Player
Jonathan Greenard
EDGE · MIN
Jonathan Greenard: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
Career arc: a 3rd-round project who didn't break out until year 4 — then went elite.
TrendGreenard regular-season defensive line by year
| Year | Team | G | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | HOU | 7 | 1.0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 2021 | HOU | 10 | 8.0 | 12 | 9 | 2 |
| 2022 | HOU | 6 | 1.5 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| 2023 | HOU | 14 | 12.5 | 22 | 15 | 1 |
| 2024 | MIN | 17 | 12.0 | 22 | 18 | 4 |
| 2025 | MIN | 12 | 3.0 | 12 | 10 | 1 |
Sacks per season
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 8 |
| 2022 | 1.5 |
| 2023 | 12.5 |
| 2024 | 12 |
| 2025 | 3 |
Three seasons of inconsistency — 1.0, 8.0, 1.5 sacks — then a contract-year explosion: 12.5 sacks in 14 games for Houston in 2023, parlayed into a 4-year/$76M deal with Minnesota. He proved 2023 wasn't a fluke with 12 sacks and 4 forced fumbles in 2024, then stalled in 2025 with just 3 sacks through 12 games.
The 2025 drop is real and unexplained by injury alone — his QB hit rate (1.0/game) is lower than his 2024 mark (1.3/game) but not catastrophically so. He's still pressuring the QB; the finishes just haven't come.
Houston → Minnesota: he was the same player. Minnesota just paid him like a top-five edge.
SplitProduction by team (regular season)
| Team | Years | G | Sacks | Sacks/G | QB Hits | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston (HOU) | 2020-2023 | 37 | 23.0 | 0.62 | 41 | 3 |
| Minnesota (MIN) | 2024-2025 | 29 | 15.0 | 0.52 | 34 | 5 |
The headline numbers look like he regressed after signing the deal — 0.62 sacks/game in Houston, 0.52 in Minnesota — but that's almost entirely the 2025 cold spell pulling the average down.
Through 2024 alone, his MIN sacks/game rate was 0.71 — *better* than his Houston average. The contract has been bad value if you snapshot it through 2025, fair value if you snapshot it through 2024, and a steal if 2025 was just variance.
Houston traded the contract — but Greenard was 28% of their pass rush in 2023.
MilestoneGreenard's share of team sacks by year
| Year | Team | Sacks | Team total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | HOU | 8.0 | 32.0 | 25.0% |
| 2023 | HOU | 12.5 | 44.0 | 28.4% |
| 2024 | MIN | 12.0 | 48.0 | 25.0% |
| 2025 | MIN | 3.0 | 49.0 | 6.1% |
In his contract year with Houston, Greenard accounted for 28% of the team's sacks — and the Texans still let him walk. The next year Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter combined for 23.5 sacks; Houston rebuilt the rush in real time around the rookie.
In Minnesota he was 25% of the rush in 2024, the highest team-sack share for any Vikings edge since Danielle Hunter's 14.5-sack 2022 season. 2025 has been a different story — just 6% of the team's sacks, with Andrew Van Ginkel and Pat Jones II picking up the slack.
Only T.J. Watt forced more fumbles among EDGE rushers in 2024.
Rare2024 forced fumbles, EDGE/OLB leaders
| Player | Team | FF | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| T.J. Watt | PIT | 6 | 11.5 |
| Jonathan Greenard | MIN | 4 | 12.0 |
| Nick Herbig | PIT | 4 | 5.5 |
| Myles Garrett | CLE | 3 | 14.0 |
| Greg Rousseau | BUF | 3 | 8.0 |
Greenard's 4 forced fumbles in 2024 were 2nd among edge rushers — behind only T.J. Watt's 6, and ahead of Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson, and the rest of the All-Pro tier.
He wasn't this player in Houston — only 3 career FFs through four seasons in HOU. The move to Brian Flores's blitz-heavy Vikings defense unlocked a turnover dimension that the Texans never tapped. By team: HOU 3 FFs in 37 games, MIN 5 FFs in 29 games — his FF rate per game more than doubled with the change of address.
Week 3, 2024 vs his old team: 3 sacks against Houston in his Minnesota debut against them.
SplitGreenard's biggest single-game outings
| Year | Wk | Team | Opp | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3 | MIN | vs HOU | 3.0 | 3 | 3 |
| 2023 | 15 | HOU | vs TEN | 2.5 | 3 | 1 |
| 2023 | 8 | HOU | vs CAR | 2.5 | 4 | 2 |
| 2024 | 12 | MIN | vs CHI | 2.0 | 2 | 4 |
| 2023 | 4 | HOU | vs PIT | 2.0 | 3 | 3 |
Of all the games to put up his career-best, he picked the one against the team that let him walk. Week 3, 2024 vs Houston: 3 sacks, 3 QB hits, 3 TFLs — Greenard's first career 3-sack outing came against C.J. Stroud and his old offensive line.
Minnesota won that game 34-7. Houston had let him test the market in March; six months later he was knocking their franchise QB down three times in a single afternoon.
2024 NFC North edges: Greenard's 12-sack year was the conference's quietest elite season.
Comparison2024 NFC North EDGE sack leaders
| Player | Team | Sacks | FF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Greenard | MIN | 12.0 | 4 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | DET | 7.5 | 1 |
| Andrew Van Ginkel | MIN | 11.5 | 1 |
| Montez Sweat | CHI | 5.5 | 1 |
Hutchinson missed half the season with a broken leg. Sweat had a disappointing year. Greenard quietly led every healthy NFC North edge in sacks, FFs, and total pressures — and barely got national coverage for it because the Vikings' defense was nominally 'Andrew Van Ginkel's defense' after his 11.5-sack pick-6 highlight reel.
The twist: Greenard had the higher pure pass-rush production in 2024 (12 vs 11.5 sacks, 22 vs 11 QB hits) — Van Ginkel just had the better turnover plays and the louder narrative.
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