Expectations were high for Dallas Turner in his rookie season. Many analysts projected him to be the first defender taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. Although two defenders were selected before him, the Minnesota Vikings traded a significant amount of draft capital to acquire him.
Given that context, and the success of the Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Verse, who was taken two picks later and named 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year, it’s easy to view Turner’s limited participation last season of just 300 defensive snaps as a disappointment.
The Vikings didn’t get the impact you’d expect from a mid-first-round pick at any position from Turner. But that also ignores the context of his season, which is the players he had in front of him. Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel made the Pro Bowl, and Van Ginkel earned Second Team All-Pro honors for his incredible 2024 season.
What’s up with the snap counts?
Heading into the year, the Vikings likely didn’t expect Van Ginkel to earn the 922 snaps he eventually played. I believe they were planning for a stronger rotation with Turner, which is evident in the Week 1 snap counts, where Van Ginkel played 58% of the snaps and Turner played 51%. Those 36 defensive snaps would be the most Turner played all season, mainly due to Van Ginkel’s emergence as a top edge rusher in the NFL.
When looking at season-long snap counts, it may stick out that two players listed as edge rushers, Jihad Ward (467 snaps) and Pat Jones II (459 snaps), out-snapped Turner. Being behind Greenard and Van Ginkel makes sense, but being fifth on the edge rush depth chart? That’s a huge cause for concern, right?
Not so fast. Calling Ward an edge rusher because he was listed as an OLB on Minnesota’s roster is a gross mischaracterization of his role, which was that of a third-down interior pass rusher.
Jones is a better comparison, but also had a different role. With 20 lbs. on Turner, Jones played more in relief of Greenard, while Turner played in relief of Van Ginkel. In pure pass-rushing situations, Jones would rush from the inside, allowing Greenard to rush the edge, while Greenard was kicked down inside with Turner on the field. The difference in snap counts can be attributed more to situational differences than to a genuine preference.
It’s also noteworthy that Turner suffered a knee injury in Week 2 against the San Francisco 49ers, which held him out of the game against the Houston Texans. Turner is likely still recovering and saw a sharp drop in his usage after that game, playing just 31 snaps over the team’s next four games. Missed time due to injury can be a major red flag if the player is unable to return to full strength. Turner did, and saw consistent snap counts to end the season, averaging 25 snaps per game from Week 13 through Week 18.
Other rookie considerations
Turner wasn’t just fighting for snaps with two standout teammates. He was also learning a new, complex defense under Brian Flores while adjusting to facing more skilled opponents in the NFL than he had in the SEC. Turner played 55 snaps in coverage per PFF, which was over 25% of the time on passing plays. While he also played significant coverage snaps at Alabama, it was a skill he was still developing. With the different alignments and wacky blitzes and schemes Flores runs, there was a lot on his plate.
By contrast, a player like Verse was only in coverage on 5% of his passing snaps. The simpler role can allow Verse to dedicate more time to his craft as a pass rusher, which can lead to better results. To be clear, I’m not trying to claim that Turner could have been as good as Verse last year, or that Flores’ scheme made it impossible for a rookie to thrive, or that Turner deserves a pass for his overall lack of performance. However, I’m trying to contextualize what Turner was asked to do in Minnesota’s defense, and use that to think about what we could have expected from him.
Understanding that background, I went to the tape to see how Turner played in his rookie year, paying particular attention to his growth throughout the season.
Tape study
At the beginning of the 2024 season, Turner showcased his athletic ability and burst, highlighted by a couple of memorable big plays. His sack against the New York Giants or his fourth-down stop against the New York Jets showed that he had incredible burst to get after the opposing offense, but he didn’t provide a consistent impact early in the year. To my eye, he was over-reliant on his speed rush and too often got pushed upfield past the QB, failing to impact the QB.
Dallas Turner gets washed upfield on a speed rush.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T01:23:00.277Z
He also occasionally struggled in run defense. In particular, I thought Turner ended up exposing his back to blockers far too often. That makes it particularly difficult against the run, as opponents can more easily drive you off the ball. It should be noted that he usually did it to try to disengage, but he still lost ground. An edge should be able to take on blocks directly and disengage without having to spin.
Turner gets himself turned around a little in chucking the WR, and it causes him to lose significant leverage against the TE's block. He turns his back to try to disengage, an action that loses more ground.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T01:25:38.631Z
As the season progressed, he began to have fewer lapses like the one above. It was great to see real progress from Turner as both a pass rusher and run defender, showing that he has grown into the NFL role.
First, it’s worth noting the rare burst that Turner has. He can get upfield and run circles around opposing linemen, like he does on the play below against Darnell Wright. This is the kind of play that made him an early pick.
This play showed Dallas Turner's rare athletic ability as he turned the corner against Wright to make the sack.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T01:45:11.769Z
However, with that, Turner began to exhibit a more violent nature in his rushes that wasn’t always present at the beginning of the season. The compilation below provides a good snapshot of the successes he began to have.
First, he bull-rushed LT Rasheed Walker upfield, flushing Jordan Love, and disengaged for the sack. Then, against the Detroit Lions, he did a great job of threatening the upfield shoulder of the LG, sticking his arm in his chest, and countering inside.
Jared Goff was already flushed, but this is the kind of inside counter that Turner was lacking early in the season when teams were consistently pushing him past the pocket. Then, on a couple of plays against the Rams, he violently knocks back the C on a stunt and then beats the LG by getting into his space and winning upfield, turning to touch Matthew Stafford even though he had released the ball.
