Dallas Turner Makes Honest Admission on Vikings Role

Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Dallas Turner is starting to get comfortable in the National Football League. Given his increasing role with the team, he will need to be comfortable for the Vikings to succeed.

This offseason, Minnesota traded away star pass rusher Jonathan Greenard for draft picks. The move said a few things, but one of them was that the team is completely confident in Turner. The Vikings are ready to move forward.

Turner's self-belief stems from experience and production. He's seen himself go and make a difference in games. Now, he wants to build on it.

Here's some of what Turner said about becoming the lead pass rusher on the team.

“I feel like if you make plays, it just builds your confidence. You start getting a mentality that you can go out there and do good things, make plays, you know, go out there and have fun and play fast.

I feel like the preparation comes first before any plays are being made, so, you know, the preparation that you have before you go out there and perform, I feel like, builds the confidence before you even go out there on the field and do what you can do.

We got kind of a younger room. I’m still young, you know, in the NFL stuff like that, but I still have some type of experience that I could be some type of beacon or outlet to some of the guys that are new on the scene to try to learn something new from or just lead by example. Just kind of be like the older outside backer in the room to just kind of just make sure that everything is being ran right by example, by voice or anything.”

With Greenard no longer occupying the other side of the field, Turner faces a couple of new challenges. One of the challenges involves being the primary edge threat that opposing teams will game plan to stop. The other is the burden of expectations now that he stands as the most productive returning pass rusher on the team.

The pressure is on Turner to deliver, but it does not appear that Turner is shying away from it. The Vikings edge rusher is owning his new role in the team's defense. He wants to be a focal point for the team.

Turner will look to keep the Vikings defense performing at a high level when they take the field in Week 1.