Vikings edge rusher Danielle Hunter could be the NFL's cleanest player despite his position

Danielle Hunter has played in 118 NFL games, including playoffs, sacked the quarterback 86½ times and has never once been penalized for roughing the passer or unnecessary roughness.

Think about that.

When that sinks in, think about a stat that's even harder to believe about a game-wrecking edge rusher who's trying to walk a fine line in a flag-happy league that makes no apologies for favoring the offensive side of the ball in general and quarterbacks in particular:

The NFL has never fined Hunter.

For anything. Ever.

"I try to play the right way," Hunter said. "I try not to cost my team anything."

Mission accomplished — and then some for the guy who's tied for the league lead in sacks with 11.

Hunter has been in the NFL since 2015. A neck injury cost him the entire 2020 season. In the eight seasons he has played, he's been penalized eight times for 52 yards.

EIGHT! For FIFTY-TWO!

Former Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes had 52 penalties for 561 yards in the five seasons he played with Hunter. Edge rusher Everson Griffen had 40 for 251 yards in the six years he played with Hunter. Guard Oli Udoh had a league-high 16 for 114 yards in 2021 alone.

Other than Hunter's rookie season, when he was penalized twice for 25 yards, he's never been penalized more than once for 5 yards in an entire season. He was penalized once for 5 yards in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022 and now 2023 after an officiating gaffe in Sunday's 27-19 win over the Saints.

Hunter was penalized once for 2 yards in 2017 and wasn't penalized at all in the seven games he played in 2021.

The Vikings are 6-1-1 in games Hunter has been penalized. And he's never been penalized in the postseason.

Hunter's only 15-yard penalty came in Week 15 of his rookie season when he grabbed Jay Cutler's face mask in a tackle for no gain in a 38-17 win over the Bears. His other penalty that year was a block above the waist while on the punt return team.

Hunter's other six career penalties: Two for being offsides, two for holding and two for illegal use of hands/hands to the face.

And, yes, if you've seen Sunday's game, you would have asked the same thing of Hunter that this observer did afterward:

"How does a guy get flagged for hands to the face while he's getting his helmet ripped off by the other guy?"

"That's crazy, man," said Hunter, shaking his head.

Indeed.

Hunter said he was, "trying to stab" left tackle Andrus Peat. His stab hand didn't rise high enough for a penalty. Meanwhile, Peat literally ripped Hunter's helmet off with no penalty assessed.

"My helmet came off and I looked back and thought, 'Oh, I got the penalty,' " Hunter said. "I was like, 'Wait. That's on me?' "

Hunter looked up at the video board inside U.S. Bank Stadium in disbelief.

"I went to the ref and I was like, 'Bro, do you not see what he's doing? He took my helmet off,' " Hunter said. "He didn't know what to say. But it is what it is."

Hunter returned to the huddle. He switched sides to left end and used his anger to execute flawlessly against right tackle Ryan Ramczyk. Hunter exploded off the line, threw his right arm underneath Ramczyk's hands, hit one of the fastest spin moves humanly possible, dropped Derek Carr and, oh yeah, collected a $1 million incentive for reaching 11 sacks.

"I just keep doing my job, man," Hunter said.

And doing it as cleanly as possible, to boot.

________________________________

Vikings edge rusher Danielle Hunter has just eight career penalties for 52 yards. Here's a look at each of them.

2023 W, 27-19 vs. Saints: Illegal use of the hands, 5 yards

2022 W, 34-26 vs. Arizona: Offsides, 5 yards

2019 W, 42-30 vs. Lions: Holding, 5 yards

2018 T, 29-29 at Packers: Holding, 5 yards

2017 W, 23-10 vs. Bears: Neutral zone infraction, 2 yards

2016 L, 34-6 vs. Colts: Illegal use of the hands, 5 yards

2015 W, 16-10 vs. Chiefs: Illegal block above the waist, 10 yards

2015 W, 38-17 vs. Bears: Facemask, 15 yards