Watching all of his reps in a row, you could feel the intensity ramp up from Dallas Turner as a pass rusher over the course of the season. Look at the violence his plays with on these reps, physically going after his opponents to create wins as a rusher.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T01:44:09.539Z
Turner also grew more stout against the run as the season went along. On the play against the Indianapolis Colts below, he did a great job of anchoring against the TE’s run block, setting an edge, and forcing a cut upfield.
Dallas Turner sets a hard edge against the TE's block, forcing the RB to cut up into traffic.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T02:12:44.567Z
The willingness to take on contact mirrored his increased violence in the run game. Below is an excellent example of Turner stonewalling a puller against the Lions.
Dallas Turner, from off the screen to the right, lowers the shoulder and stands up a puller, helping compress space as Theo Jackson makes the tackle.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T02:14:23.775Z
That fight also manifested in this play against the Rams. Turner gets underneath the RT’s chest and battles through him. Initially, he’s on the back side of the run, but Kyren Williams bounces his way, and he makes the tackle because he held his ground.
Turner gets initial knockback and works through the RT's block to make the run tackle.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T02:16:01.634Z
Continuing to build on the momentum he generated towards the end of last year will be critical for Turner in 2025. The athleticism was always there, but the physicality he was able to show is the truly encouraging part of his game.
The final piece will be continuing to play well in coverage. Turner seemed to get more comfortable dropping into zones and mirroring receivers as the season went on, culminating in this interception of Geno Smith. Let’s hope he can continue that momentum in 2025.
Dallas Turner's INT against the Seahawks. This was a great job of watching the QB's eyes and then mirroring Noah Fant's curl route to pick off the pass.
— Matt Fries (@friesfootball.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T02:11:26.343Z
What does Turner’s role look like in 2025?
A ton has been made of Brian Flores saying that he saw Greenard, Van Ginkel, and Turner as “three starters” during his press conference at mandatory minicamp. Taken literally, you would expect all three players to be on the field simultaneously. ESPN’s Kevin Seifert stoked the fire, suggesting, “Turner could fill his own version of [Josh] Metellus‘ hybrid role.”
I don’t quite buy that line of thinking. We’re in the part of the preseason where every player is in the best shape of his life. If you’re a fantasy football player, how many times have you heard a report of an RB getting more looks as a receiver? Turner certainly played snaps as an off-ball LB last year (including the INT highlighted above), as did Van Ginkel. He played a bunch of snaps in coverage, just like Van Ginkel. I certainly don’t expect that to stop, but I also don’t expect it to become anything close to his primary role.
In 2025, Turner will primarily be playing on the edge, rushing the passer. I expect him to rush anywhere from the three-to-one ratio he rushed at last year (151 pass rushes to 55 coverage plays) and the two-to-one ratio Van Ginkel rushed at (436 pass rushes to 212 coverage snaps). But if he’s an edge rusher, and Van Ginkel and Greenard are playing ahead of him, how will he be treated like a starter?
The answer lies in the rotation I expect the Vikings to use. Last year, their top four edge rushers, Van Ginkel (922 snaps), Greenard (918), Jones (465), and Turner (300) combined for 2,599 total snaps. Note that I’m not including Ward, whose role I’ve previously mentioned, is different from that of an edge rusher. I expect Javon Hargrave to primarily fill this role, with some contributions from Jonathan Allen and possibly rookie Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins.
On its face, 900-plus snaps is a lot for an edge defender, and Van Ginkel and Greenard played over 80% of the snaps. That’s not unheard of. Danielle Hunter played over 1,000 snaps for the Vikings in 2023, and Maxx Crosby famously hardly ever comes off the field. Still, most primary NFL edges play about 70 to 75% of the snaps. Hunter played 70% of the time last year with the Texans. Verse played 75%. Even Myles Garrett, the best edge rusher in the league, played 826 snaps last year, which was 76% of the time.
With Turner coming into his own, it’s reasonable to expect more breaks for Greenard and Van Ginkel next year. If we project both of them at 75% of the snaps, we would get 852 each based on Minnesota’s snaps from last season. Subtracting that from the 2,599 snap total, we are left with 895 snaps to go to the rest of the Vikings’ edge rush room.
The Vikings don’t have significant threats to Turner in their depth. Gabriel Murphy and Bo Richter are the other two edge rushers from last year, who played just 64 snaps in 2024. Even if one steps up, I doubt they get more than a couple hundred snaps. Throw in the edge rusher snaps for Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, and maybe some snaps for a player like Tyler Batty if he makes the roster, and I really think that group combines for somewhere between 200 and 300 snaps.
Even at the high end, that would leave nearly 600 snaps for Turner. 595 snaps would have ranked Turner tenth on Minnesota’s defense in snap count in 2025. That’s 52% of the snaps, and definitely starter territory. At 695 snaps, he would be playing at a 61% rate.
That type of split is quite common throughout the league. The Rams are a good example, where Byron Young played 844 of the team’s snaps, Verse played 834, and Michael Hoecht played 639. There will be overlap between all three of Turner, Greenard, and Van Ginkel, especially in pure passing situations. However, it doesn’t need to be as great as you might think for Turner to feel like a true starter.
The snap count is readily available for Dallas Turner to make a difference on the 2025 Vikings. He’ll need to back up that promise with his play on the field. Still, I believe the progression he showed as his rookie season closed out positions him to become an impact player for the Vikings in 2025.