Turner long term? I don't think concern is necessary. They have a development plan for him and have put him in positions to thrive. Even in his limited snaps, there have been real signs of growth. His use of explosiveness in pass rush reps is still at an elite level, along with improving significantly in pass coverage, as was displayed with his smooth drops in zone coverage.

This isn't a Lewis Cine situation where he played just 10 defensive snaps in his first two seasons. They believe Turner can help them now and he's doing so, even if it's less than you'd like it to be. There might be concern out there for Turner but trust the process. It's working.