It took time for Sharrif Floyd to adapt to what Mike Zimmer and the new Vikings coaching staff were asking him to do, but the second-year defensive tackle has really come on strong recently.
Floyd was credited with eight tackles and a sack, his third of the season, in Sunday's 19-13 overtime win over the Buccaneers. That performance came a week after Floyd had five tackles and a sack against the Bills. He now has a sack in three of his past four games.
But Sunday's game was Floyd's best of the season, according to defensive end Brian Robison, and Floyd didn't argue with him when Robison's comments were relayed to him.
"Just playing ball," he said. "I felt free. I felt like nothing could stop me or nothing could stop our defense."
That is noteworthy because even as recently as a couple of weeks ago, Zimmer remarked that Floyd was still guilty of overthinking things and trying to be perfect, something Zimmer has talked about since he arrived.
Zimmer wants Floyd to trust his instincts and just let it flow. And now that Floyd is getting used to the techniques — such as using shorter, quicker steps when defending the run — that Zimmer and defensive line coach Andre Patterson have been teaching him, he is apparently doing just that.
"The technique that we've been learning his year, I'm more comfortable with it, and I just understand everything that is going on now," Floyd said.
