EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings defensive front makes Kevin O'Connell lick his lips and rub his hands.

"That's exactly what I'm doing!" the Vikings head coach exclaimed Tuesday, shaking his head with an unmissable smile and laugh after a reporter framed a lead-in question about the vanguard of defenders.

O'Connell tempered himself and continued, "Well put. I am very excited about that group."

During the first training camp practice donning full pads Monday, it was a who's who of pressure, an onslaught of players antagonizing the likes of young quarterback J.J. McCarthy and other Vikings passers.

The penetration has persisted. There have been collapsed pockets, completions that would have been negated by sacks, false starts, etc. Runs similarly have been stifled by forearm shivers and bear hugs.

Minnesota's offense is finding its camp groove, taking stronger shape each session. But the defense? By golly, it's been a swarm of white practice jerseys. Incessantly oppressive. Attacking with abandonment.

It's exciting. And that's an understatement.

The excitement, however, isn't exclusive to bringing in Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, a couple of Pro Bowl defensive tackles with 40-plus sacks apiece and 197 combined quarterback hits on their résumés. It's a ginormous factor, but not the only one in play. There's a three-headed monster ready to strike.

It's the team's outside linebacker trio of Jonathan Greenard, Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel. The former and latter are proven commodities, and the player in the middle is showing starter-material as he heads into his second pro season.

"Every day I get to block an All-Pro edge rusher and then an edge rusher who was a Pro Bowler who probably should've been an All-Pro," right tackle Brian O'Neill said of Van Ginkel and Greenard. "I certainly feel like they're making me better, and I hope that me and the other tackles are hopefully helping them as much as they're helping us."

"[Greenard] plays angry, which every [defender] should. He wants it. He wants it really bad," O'Neill noted. "You can see it in his eyes. You can hear it in the way he talks. You can see it in the way he trained all offseason. This stuff's really important to him, and if it's as important to everyone as it is to J.G., I think we're in a good spot."

Mixing in Turner in a more profound role than his rookie season seems superfluous since last year's defense finished top five in the NFL in sacks, pressures and quarterback knockdowns and hurries. During the same press conference Tuesday, O'Connell joked about Greenard's backfield disruption in drills.

"We really feel like we've got three starters," the coach reiterated a sentiment he initially shared when camp began. "I told J.G., if he wants to take the next month off, that's OK with me. We'll be ready to go."

O'Connell said Greenard has "turned it up a notch" and "Gink's the same way." And what about Turner?

"He just looks locked in," Greenard observed. "I think that he just understands that he has a real opportunity to come in and change the game. I think obviously when you're younger you're trying to get as many opportunities as possible. But at the same time, you can't control those things. All you can control is your effort, and what you know whenever your number is called – you make those plays.

"I think he did a good job in those [situations] last year," Greenard added. "But this year he's going to have a little bit of a bigger role now and we're going to ask a lot of him. And at any point in time your number could be called at any moment, and I know he's going to go in there and just dominate."

That's Turner's focus, controlling the controllables.

Near the end of Wednesday's practice (the second one fully padded), Greenard and Turner converged on the quarterback and celebrated with a synchronized high-kick-and-clap, the kind Greenard made famous.

Perhaps the foreshadowing of a season-of-sacks.

The biggest Year 1-2 improvement for Turner, he shared, stems from his environment. He's embraced the professionalism that rubs off from teammates and coaches; he's keyed in on his health, wellness and performance (he looks more powerful) and is stoked because he has an idea of what to expect in 2025.

"I'm feeling physically faster, stronger and just got a better mentality in my head," Turner said.

Special Teams Coordinator Matt Daniels has witnessed his maturation. On Wednesday, Daniels recalled seeing Turner in the training room at 7 a.m. every day as far back as Organized Team Activities in May.

"He was building a routine," said Daniels, highlighting Turner's study habits and body care. "That's really what you like to see. And I think that's been the most I've seen out of Dallas in terms of how to be a pro."

It's certainly reassuring for Minnesota – and potentially scary for the opposition.

A three-pronged attack

How would one differentiate the three players? Turner explained the attributes.

The protégé noted "Gink has a very high IQ," and impresses him with his grasp of not only offensive and defensive concepts but of all 11 positions on their side. Turner said Van Ginkel is aware of everyone's responsibilities and reads – fits for defensive linemen and linebackers and coverages for defensive backs.

Van Ginkel's movement tracks with that.

Based on Pro Football Focus data, Van Ginkel handled 535 snaps at left outside linebacker and 266 at right in 2024, his reunion season with Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores. He played another 93 snaps stacked in the box, resembling rival Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone, squared up with his hands on his thigh pads and long blond hair spilling out of his helmet, and 42 at slot cornerback.

