Check out all of Zone Coverage’s draft content, including the complete draft guide, Luke Inman’s winners and losers, a feature on first-round pick Jeff Gladney and more. View Sam Ekstrom’s other draft pick profiles below.
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The Minnesota Vikings splurged on Sheldon Richardson in 2018 with a generous one-year contract that was supposed to put the Vikings’ defense over the top. While Minnesota’s season ultimately went south and Richardson’s engagement with the club only lasted one year, it was noticeable what a quality 3-technique pass rusher could do for the team’s defensive line. Two years later, the Vikings are still in search of player that can make a similar impact.
Could fourth-round pick James Lynch be part of the answer?
Richardson finished 14th in the league with 47 pressures in 2018 before departing for Cleveland in free agency. The Vikings signed their former draft pick Shamar Stephen as his de facto replacement in 2019 with an eye toward bolstering their run defense. But Stephen finished with just six pressures on the season in 315 pass-rushing snaps, tied for 105th out of 117 qualified interior rushers.
Minnesota elected to move its two backup ends inside on passing downs last year, kicking Ifeadi Odenigbo and Stephen Weatherly to defensive tackle to form an athletic interior tandem. But with Odenigbo likely taking on a much larger role at defensive end in 2020 and Weatherly gone to Carolina, that inside duo is done. The 2020 rotation will look different.
With Stephen entering the second year of a three-year pact and a host of other young players behind him, the Vikings had no shortage of depth at defensive tackle, even before the draft. Jaleel Johnson is entering his fourth year, Jalyn Holmes and Hercules Mata’afa are entering their third, while Armon Watts enters his second. But there is hardly an established pecking order within that group of five.
At the least, there should be a spirited training camp competition. Including free agent nose tackle Michael Pierce, the Vikings have six defensive tackles that were on an NFL roster last season. That doesn’t include Lynch, the Baylor rookie, who is in a position to take a roster spot. Minnesota kept six defensive tackles on its 53-man roster a year ago.
“Going to the league there’s going to be a lot better players, and my technique has to be way better,” Lynch told Twin Cities reporters after being drafted. “There’s lots of things I can work on. But I think when it comes down to it, a D-lineman is being someone who is disruptive, and that’s what I’m trying to be. I know there’s a lot of work to do to be able to do that on Sunday. But being disruptive is what D-lineman want to be and if you disrupt it helps everybody else on the field. So that’s what I can bring to the table.”
The Vikings have made a habit of finding defensive tackles in the fourth round of the draft. It’s where they selected Johnson and Holmes in two of the last three years. Holmes has yet to make a start in two seasons, however, while Johnson has made just four in three seasons. They hope Lynch can be a faster learner.
Lynch left a year early from Baylor following head coach Matt Rhule’s departure to take the Carolina Panthers job, but he might’ve left anyway after his exquisite junior season. Lynch totaled 13.5 sacks, 19.5 tackles for loss, five deflected passes and three forced fumbles as part of a Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year campaign, though he did so at defensive end in a three-man front.
Based on his weight — he’s listed on the Vikings’ website at 289 — Lynch’s next move will be inside.
“I feel like playing inside is my natural position, and being a mismatch to offensive guards and whoever I’m going against,” Lynch said. “I can do different things to confuse them and try to get to the quarterback as fast as I can. … I think as a 3-technique, for me, the way I play, it allows me to be at the most advantage, so against a guard I feel like I can do inside, outside, power, speed, so I feel my abilities, they expose other offensive guards better than they would against certain positions.”
It’s far from the first time the Vikings have seen an inside-rushing skillset from a defensive end. Holmes played on the edge at Ohio State before coming to Minnesota, and longtime Viking Brian Robison moved inside late in his career. Robison was also a fourth-round defensive lineman out of the Big 12. He and Lynch were both Texas natives. Robison had 4.5 sacks his rookie season as a rotational edge rusher. Lynch hopes to have a similar role on the inside, part of what will surely be a feeling out process for the staff to determine who fits where after a truncated offseason. Lynch says he felt an immediate connection to the Vikings’ coaches.
“I walked in there and saw the whole staff [at the NFL Combine], and sometimes I’d feel intimidated or whatever that may be,” said Lynch. “But with them it was comfortable, and we talked football. They made it easy for me, and I felt really comfortable. Coach Zimmer and the way he was and how I was talking to him I knew that I fit well.”
The Vikings lost two veteran pieces no their defensive line that provided playmaking ability. Linval Joseph was around for six years at nose tackle, while Griffen spent a decade with the organization on the edge. Presumed starters Pierce and Odenigbo both have high upside, but Pierce is joining a new scheme and Odenigbo is expanding his role. Minnesota is looking for potential playmakers to join them.
“We’re not just talking about great kids off the field, which is what we always try and bring to the organization,” Vikings college scouting director Jamaal Stephenson said during the draft, “but these kids are playmakers, man. They make a lot of plays in college, and expect them to do the same at the next level.”
Lynch may be a splashier player than Stephen or his counterparts, but can the young defensive tackle refine his technique enough to unseat the veterans? That’s what training camp will teach us.
“He’s going to have to come in and earn it, for sure,” Stephenson said. “He’s a talented player, but he’s still a young guy; he came out as a junior. There’s going to be some technical work, for sure, but we feel confident in our defensive line coach, that Andre Patterson’s going to bring the best out of him.”
