Green Bay Packers: Vikings will be without Danielle Hunter

We’ve recently learned that the Minnesota Vikings will be without star pass-rusher, Danielle Hunter, for Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers.

As questions swirl in regards to what the Green Bay Packers will do at the right tackle position for their Week 1 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, they catch a bit of a break as it has just been reported that stud edge-rusher, Danielle Hunter, has been placed on IR.

Hunter is coming off an incredibly impressive season that included 14.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hits, and 97 total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). For reference, Za’Darius Smith recorded 13.5 sacks, 24 quarterback hits, and 105 total pressures last season.

Unfortunately, for Hunter and the Vikings, he hasn’t been able to practice since August 14th. While Minnesota has done their best to hide the severity of the injury, linebacker Eric Kendricks alluded to the Vikings being without Hunter earlier this afternoon:

"“A guy like Danielle he brings a whole other type of game in It’s going to be hard to a replace a guy like that but we have guys that also are hungry and want to step up too”"

And, of course, not long after, we would get confirmation that the Vikings would be without their star pass-rusher.

Now, the Green Bay Packers aren’t completely off the hook as they’ll still have to deal with Yannick Ngakoue, who Minnesota acquired via trade from Jacksonville a little over a week ago. By Pro Football Focus metrics, he was a top-20 edge-rusher last season, and by their pass-rush productivity tool – which measures the rate at which a player creates pressure on the QB – Ngakoue ranked 12th among edge rushers in 2018 and seventh in 2017.

With that said, dealing with only Ngakoue is going to be an easier task than having to deal with both him and Hunter at the same time.

As it currently stands, we don’t know if Billy Turner is even going to play on Sunday as he battles through an injury of his own, and I’m not sure anyone knows what to expect from Rick Wagner. However, what we do know is that this Packers’ offensive line won’t have to face Danielle Hunter, who has 5.5 sacks in 10 career games against Green Bay.