Jim Souhan: Barr becomes breakout star for Vikings

TAMPA, Fla. – When you model the footwear that Anthony Barr does, you'd better be good.

Late Sunday afternoon, Barr donned black high-tops adorned with gold spikes and circles. If Lady Gaga played basketball, these would be her game shoes.

"Yeah, I don't know if I could pull that off,'' Chad Greenway said. "South Dakota doesn't roll like that.''

The Vikings chose Greenway with the 17th pick in the 2006 draft. After an injury cost him his rookie season, he put in a year of studying and developed into a fine NFL linebacker.

The Vikings surprised much of the NFL by choosing Barr with the ninth pick in the 2014 draft. Considered raw and risky after spending only one year of his life as a full-time linebacker, Barr has become the breakout star of an otherwise muddled season.

Sunday, Barr, wearing more conventional athletic shoes, ripped the ball from Buccaneers tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins in overtime, then scooped it off the turf and scored, giving the Vikings a 19-13 victory at Raymond James Stadium.

"Right now, he's an All-Star in this league,'' Greenway said.

Barr is making a difficult transition to a difficult league look easy as finding tickets to see the 2014 Buccaneers. Sunday, he made a team-high eight tackles and had a sack and a quarterback hit before making the play of the game.

So athletically gifted he played running back in high school and early in his career at UCLA, Barr, of SoCal, impressed the guy from SoDak with his brain.

"If I knew how he did it, I'd have done it back then,'' Greenway said. "His ability to adapt mentally has been the big thing for him. The toughest thing is coming into a new scheme and knowing your role, knowing how you fit. As good as he is physically, mentally he's really more impressive. When I'm making calls we're able to talk and get people lined up. That's not something that's impressive in your ninth year, but in your rookie year, it's very impressive.''

Sunday offered a reminder that head coach Mike Zimmer is just starting his work in Minnesota, as a rookie running back again led the team in rushing, a rookie quarterback led a last-minute drive for a game-tying field goal, then a rookie linebacker made the winning play for a rookie head coach.

Zimmer and Bridgewater will always be linked, but the selection and development of Barr more clearly falls under Zimmer's jurisdiction. He's a defensive coach with a reputation for getting the most out of players. Barr is a raw natural talent who, it turns out, is a refined thinker. He is an ideal chess piece for Zimmer to wield.

"Initially on that play I was a little upset with him because he wasn't wide enough with the tight end, and he let him catch the ball,'' Zimmer said with a smile. "But now that it's over, I'm glad he did.''

Sefarian-Jenkins beat Barr for the Bucs' go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. Barr exacted revenge.

"I gave up one on the other end,'' he said. "I was happy I was able to make it up to the guys, because I felt like I let them down a little bit.''

If not for the last-minute defensive collapse in Buffalo, the Vikings would have a three-game winning streak in which they would have allowed about 13 points per game.

Erasing past mistakes is not allowed under NFL rules, though, so Barr carried disappointment into the overtime.

"I think we still want to finish the game better than what we did,'' Barr said. "Standing up and making big plays when they needed to be made, we were able to do that. That's what we preached all week.''

Zimmer rides Barr in practice.

"He demands perfection,'' Barr said.

"He's a great kid, and a good football player,'' Zimmer said.

As someone once said, in movie predating gold-adorned basketball shoes, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. @SouhanStrib • jsouhan@startribune.com