Vikings pass rusher Jonathan Greenard named NFC Defensive Player of the Month

For the third straight year, a Vikings edge rusher has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Month at least once.

Jonathan Greenard has been given that honor for the first time in his career after tallying eight tackles for losses, four sacks, a forced fumble, and a pass deflection during the Vikings’ 4-0 stretch in November. That’s not even counting the Dec. 1 win over Arizona when he had four tackles and a fourth-quarter strip sack to help seal the victory.

Greenard, the Vikings’ highest-paid defender after signing a four-year, $76 million deal in March, was also playing through an illness that left him gassed before a final fourth down, leading to coach Kevin O’Connell’s timeout to get him back into the game. Greenard’s 649 defensive snaps — or about 81% of the Vikings’ defensive playing time — are already a career high with five games left in the regular season.

Greenard leads the Vikings with 10 sacks, and Pro Football Focus tabs him as the NFL’s most productive pass rusher with a league-leading 60 pressures this season.

“This guy plays hard every single snap where sometimes he plays himself to a point of exhaustion,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “It’s why we used the timeout late in the game to try to get him back in there. It’s very rare for me to call a timeout and then go stand by somebody when they’re getting water and trying to catch their breath asking, ‘You ready to go? You ready to go? You ready to go?’ type thing.”

Greenard is the Vikings’ third edge rusher to win NFC Defensive Player of the Month in the last three years, joining Danielle Hunter (October 2023) and Za’Darius Smith (October 2022).

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