Head Coach Kevin O’Connell referenced a play this week from the Lions game that illustrated all the qualities Minnesota is striving to hang its hat on: physicality, awareness and an all-out, nonstop effort.
In his first full game since Week 1 (Van Ginkel played eight snaps on a pitch count and managed two sacks in Week 3), the 2024 Second-Team All-Pro helped the Vikings record a season-high five sacks and 11 quarterback hits. He handled 60 percent of the snaps and made an impact that can’t be grasped in the box score. Van Ginkel “uplifts the group in a major way,” Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores said.
The outside linebacker can excel as a pure pass-rusher. He can lurk into coverage voids and disrupt quarterback-receiver timing. He can execute nasty (in a good way) “games” with front-seven teammates, and he can calm the defense with his level-headedness and knowledge of offensive concepts.
On Thursday, responding to a question about the difficulty of determining a player’s acumen and anticipatory skills, which Van Ginkel exemplifies as well as anyone, Flores went in-depth on his instincts.
“It’s hard to evaluate, let’s just go ahead and say that,” Flores offered. “I think the more instinctive players, there’s some players who just have a feel for formations, and when you talk to them, they can talk formations, and they’re talking about, ‘The game plan for this week was this, and that was a tell for us,’ or ‘We felt like we had a matchup there.’ When you’re talking to a player and you hear some of those things, which was the case with Gink’ when he was in college, you kind of get a sense that there’s a possibility that he could make some of these instinctive plays and get some other guys in the right positions. You’ve got to put some time into that, though. I mean, you have to spend some time [evaluating], and then you get them and you see how much they can learn and absorb and then apply, and then you just continue to keep giving ’em more. I think we’ve got several players that are like that.”
In a similar realm of football IQ as Gink’, Flores listed off Joshua Metellus, Harrison Smith, Eric Wilson and Blake Cashman. They’ve demonstrated to Flores an urgency to learn that raises confidence in games.
“I think Gink’s right at the top of that list of guys I’ve coached in my career,” Flores shared.
With Van Ginkel on the field, Minnesota has pressured opponents on 49.2 percent of dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats, compared to 39.8 without. Vikings blitzes are drawing pressure at a much higher rate, as well (59.3% with AVG in the game vs. 43.2% in his absence). Suffice to say, Gink’s impact is tremendous.
