Danielle Hunter, edge
Standing Danielle Hunter up and pairing him with Za’Darius Smith had fans drooling while thinking about the chaos he could cause in the backfield of opposing teams. However, he seemed to struggle to get sacks last season in that role.
10.5 sacks may not be anything to sneeze at. But where Hunter struggled was at the end of the season after an injury slowed down Za’Darius Smith. Hunter was held without a sack in five of his last eight games
Interestingly, Hunter failed to register a sack in Minnesota’s last three losses of the season and that is likely not a coincidence. The Vikings as a whole were in the bottom half of the league in sacks.
Maybe a new scheme in 2023 will help him be a dominating force as a pass rusher once again. It’s not that Hunter was bad, expectations were just very high for an excellent player who dealt with some tough circumstances.