3 most disappointing Vikings from their Week 9 win vs. the Lions
By Nik Edlund
D.J. Wonnum – DE
D.J. Wonnum was coming off the highlight of his young career heading into the game against the Lions. He had that big sack and forced fumble on Aaron Rodgers that secured a Vikings victory over the Green Bay Packers in Week 8 and many were hoping to see him take the next step with a strong performance against Detroit. Unfortunately for Wonnum, he followed that career-high with a pretty quiet performance.
Despite playing 51 percent of Minnesota’s defensive snaps, Wonnum couldn’t even register a tackle. He did have one quarterback hit but that was all. He wasn’t able to build off his huge moment against the great Aaron Rodgers.
Wonnum is a young player, so he will have ups and downs throughout his rookie season. But the Week 9 performance against the Lions was disappointing for several reasons.
The first and most vital is that the Vikings are aching for a premier pass rusher. They lost Danielle Hunter before the start of the season, then traded away Yannick Ngakoue, and Ifeadi Odenigbo hasn’t taken the step forward this year that many assumed he would.
Many Minnesota fans hoped Wonnum’s big moment at Lambeau Field was going to be the springboard to put him on that path of being a consistent pass rush threat. That didn’t come to fruition against Detroit, but perhaps Wonnum will get some better stats on the board in the Vikings’ upcoming Monday night game against the Chicago Bears.