Chad Greenway Excited By Aggressive New Defense
By Adam Carlson
Dec 1, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway (52) against the Chicago Bears at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Vikings defeated the Bears 23-20 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Last year, the Vikings defense downright embarrassed the team on several occasions. Minnesota finished as the second worst overall defense in the National Football league for the 2013 season.
Minnesota Vikings fans and players seem optimistic about the changes that the team made during this offseason. The team got a new, more aggressive defensive minded head coach. A new defensive coordinator replaced the previous one. The Vikings also added some great new faces on defense by drafting seven new defensive players.
Dec 15, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway (52) warms up before the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
One member of that struggling defensive unit last year was linebacker Chad Greenway. Despite playing most of the season with a fractured wrist, he was one of the only players to be a consistent starter for the team. Recently, he sat down with the Minneapolis Star Tribune to talk about the changes that are being made to the Vikings defense.
"“We’re not just sitting back and letting people throw darts at us. We’re matching up people. We’re playing a downhill, aggressive defense. We’re certainly not going to sit back on our heels and let people mess with us.”"
Aggressive is a word that Vikings fans should love to hear. Last year, there were too many instances where a soft defense allowed a team to pick up a 3rd and long situation or give up a big play when it should have been stopped much sooner.
Although Chad Greenway let us know it will be a more aggressive approach, he isn’t willing to give away any details about what the team’s strategy will be. The Star Tribune tried to get some of that information out of him, but this is all he said:
"“We’re going to be doing some different things we haven’t seen before around here since I’ve been here. But we’ll talk about that later. Just wait. You’ll see.”"
Personally, I’m excited to see what this new, more aggressive version of the Minnesota Vikings defense will be. Thankfully, it can’t get much worse than what we saw last year.