7 reasons why the Vikings shouldn’t panic about Danielle Hunter’s injury

The first three games of the Vikings schedule are tough, but they are not a death march

The kneejerk reaction is to peek at Minnesota’s first three games and say something to the effect of, “Oh, they’ve got the Packers, Colts, and Titans. Oofta.”

While those teams are appraised to be good squads, they are not offensive juggernauts. The Packers, Colts, and Titans are decent-to-good offensive football teams, but they are not on par with teams like the Kansas City Chiefs or Baltimore Ravens from an offensive standpoint.

The numbers check out. In 2019, these three teams ranked 18th (Green Bay), 25th (Indianapolis), 12th (Tennessee) in offensive yards gained. It is not an insult to assert that the first three teams the Vikings will face this season could stand to be a lot more spooky on offense.

If Danielle Hunter was healthy, he would probably instill more fear in the respective cerebrums of Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, and Ryan Tannehill than someone like Ifeadi Odenigbo. But let’s face it, these three signal-callers arguably fall into the NFL’s 10th-to-20th-best quarterback rankings heading into 2020.

Hunter’s presence will indeed be missed for three weeks and hopefully not much longer than that. Yet, overreaction-thinking has catalyzed doomsday feelings — feelings that are not fully warranted.