Is Josh Metellus’ Increased Role an Indictment of Minnesota’s Linebacker Depth?
Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Vikings are three weeks removed from Ivan Pace suffering a hamstring injury that would land him on injured reserve for a minimum of four games. When Kevin O’Connell was asked about Ivan Pace’s status O’Connell said: “[Pace] is doing really well. He’ll be ready to roll when he’s available to come off, I believe.” While O’Connell is one to keep injury timelines closely guarded, Skor North’s Darren Wolfson echoed that things are trending in the right direction for Pace to make his return to the field in Week 17 against the Green Bay Packers.
Things are trending up for #Vikings LB Ivan Pace Jr to return in week 17 against #Packers, @DWolfsonKSTP mentioned on @SKORNorth.
Pace was placed on IR in Week 12 and will be unavailable this Sunday. However, he could make his return as early as the matchup against Green Bay. pic.twitter.com/Q8NcrUPv8a
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) December 18, 2024
After Pace’s injury, it was fair to assume that Brian Flores would give Kamu Grugier-Hill, Brian Asamoah, or perhaps the recently-signed Jamin Davis an increased workload alongside the starters to help fill the void left by Pace. But outside of the Week 12 game when Pace got hurt, Flores hasn’t been giving any of his backup inside linebackers a significant amount of snaps.
Instead, Flores has been even more reliant on his three-safety packages than he was before Pace’s injury. The Vikings used to play a lot more 3-4 base defense, and Flores had the flexibility to be more diverse with his personnel groupings. Over the past couple of weeks, B-Flo has been playing more 3-3-5 defenses with Blake Cashman as the lone inside linebacker. Rather than elevating Grugier-Hill, Asamoah, or Davis, Josh Metellus is serving as a quasi-linebacker. Is that an indictment of Minnesota’s linebacker depth?
Vikings fans are all well aware that Flores has always favored playing three-safety sub-packages. Back in 2021, when Flores was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he had safeties Eric Rowe, Brandon Jones, and rookie first-rounder Jevon Holland play at least 600 snaps on the season. Josh Metellus has established himself as a Swiss Army Knife who fits perfectly in Brian Flores’ scheme. So regardless of whether the defense is dealing with injuries or not, he’s gonna get a lot of playing time.
brandon jones pressure = jevon holland interception pic.twitter.com/iMaISK0xqy
— josh houtz (@houtz) November 7, 2021
The reasoning behind Minnesota’s borderline over-reliance on Metellus could very well be as simple as Flores wanting to get his most talented players on the field at the same time. The combination that puts the most talent on the field just so happens to include Cam Bynum, Metellus, and Harrison Smith. That is a very legitimate argument. Good coaches find ways to get their best players on the field, after all.
On the other hand, you’d think that at least one of Minnesota’s backup linebackers should be able to get more than 20 snaps a game with Pace on injured reserve. What was the point of signing a veteran in Grugier-Hill this offseason if they’re hardly gonna play him when a starter gets hurt? From Weeks 13-15, Grugier-Hill played between 15-23% of Minnesota’s defensive snaps. The vast majority of his snaps have come on special teams.
Meanwhile, Asamoah’s and Davis’ snap percentages over the last three games have been even lower. Since Pace’s injury, neither backup has had a game where they’ve played in 15% or more of the defensive snaps. I have nothing against Metellus, but I don’t think it’s wise long-term to constantly be playing three-safety sub-packages this late into the season to compensate for injuries at a different position. If Flores doesn’t trust his backup inside linebackers, then all it would take is an ill-timed Cashman injury to screw everything up defensively.
Alas, we’ll never know how much faith the Vikings have in Grugier-Hill, Asamoah, or Davis to be anything more than backups. Perhaps Brian Flores is just addicted to playing three safeties as much as humanly possible. The defense has been playing extremely well as of late, so this isn’t a big deal at the moment. That being said, the whole situation feels a bit odd, and it’s certainly something worth monitoring late in the season as fatigue and injuries can really start to take their toll.
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