Dallas Turner has a pretty good idea what the Minnesota Vikings want him to do. The Vikings selected the Alabama linebacker with the 17th choice in the NFL Draft on Thursday night.
“They said to make sure I’m ready to rush the passer as soon as I get off the plane,” Turner said, “so I guess that’s a very key way of how they’re going to use me.”
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The Vikings did not expect to have an opportunity to add Turner. Draft projections called for the 2023 consensus All-American to be chosen in the first half of the first round. But an unprecedented run on offensive players pushed the first defensive pick down to No. 15.
Turner said he had not foreseen what took place in the first round.
“I definitely was not expecting it,” Turner said. “I’m not going to lie to you.”
The run included six quarterbacks in the first 12 selections, including Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy to Minnesota at No. 10.
The Vikings flopped spots with the New York Jets to draft McCarthy. To get the 10th pick, Minnesota gave up the 11th, 129th and 157th selections and received the 203rd choice.
The Vikings also moved up to get Turner as he fell closer to them. To move up from the 23rd spot to take Turner at No. 17, Minnesota gave the Jacksonville Jaguars the 23rd and 167th picks this year and third- and fourth-round selections in next year’s draft.
“Dallas Turner, quite frankly, was a guy that we had kind of identified once we had selected a quarterback and were able to hold on to our first-round assets, not only 23 this year but into the future,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “We really identified Dallas among a very, very small group of defensive players we thought were impact players in our front. Quite honestly, in some other drafts where there’s not six quarterbacks going in the first 12 or 13 picks, whatever it was, a guy like Dallas Turner would not be around for us to possibly trade up for, so when it got to a certain point, we had identified Dallas as a guy we thought was a great fit for (defensive coordinator Brian Flore’s) defense -- incredibly versatile, huge traits and skill set to be a dominant player on the edge for us.”
O’Connell said it was relief on both ends of the phone when the Vikings called Turner to give him the news.
“We were just as excited, and really relieved as well, to be able to call Dallas and make him a Minnesota Viking,” O’Connell said.
Turner had 10 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss last season for Alabama. Minnesota was in the market for a player with those abilities after losing defensive end Danielle Hunter to the Houston Texans in free agency this offseason.
Hunter had 16.5 sacks and an NFL-best 23 tackles for loss in the 2023 season. Perhaps not coincidentally, Minnesota targeted Turner, who has used Hunter as a model for his game.
“The body type, there’s kind of a little resemblance,” Turner said. “He’s not the most fast or athletic dude, but he gets it done every time. I really see that a lot, and I really watch his film a lot. Some of the moves that he did, I kind of did, too.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.