5 bold questions for the Minnesota Vikings defense in 2020

Can the Vikings get more out of Barr?

Anthony Barr was just about on a plane to sign with the New York Jets when he had a sudden change of heart during the 2019 offseason.

Instead of getting more money in New York, Barr opted to sign a five-year, $67.5 million deal with the Vikings, and some thought they would see him get the opportunity to make more splash plays as he did in his rookie season.

That didn’t happen and Barr had a year that made him look like a lighter version of Stephen. It wasn’t that he had a bad season as his 79 tackles were a career-high, but he didn’t make a visible impact with just 1.5 sacks and six tackles for loss.

Entering the second year of his lucrative contract, Minnesota will need to have Barr step up, but Mike Zimmer and his staff also need to allow him to do so.

Barr has rushed the passer just 12 percent of the time during his career in Minnesota and a lot of that had to do with what was around him as Ben Gedeon and Eric Wilson didn’t provide the same impact in coverage.

Heading into this season, there’s a couple of things that could help including the addition of rookie Troy Dye, who had a 77.6 coverage grade from PFF in his senior season at Oregon. With Dom Capers also joining the coaching staff, there could also be more wrinkles that allow Barr to get to the passer and let the Vikings be more aggressive.