Before his scoop-and-score against the Chicago Bears, Jordan Hicks hadn’t scored a defensive touchdown since his rookie season. The Philadelphia Eagles took Hicks in the third round of the 2015 draft. Chip Kelly made him the backup linebacker behind Eric Kendricks’ younger brother, Mychal, and current Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans. But by Week 3, Hicks had moved from special teamer to starting linebacker after Kendricks and Kiko Alonso suffered injuries.
In his sixth game, he picked off Matt Cassel and ran it back 67 yards for a score. However, Hicks tore his pectoral muscle in the fourth quarter and missed the rest of the season. Still, he did enough as a rookie to make an impression on Kirk Cousins.
I played against him as a rookie, I remember, back in [2015], and you just felt like this guy is going to play a long time in this league. You could just tell he was the real deal. He’s come back from multiple Achilles tears. Just a lot of grit. Does things the right way. He’s just a great person, great player, and he’s made of all the right stuff. We’re fortunate to have him, and he’s the kind of guy you want your whole locker room to look like.
Players often praise their teammates, but the Vikings have a particular affinity for Hicks. At 31, he’s a veteran and a prominent voice in the locker room. Hicks isn’t a beloved longtime Vikings linebacker like Anthony Barr or Eric Kendricks, and he’s not an exciting young prospect like Ivan Pace Jr. and Brian Asamoah. But he wears the green dot and is a team captain. “Unanimous captain voted by his teammates,” said Kevin O’Connell, “and he’s somebody that I really lean on.”
Hicks said he remembers playing Cousins when he was in Washington because they were division rivals, but Hicks doesn’t remember the 2015 game like Cousins does. However, he remembers his pick against the Dallas Cowboys like it was yesterday.
“Sunday night, Dallas,” he recalls. “It was the end of the third, beginning of the fourth, something like that. And I was just in quarters. I had the back out to the flat. They were empty, [and] I had the quarter-flat. They threw it; it was a little behind him. I jumped and got it, pick-six. Last time I was in the end zone.”
He may not have found the end zone since 2015, but Hicks has grown as a player. “I had no clue what I was doing,” he admits. “I knew what I was doing, based on the rules…that I was given, and the coaching that I was given. But my knowledge for the game was not even close, right?
“So, I look back on those times, it was just a blur of just going out there and being athletic and finding the ball and just playing instinct over rules, really, is what it was.”
Hicks has been a starter since his rookie season and carved out a nine-year career. He was vital in replacing Barr last year, but Hicks feels it’s all coming together this season. “I feel like I’m in a pretty good groove right now,” he says, “based on the defense, based on how my body feels, and the mental aspect of the game, experience, right? Just a step quicker, understanding the ability to anticipate what’s about to come.”
His scoop-and-score is evidence of that. But so was his interception in Chicago. “That was like a punt return,” he joked.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores came away impressed. “That was a great catch,” he gushed. “Almost a baseball-like center-field catch. It’s an unusual one in our game. It doesn’t really happen all that often.”
The Vikings scored a touchdown on the drive after Hicks picked Fields off, meaning he had a hand in one of Minnesota’s touchdowns and scored the other in the 19-13 win. “For him to reel that in that moment was big for us as a team, and I think it was a huge kind of momentum swing in the game,” said Flores. “Those ebbs and flows of the game are huge, and to make a play like that was big for our team and our defense.”
Vikings linebackers coach Mike Siravo frequently has the players work on fumble-recovery touchdowns. “Every single week, we’ve got a ball on the ground,” says Hicks, “and he’s saying, ‘Sprint through the ball while scooping and scoring.’” Still, a lot has to go right for that play to work. Harrison Phillips created pressure up front, forcing Tyson Bagent to step up in the pocket. Then Josh Metellus came in from the weak side and knocked the ball loose, forcing Hicks to make a choice.
“It was one of those plays where the players gotta make a decision,” explains Flores. “Do I jump on it and get the ball back to the offense? Which is kinda the safe play. Or do I try to make the real splash play and scoop and try to score this?
“Jordan being the vet that he is, having the confidence and the peace, he made the second choice.”
Hicks said he saw Danielle Hunter tip the ball on the interception, but instincts took over once he saw it over his shoulder. And he only had a split second to decide whether to jump on Bagent’s fumble and secure it or try to corral it in real time and score. Hicks decided to try for the end zone for the first time in eight years, leading to the winning score. Hicks has come a long way since he first reached the end zone as a rookie, but ultimately, he got there a second time on instincts. That’s what happens when you’re in a groove.
