The Edge - Danielle Hunter and Za'Darius Smith

Even though they’ve yet to play a complete game — aside from Week 1 against the under-manned Green Bay Packers — the Minnesota Vikings still find themselves leading the NFC North with a 3-1 record. Over the first quarter of the season, Ed Donatell’s unit has adopted a bend-but-don’t-break mentality, ranking 27th in yards allowed, 26th in passing yards allowed, 23rd in rushing yards allowed, but 13th in points allowed.

It’s difficult to be critical of a defense that resides in the top half of the league in the most critical metric, but there’s one player thus far who has certainly left a lot to be desired.

After missing 26 out of the past 33 games since 2020, Danielle Hunter hasn’t been his usual, menacing self to start the Kevin O’Connell era. Although he recorded a sack in Week 1 on Aaron Rodgers, he hasn’t been able to consistently generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks over the past three weeks.

Through Week 4, Hunter ranks fourth amongst Minnesota’s defensive front in pressure rate.

Za’Darius Smith: 12.0%
Dalvin Tomlinson: 9.0%
DJ Wonnum: 8.6%
Hunter: 6.3%
Harrison Phillips: 4.1%

Depending on how you look at it, Hunter has been fortunate enough, health-wise, to lead the Vikings in pass-rush snaps with 126 so far this season. But with just eight pressures to show for it, Hunter resembles the edge-rusher version of Kobe Bryant late in his basketball career: a volume-dependent chucker from the field.

There have been many potential explanations floating around for Hunter’s early season struggles. Is he dropping into coverage too often as an outside backer in Donatell’s scheme?

Hunter’s team-leading 126 pass-rush snaps say otherwise. And over the first two weeks of the season, Hunter was still playing a majority of his snaps lined up as a defensive end and not an outside backer. Since Week 3, however, Hunter has been spending most of his snaps as an outside backer.

Is Dontell’s scheme to blame for Hunter’s shortcomings? Possibly. But the 2018 and 2019 Pro Bowler still has had ample opportunities as a traditional defensive end to make an impact, which simply hasn’t happened at the rate Vikings fans have grown accustomed to — especially when Za’Darius Smith and Wonnum have displayed an ability to get after quarterbacks with more regularity.

And rushing the passer isn’t the only element of the game in which Hunter has left a lot to be desired. As it stands, Hunter is responsible for the most missed tackles on the Vikings against the run. He also leads the team in missed-tackle rate when defending the opposing team’s ground game.

So where does Donatell’s unit go from here? With Wonnum outplaying Hunter so far, is it possible that Donatell gives Minnesota’s third-year edge rusher more playing time?

Through four weeks, Hunter is playing 81% of the defensive snaps, whereas Wonnum is playing just 47%. With how Wonnum is playing both against the run and getting after quarterbacks, how much longer can Donatell afford to keep him off the field in favor of Hunter?

Does Donnatell decide to take matters into his own hands by blitzing opposing quarterbacks more frequently? Minnesota’s 16.8% blitz rate on the year could certainly see an uptick if Hunter doesn’t hold up his end of the bargain — and soon.

That could certainly be the case in Week 5 against Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears. After all, Fields has the third-worst passer rating against the blitz this season at 53.8. Unfortunately for Minnesota, Cousins is still second-worst against the blitz with a 50.6 passer rating against more than four pass rushers — but we’ve already belabored his shortcomings against the blitz plenty.

What’s encouraging about Minnesota’s defense is that they’re still a top-half unit in points allowed, even with one of their most essential defenders struggling mightily. What happens to this team and defense if and when Hunter begins to play like the player we saw in 2018 and 2019?

Conversely, how long can Donatell wait to see that version of Hunter before giving Wonnum more opportunities and/or dialing up more frequent blitz packages?