Kevin O’Connell Offers ‘Strong’ Take on Vikings’ $15 Million Defender

The Minnesota Vikings rank third in sacks through seven weeks. Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard, and Pat Jones have each sacked opposing quarterbacks 5.0 times. That ties them for the seventh-most sacks. But Vikings rookie first-round pick Dallas Turner has recorded just 1.0 sacks on the season.

Turner has logged 82 snaps in his five games played this season, per Pro Football Focus.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell issued what ESPN’s Kevin Seifert called a “strong defense” of Turner, noting the depth in the linebacker room.

“He’s working through it. He’s a young player in a defense where the roles and responsibility, sometimes in-game, can adjust based upon what we’re seeing,” O’Connell told reporters on October 21.

“We’re going to continue to see Dallas have an impact. It may be a growing thing as we go here. But trust me, … I’ve got a ton of confidence in Dallas, and he’s growing within a pretty high-level IQ defense. And I think he’s an incredible fit in our defense, not only in the present but in the future as well and he’s going to be an absolute monster for us. But sometimes, there’s some – the way the game flow goes, there might be, ‘What personnel are they using and how do we want to match that personnel?” things like that.”

O’Connell also pointed to moments when they might try to get Van Ginkel or teammates Harrison Smith and Josh Metellus going. But he is doubled down on his faith in Turner, who the Vikings drafted with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2024 draft.

“Just in general, I think DT is growing every single day,” O’Connell said. “More excited about him now than I was even when we drafted him.”

O’Connell was excited about the possibility Turner would fall to them in the draft.

Projected to go in the top-10 before the draft, Turner slid far enough for the Vikings to make a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars to move up from their initial No. 23 spot. O’Connell feared jinxing the Vikings and having another team select Turner before they could.

“It’s possible Dallas Turner gets to us,” O’Connell said in a behind-the-scenes video shared by the Vikings in May. “I don’t want to jinx it until I see it actually happen.”

Turner was as excited about landing with the Vikings after a positive pre-draft visit.

“I was definitely a little anxious to get picked up a little bit,” Turner said in the behind-the-scenes video the Vikings shared. “But everything falls in place. I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason.

“I started crying, I’m gonna be honest. As soon as I seen the ‘Minnesota’ on my phone come across the screen, it was just a, ‘Wow, you going to a very good organization.’ Because on my visit, [I] met with Coach O’Connell, met with [Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah]. I had a real good feel for the people in this building, people in Minnesota. So I’m ready to get to work.”

The Vikings signed Greenard and Van Ginkel in free agency during the 2024 offseason. Their prominence in the Vikings’ defensive attack, even at Turner’s expense, is no surprise.

Jones, though, has hit his stride in his fourth season.

A third-round pick by the Vikings in 2021, Jones has already set a new career-high with his 5.0 sacks. That bests his previous mark of 4.0, set in 2022. It is also a bounce-back campaign for Jones. He had 1.0 sacks in 2023 despite playing in all 17 games, starting one of them.

Ward has seen nearly twice as many snaps for the Vikings on defense as Turner without a sack to show for it. Ward also often lines up as an interior pass rusher, though.

It is fair to expect a first-round pick on a $15.7 million contract to see the field more.

Turner has the lowest defensive snap share among all first-round rookie defenders, per Stathead. He is tied with Drake Maye – the No. 3 overall pick and the New England Patriots QB2 before Week 6 – for the third-lowest snap share on offense or defense among all 2024 first-rounders.