The Minnesota Vikings spent four of their top 100 draft picks this spring on defense, and internally they believe first-round pick Caleb Banks should win a starting defensive end job if his broken left foot is fully healed, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reported Monday. Third-round nose tackle Domonique Orange is expected to challenge Levi Drake Rodriguez for snaps.
The recent history says to slow down. Under coordinator Brian Flores, the Vikings have started exactly one rookie on defense in three seasons — undrafted linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. in 2023. Over Flores’ tenure Minnesota has the second-fewest rookie starts (16) and second-fewest rookie defensive snaps (2,110) in the NFL, per ESPN Research.
Part of that is supply: before this April, Flores had been handed only one defensive player inside the top 100, linebacker Dallas Turner. But Turner’s path is the cautionary version of the story. The 2024 first-rounder played 300 snaps as a rookie and only broke into the lineup in Year 2 because teammates got hurt. He inherits the job vacated by Jonathan Greenard, traded to Philadelphia this spring, in his third season.
The bottleneck is the scheme itself. Flores runs one of the league’s most call-heavy defenses, with disguised fronts and coverage rotations that ask a rookie to process a menu of adjustments before the snap rather than simply beat the man across from him.
“I talk to our guys about it all the time,” Flores said. “This is a unique system. It’s a demanding system. We’ve got high standards, high expectations. For some people it’s a lot. There’s stress and anxiety, but what I want our guys to know is it’s definitely an opportunity for growth. There’s a lot of calls. There’s a lot of techniques. A lot of fundamentals.”
Safety Joshua Metellus said the coaching staff’s volume is its own hurdle for young players. “Some of the points that I try to give to the young guys is to listen to what he says and not how he says it,” Metellus said. “You can start to feel his emotions and not hear what he’s telling you.”
The rest of the class projects further down. Second-round pick Jake Golday worked as an off-ball linebacker this spring and sits behind Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson. Third-rounder Jakobe Thomas is in the mix for a safety job that only opens if Harrison Smith follows through on retirement — a decision still unresolved with camp days away.
Vikings rookies report July 26, veterans July 28. Banks’ foot is the first thing to watch: if he is cleared for full work early, Minnesota gets its answer on the one rookie it is actually counting on. If he isn’t, the edge rotation behind Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel is thin enough that the front office may go veteran shopping again.
