Dallas Turner played 16 games for the Minnesota Vikings, only missing the Week 3 Houston Texans game with a knee injury. He finished the year with three sacks, 20 tackles, and five quarterback hits.
Those are decent stats for a rookie. However, the Vikings paid a premium to trade up to get him with pick 17. As a result of moving up for Turner and J.J. McCarthy at 10, Minnesota only has a first-round pick, two fifth-rounders, and likely a third-round compensatory pick. That’s the price they paid to land a franchise quarterback and defensive end, two of the most critical positions in football.
“You never want to give up future picks. You always want to stay pat,” Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said on draft night regarding trading up for Turner. “But I just know when a player is that much of an outlier standing out, we trust our board, and our evaluation process is pretty good.
“For players like that who we would have taken at 11, who we thought were gonna go before we picked, you don’t end up regretting those decisions.”
The Vikings still don’t regret taking Turner. However, the Los Angeles Rams selected Jared Verse two picks later, and he finished the year with 4.5 sacks, 66 tackles, and 18 hits. Turner played anywhere from 50% of snaps on defense to 7% and 4%, respectively, against the Detroit Lions and Rams in Weeks 7 and 8.
Meanwhile, Verse regularly played 65% to 85% of L.A.’s defensive snaps, leading people to question whether the Vikings took the right player.
“I know people from the outside [say] that he should be playing more,” said Blake Cashman. “[However], coaches make their decisions for a reason. But he’s one of the most gifted players on this team. One of the most talented. He’s a guy that, as he continues to get experience, he’s just going to be a monster and a headache for opponents.”
Cashman says that Turner has developed good habits by learning from veterans like Jonathan Greenard.
“He came in and immediately he’s watching how guys like JG work,” said Cashman. “And JG sets a great example. [Turner isn’t] a first-round draft pick [who’s] arrogant and thinks he’s got it figured out.
“He’s a sponge right away, learning from vets, and he’s very coachable. Obviously, [Turner] comes from a program in college where he’s used to winning, so he wants to win. And that’s something that you want in every player.”
Turner said he learned a lot from veterans like Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, as well as from coaches like Brian Flores and defensive line coach Marcus Dixon.
“I feel like I learned a lot of knowledge just from the people I was around. The veteran players [and coaches],” Turner said. “Just kind of just embrace that type of knowledge that they poured into me as a rookie. Just being an open book, just being open to being coachable.”
Minnesota’s veteran players acknowledged Turner’s willingness to learn, and special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said that he embraced a phase of the game he didn’t play in college. Still, Turner went from playing 36 snaps and sacking Daniel Jones in Week 1 to playing only four defensive snaps in Minnesota’s Week 7 loss to Detroit and three five days later in their loss in L.A.
“I’ve heard the talk about the snap counts, and I think it’s just hard to make a determination on a player and what he is based on seven games, especially early in his career,” Flores said after the Rams game. “Dallas is going to be just fine. I think everybody kind of wants everything right now. And I’m sure he does, too. Like, he wants to be out there.”
Flores coached under Mike Tomlin before the Vikings hired him in 2023. He used Cam Heyward as an example to illustrate where Turner is at this point in his career. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Heyward 31st overall in 2011, but he didn’t start until his third season. Still, Heyward became a 17-year veteran, seven-time Pro Bowler, and made four All-Pro teams.
“This guy’s a future Hall of Famer, [but] he didn’t play very much his first two years in the league,” said Flores, recalling a conversation he had with Heyward while coaching in Pittsburgh.
“He was sitting behind some really good players that made me think of Dallas, who’s also in a room with a lot of good players. And, you know, what [Heyward] talked about was it was great to learn from that group, to be a sponge and hear about the adjustments in the game and hear about the techniques you’re going to use against that player versus that player.”
Greenard and Van Ginkel are Pro Bowlers who have positively influenced Turner in his rookie season. However, they’re also blocking him from playing time. Ultimately, Turner should benefit from their influence. Still, like with J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings are asking for delayed gratification with Turner while he learns to become a pro.
“It’s important for young guys to get on a routine,” said Flores, who checked in with Turner around when his college season would have ended, like he does with many of Minnesota’s young players. “It’s important for everyone to get on a routine, just so you can kind of go back and tweak it week to week and say, ‘Hey, you know, that helped me, that didn’t help me.’
“So the goal there was just, ‘Hey, you know, of course, it’s the end of [his college] season. Let’s make sure we’ve got the right routine really across the board.’ You know, weights, what time do you go to bed? What time you’re waking up? Just to kind of see where it was at.”
Turner, 21, acknowledges he’s young and acclimating to the NFL. He still has high expectations for himself but has been willing to go through the process before seeing results on the field.
“I played a college game and an NFL game in the same year,” he said. “That’s a quick transition for someone that’s 21 years old. I only played three years in college. So, built for it all, destined for it and everything. But it’s definitely a transition for sure.”
The upside to Turner’s development year is that he’s becoming a dynamic edge rusher. The downside is that he didn’t produce the same results as Verse, who is already 24. He lurks in the shadows, learning the game behind closed doors and developing on Minnesota’s practice fields. It may have taken him a season, but Turner’s rookie-year incubation should pay off for a long time.
