The Minnesota Vikings will undoubtedly have their work cut out for them in Week 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers without one of their top pass rushers on the field.
Minnesota's final injury report revealed the hard news Vikings fans weren't ready to hear: edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel is out. His neck injury is going to keep him off the field and leave a gap on their depth chart without Van Ginkel.
The Vikings are losing an absolute difference-maker in their pass rush. Van Ginkel had limited snaps in Minnesota's 48-10 rout of the Cincinnati Bengals. Eight snaps to be exact, and what did he do with those opportunities? Two sacks. A sack every four snaps is pretty impressive.
That's the kind of production the Vikings are going to miss as they try to work their strategy with pressuring Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Minnesota will turn the keys over to a second-year man who needs a breakout game to reassure Vikings fans that he was the right choice with one of their first-round picks in 2024.
The game between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers could become the Dallas Turner show
Week 3's win over the Bengals was a good indication of how Turner is developing in the right direction with one of the best performances of his young career. He finished with a team-high five pressures. He also had one tackle and one quarterback hit in the win.
For the season, Turner has nine pressures, nine tackles, two quarterback hits, one tackle for loss, and one sack. It may not be staggeringly crazy numbers, but he's off to a better start than he was in 2024.
After being on the field for 57% of the snaps against the Bengals, Turner could be in for his most active game of his career. He'll have some help with Jonathan Greenard, opposite of him, who will command more double teams on his side.
If the Steelers are fixated on Greenard, that will leave the door open for Turner to jump in on one-on-one blocks and win them. He's got the speed and burst to get off the line and get past the tackles.
This might be Turner's one shot to show that he deserves more snaps. With many people starting to have doubt creep in with his career, Turner must be able to answer the call his defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, expects from him.