The Minnesota Vikings shocked most fans when they traded Jonathan Greenard to the Philadelphia Eagles on Day 2 of the NFL Draft for a pair of third-round picks. Even more surprising, the Vikings didn’t use any of their additional capital on an edge rusher to fill the void left behind by Greenard.
Perhaps they could fill it with a veteran like Von Miller.
Dallas Turner had a great sophomore season, finishing as the team’s leader in sacks. The Vikings likely traded Greenard with the idea of making him a starter. However, Andrew Van Ginkel will line up across from him, and Van Ginkel is 30 and coming off a season where he missed time with a neck injury. While Turner and Van Ginkel are reliable starters, the players behind them are unproven, including Bo Richter and Eric Johnson III.
Though some think the Vikings used a second-round pick on Jake Golday to serve as an understudy to Van Ginkel, Golday likely won’t be an impact player immediately. He struggled to produce much in college as an edge rusher and looks much better suited as a linebacker.
Given their current situation, the Vikings should look to bring in a veteran to serve as a handy backup who can also fill in rotational snaps at the position. Lucky for them, there are a lot of big names still in free agency at the edge rusher position, one of whom is former Super Bowl MVP Von Miller.
Miller isn’t the same player he was in the 2010s, a guy who could single-handedly wreck an offense’s game plan. Still, last season as a rotational edge rusher with the Washington Commanders, Miller led the team with nine sacks, his most since 2021, when he split time between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams.
He has extended his career by becoming a sub-package player. Miller played just 37% of Washington’s defensive snaps last season, being a true pass-rush specialist who still has an array of moves and enough athleticism to win on reps and be a tough matchup for any offensive lineman taking him on one-on-one.
Even more importantly, Miller could serve as a valuable mentor for Turner. Miller and Turner are almost the same size and share similar athletic profiles. They even play a comparable role as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense who are more stand-up pass rushers than hand-in-the-dirt guys. Miller is a future Hall of Famer who has expressed interest in mentoring players as his career winds down, much like DeMarcus Lawrence did for him.
The Vikings have already shown that they want to invest in young defensive players who can be disrupters. They have a young core of Turner, Caleb Banks, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Domonique Orange, Jalen Redmond, and Levi Drake-Rodriguez in the front seven. Now, all that is left is to provide them with a leader who has succeeded at the highest level and knows exactly what it takes.
More importantly, this move could also stifle a divisional rival who needs help at the pass-rusher position. The Chicago Bears are also thin at edge rusher as they wait for Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner to recover from their long-term injuries. Nabbing Von Miller before Chicago does would provide the Vikings with veteran leadership while also depriving a rival.
