Kevin O’Connell sends loud reminder about forgotten Vikings pass rusher

The 2025 offseason for the Minnesota Vikings has had about a 99.9 percent focus on quarterback J.J. McCarthy, with any moves made (or not made) naturally having a tentacle back to him in some way. Such is life when it involves the quarterback, and you're a team lined up to start one who hasn't played in an NFL regular season game.

The Vikings made a fairly significant trade to move up one spot to draft McCarthy, fortifying their investment in him as their quarterback of the future until further notice. But another trade in the first round of last year's draft impacted their 2025 draft capital, as the Vikings gave up third and fourth-round picks this year to move from No. 23 to No. 17 overall and take edge rusher Dallas Turner.

It's hard to call Turner's rookie season a genuine disappointment. He just didn't play much (300 defensive snaps over 16 games), with three sacks, as Jonathan Greenard (12 sacks) and Andrew Van Ginkel (11.5 sacks) handsomely paid off the free agent investments Minnesota made in them. The now-departed Patrick Jones II also had seven sacks last year as the No. 3 edge rusher.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell wants to make sure no one forgets about Dallas Turner

Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell appeared on NFL Network during Day 3 of the just-completed NFL Draft. Since host Rich Eisen is a noted "Michigan man", he started things with a question about McCarthy.

As he turned the conversation to the Vikings' defense, and the edge rusher group, analyst Charles Davis briefly mentioned Turner. After talking more generally about the pieces that have been added to the defense, O'Connell made sure to talk about Turner.

"I hope people haven’t forgotten about Dallas Turner, I'm glad you mentioned him", O'Connell said.“[He is] really a guy that I’m expecting a huge jump from year one to year two.

He really started to come on as the season went on last year. It’s a tough group, tough lineup to crack when you’ve got those top two guys playing the way that they were.”

Jones is leaving behind 459 defensive snaps from last season. A big chunk of those snaps should go to Turner, which would naturally pave a path for the leap O'Connell envisions him having in year two.