Vikings' Danielle Hunter doesn't think there's a limit to what he's capable of doing

For as long as Danielle Hunter has been stalking fair market value for his ability to bag NFL quarterbacks, you'd think the Vikings edge rusher extraordinaire would regret Jan. 28, 2018, the day he signed a five-year, $72 million deal whose annual average of $14.4 million became outdated almost overnight.

Right, Danielle?

"No. Oh, no," Hunter told the Star Tribune in the days leading up to Sunday's season-opening loss to Tampa Bay. "I signed that deal when I was 23 years old. I mean, look at this picture: Most of the guys who come into this league are 23 when they sign their rookie deals.

"I came into this league at 20 years old, so I don't regret anything. I'm here now, Year 9, still with my team. I love everybody. I play for my teammates. And I'm still only 28 years old."

In other words, Hunter feels plenty young enough to set his dual sights on a Super Bowl win for Minnesota and a super duper payday for himself as he heads toward free agency for the first time next spring.

"There's a saying I've always believed in," Hunter said when asked to predict what 2024 will bring. "'Do what you need to do and everything else will take care of itself.'"

Hunter carries three QB pressures, one sack and the Vikings' best chance of disrupting Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts heading into Thursday's prime-time game at Philadelphia. Coming off a good start to his season, Hunter is happy with his latest contract compromise – a one-year, $17 million deal with a no-franchise-tag clause and an additional three $1 million incentives for reaching 11, 12 ½ and 14 sacks. He loves new defensive coordinator Brian Flores' storm-the-castle mentality. And he's excited about a body that's feeling pre-pandemic good and recently got him named as the NFL's "most jacked player" by a website called "The Athletic Build."

'My body has returned'

"I feel great; I feel like my body has returned," said Hunter, who missed all of 2020 after neck surgery and nine games in 2021 with a torn pectoral before posting 10 ½ sacks while starting all 18 games in a new defensive scheme last season. "And not only that, but I feel wiser than I was before. I believe I've seen a lot. I believe I'm a man who has done one kick 1,000 times."

Please explain.

"When you practice something as much as I have, it becomes like breathing," Hunter said. "I believe I've seen it all. The only thing I haven't seen is a Super Bowl."

One thing Hunter saw too much of was the passive schemes that got Ed Donatell fired after one season as Kevin O'Connell's defensive coordinator. Though Hunter will not publicly criticize Donatell for using him too frequently in uncomfortable coverage schemes, he does make it clear what he thinks his job description should be.

"I'm a defensive lineman, man," he said. "I am a pass rusher."

Still listed as an outside linebacker, Hunter essentially played defensive end in his debut in Flores' defense. He'll have to drop shallow occasionally to keep offenses guessing against overloaded pre-snap fronts — as he did on two third-and-short situations on Sunday — but it's clear through one week that Hunter doesn't have to fret about passive schemes this year.

"It's opposite of what we did last year," Hunter said. "There's more of us going forward. And we appreciate that."

Flores blitzed the Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield on 52.6% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Donatell's defense blitzed on 21.1% of its snaps a year ago. Hunter's sack Sunday, from a three-point stance at left end, came on a three-man rush out of a seven-man pre-snap front.

'Focus on what's best for you'

Three months after Hunter inked his deal in 2018, Khalil Mack signed a six-year, $141 million contract that averaged $23.5 million, more than $9 million a year more. Hunter then posted back-to-back 14 ½-sack seasons while setting records for most sacks before age 25 (48) and fastest to reach 50 sacks.

In 2020, Joey Bosa signed a five-year, $135 million deal that averaged $27 million a year. Hunter's dissatisfaction rose but wasn't addressed at the time because he missed the season.

The Vikings restructured Hunter's contract in 2021 and again in 2022, just borrowing against his future earnings to keep an important but now injury-prone star temporarily satisfied in an exploding market that saw even Bradley Chubb get $110 million over five years for an average of $22 million.

The Vikings considered trading Hunter before the 2022 season and again this summer before re-doing the contract for a third time and accepting Hunter's request not to be franchise-tagged after this season.

To reach this point rather than play for a base salary of $4.9 million, Hunter skipped the team's offseason program and its mandatory minicamp. He reported to training camp but staged a "hold-in" that lasted three days before the Vikings opted against trading arguably the most important piece of Flores' defense.

Asked if it was difficult to play hardball with the team, Hunter said, "At that point, there is a point in your career when you have to focus on what's best for you. At that time, I felt like the best thing for me was to make sure my body was at the best it could possibly be.

"I was communicating with everybody. I was talking with [General Manager] Kwesi [Adofo-Mensah] and KO and all that stuff while getting myself in peak physical condition whether I was going to play football or not."

While obviously protecting yourself financially from injury?

"Yes," Hunter said.

Hunter said he didn't ask to be traded and wasn't sure what the Vikings were going to do with him.

"This is a great organization, and they love me here," Hunter said. "If anything were to have happened, it was out of my control. I love the Vikings. This is the only thing I know."

Questionable rankings

Who knows what Hunter's worth will be when he hits the open market at 29. It could be somewhere above his current ranking of 11^th among edge rushers but still south of the non-QB-record $34 million a year average that 25-year-old reigning sack leader and defensive player of the year Nick Bosa landed with last week's five-year, $170 million extension.

Hunter wouldn't speculate on future contract terms, his 2023 statistics or where anyone cared to rank him heading into this season. For what it's worth, ESPN ranked him as the league's 81^st best player while BetMGM Sportsbook ranked him 28^th among preseason candidates to win defensive player of the year.

"Honestly, all those ratings, I don't pay attention to those anymore," he said. "Year in and year out, let's face it, I'm always ranked somewhere that's questionable. My biggest thing is just go out there and play and be me."

But can you lead the league in sacks and win defensive player of the year?

"If I'm being myself, then anything is possible," Hunter said. "I don't put numbers on myself because I'm programmed to just keep working. I just believe in work. And I'm ultimately not here for myself. I'm here for my team and my teammates.

"I believe in my ability. My teammates believe in my ability. My coaches believe in my ability. And in this new defense, I don't think there's a limit to what I'm capable of doing."