The results were satisfying. In addition to practically doubling his old career highs for sacks (now 11.5, previously 6.0) and tackles for loss (now 18, previously 9), Van Ginkel was dynamite in coverage, housing interceptions of Daniel Jones and Aaron Rodgers. His 81.0 PFF coverage grade was ninth among OLBs. Zero of the eight 'backers ahead of him took more than 69 coverage snaps. Gink' played 212.

Transitioning to Greenard, there was a pause and a belly laugh before Turner quipped, "J.G., he's not gonna like it, but my get-off is better than his. I'm playing! He probably has the best get-off on the team."

Matter of fact, one of the best in the league.

Several of Greenard's team-high 12 sacks last year happened in a blink – as did many of his 80 pressures, which ranked third in the league behind the 83 by Myles Garrett and Trey Hendrickson, per PFF – but none as sudden as the sack that reverberated on the video board at U.S. Bank Stadium in mid-December.

On a third-and-9 halfway through the first quarter against division foe Chicago, Greenard "got home" in 2.41 seconds. It counted as the eighth-quickest sack in the NFL last season, according to Next Gen Stats.

The Vikings leader off the ball also functions as a leader of men, if you will.

"He's definitely a leader, a very vocal leader on the defensive side of the ball," Turner added about Greenard. "He leads by example, leads by just looking out for the younger dudes. And also he just makes plays. … No matter how big his name is going around, he never gets too high (on himself). He just always works hard every day and just leads by example. He's gonna let you know what you need to be better at, too, so me and him have a real good relationship."

As for the 22-year-old, he discerned elements of both players' finest qualities in his own wheelhouse.

"Physically, a little gifted," Turner offered up unpretentiously. "And a high IQ for the game. I'm still learning going into Year 2, but I feel like being the youngest out of [the three], and including the younger guys in the (OLB) room, we could all just learn from J.G. and Gink' – from both of their strengths and both of their weaknesses as well – and just see how they do their due diligence every single day."

For someone of his age and ability, Turner is humble. Almost unbelievably so. He ran the 40 in 4.46 seconds at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, faster than 14 participating running backs, and notched a 40.5-inch vertical jump, which ranked 10th overall. He worked behind depth at the position group in 2024 and managed an interception, 3.0 sacks and five quarterback hits despite playing a fraction (fewer than one-third) of Minnesota's defensive snaps.

Greenard reinforced that Turner has the "athletic traits" and the "smarts."

"He's literally learning both of our positions. So, literally he can play at any moment and come in and there's no drop-off at all," said Greenard. "I think that his humbleness is the biggest part about him, too."

Although there was a learning curve and a depth chart top heavy with veterans roadblocking him from more opportunities early on (remember, former Viking and current Panthers edge defender Pat Jones II netted 5.0 sacks in the first four games), gradual improvement resulted in more frequent chances for Turner late in the calendar. He played at least 25 snaps in six of the final 10 games of the regular season, and delivered marvelous moments in back-to-back weeks, with a Von Miller-esque ghost-move sack on then-rookie Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and a diving pick off former Seahawks slinger Geno Smith.

Those flashes in the pan illustrated Turner's Van Ginkel-ish versatility.

In the Week 15 Monday Night Football takedown, Turner was crouched in a 2-point stance on the ball, 2 yards outside the right tackle, and switched gears to blow past 2023 No. 10 draft pick Darnell Wright to wallop Williams. It was peak rush-edge stuff. The very next week, Turner wowed out of an off-ball alignment, inserting his feet in the ground parallel to and left of Mike linebacker Blake Cashman before diagnosing a pass, dropping into the hook-curl zone and instinctively breaking on Smith's underthrow.

It was a small sample, sure, but proof Turner can be a chameleon and produce in different areas.

"He did it a little bit in college – a little bit – so it kind of translates over," Greenard noted of Turner's instincts and knowledge of various assignments. "But when you're an athlete like that, you can pretty much tell him where he needs to drop and stuff like that. He can retain the information. He makes it look easy when he drops. For him to be able to drop effortlessly and rush effortlessly, man, it's amazing."

So, is it accurate to view the Vikings outside linebackers room as featuring three starters?

"For sure," Greenard confirmed. "I definitely see that."

"Honestly, all of our guys in our room … can pretty much play at any point in time and there is no drop-off. That's the standard that we set in the room. No matter what, we're always going to make sure that we're pushing each other to our fullest potential."

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