To say Jonathan Greenard had some massive shoes to fill in his first season with the Minnesota Vikings would be quite an understatement. After nine years together, the Vikings made the decision to move on from longtime pass rusher Danielle Hunter during the 2024 offseason, and they brought in Greenard during free agency as his replacement.
Despite the pressure, Greenard exceeded almost everyone's expectations with the Vikings in 2024 and put together a performance that resulted in getting selected to the NFC's Pro Bowl roster for the first time in his NFL career.
Unfortunately, the season ended too quickly for the Minnesota edge rusher and the rest of his teammates after losing in the opening round of the 2024 playoffs. Greenard recently reflected on the bitter end of the Vikings' 2024 campaign in a conversation with NFL Network's Omar Ruiz at this season's Pro Bowl Games.
"It was a great season, obviously, but to our standard, it wasn't enough. We obviously didn't get to the end result [where] we wanted to be and we're going to use that in the offseason to make sure we're better.
We're going to hone in on our technique a whole lot better. Just getting more comfortable in [Brian Flores's] system is going to make us play a lot faster. So, I'm excited.
I remember the faces on everybody in the locker room after our last game and we understood, 'No, this isn't it. This isn't how we want to go out and how we want to be remembered.' So, we understand we just gotta add a little more to it and we're going to be right where we want to be."
Jonathan Greenard knows the Minnesota Vikings aren't far from reaching their goals
Every season, 31 NFL teams are left with the disappointment of not winning a championship, and unfortunately for Minnesota, they still haven't been able to end a campaign as the lone team on top of the rest of the league.
But based on Greenard's recent comments, he doesn't think the Vikings are too far from accomplishing their ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl for the first time in the history of the franchise.
He mentioned how Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores will be back for his third season with the team in 2025 and how much that will help the Vikings' defense improve even more than they did in 2024.
With Flores leading the unit last season, Minnesota's defense ranked fourth in the NFL in points allowed per drive after ranking 18th in the same category in 2023.
After the Vikings add even more talent to their roster in free agency and the NFL Draft this year, it's safe to assume the team's defense will continue to ascend the ranks next season just like Greenard expects it to.