With the 117th overall pick, the Minnesota Vikings selected defensive end D.J. Wonnum from South Carolina. What can he bring to the team’s defense?
The Minnesota Vikings came into the 2020 NFL Draft with holes throughout their defense. While cornerback and the rest of the secondary garnered all of the attention coming into the three-day event, defensive end was a sneaky need that the Vikings needed to replenish.
Minnesota still has Danielle Hunter and Ifeadi Odenigbo on their current roster. But behind them, there isn’t much to get excited about.
Even if Everson Griffen changes course and returns to the Vikings for next season, Mike Zimmer wanted to get younger on defense and adding the next wave of depth pieces had to be on Minnesota’s radar.
With the first of 11 selections on Saturday afternoon, the Vikings began to fill this need with South Carolina defensive end D.J. Wonnum.
Although he isn’t a household name, Wonnum fits the protocol that Minnesota has used to find defensive linemen late in the draft and provides a versatile option to fill the “Joker” role in the team’s defense.
So let’s look closer at some of the positives and negatives from Wonnum’s game and what he can bring to the Vikings in 2020.