Vikings DE Danielle Hunter talks about his journey back from injury: ‘I’m just ready to go’
As you probably know by now, the Vikings pass rush struggled to get much going in 2020.
In fact, the team’s sack leader was Yannick Ngakoue, a defensive end who only played six games with Minnesota.
Danielle Hunter’s injury was a big reason the team struggled to get to the quarterback. Hunter had a neck injury he suffered during the offseason, which left him out for the entirety of the year. He recently talked about that injury with reporters:
“It was really hard,” Hunter said, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “Being able to just sit there and watch and not being able to do anything to help my teammates and seeing what they’ve been going through. It was really tough. We were trying everything we could possibly try for me to get back to the field the correct way, but it just ended up being the outcome that it had to be. After the surgery, I called and talked to all the coaches. … The rehab, it was pretty simple, I just continued my training.
Coach Patterson called and checked up on me every now and then. Talked to [athletic trainer Eric Sugarman] … but the main thing was just getting my health back to 100% and getting my training back, and I’m excited about that. I’ve been training for two years now. Pretty fresh, one year of football rest, so I’m just ready to go.”
With Hunter fresh, this Vikings defense is stellar on paper. Outside of the edge rush spot opposite Hunter, the Minnesota defense has a player capable of starting and thriving under Mike Zimmer’s scheme. It’s pretty fair to say at this point that this group will be better than it was in 2020 — it’s just a matter of how much better.
