Everson Griffen Named NFC Defensive Player of the Week

By Brett Anderson

Photo courtesy of Vikings.com

Minnesota Vikings DE Everson Griffen has been named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week after an impressive outing in Week 17 against the Green Bay Packers. Griffen played a critical role in the game with the NFC North Championship on the line and wreaked havoc against Packers backup left tackle Josh Sitton.

Griffen finished the day with two sacks and multiple hurries on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. One of the sacks ended with Rodgers having the ball dislodged from his grasp just as he was throwing the ball, resulting in a Captain Munnerlyn touchdown – a pivotal moment in the game.

The other sack came on a play in the fourth quarter where Griffen refused to give up and was able to bring Rodgers down to force a field goal with just 5:35 left in the game.

This is the third time this season one of Mike Zimmer’s defenders has received NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors and the first time Everson Griffen has received the award. Linval Joseph and Terrance Newman were also recipients this season.

Everson Griffen finished the season with 10.5 sacks, leading the Minnesota Vikings for the second straight year.

Brett Anderson

Brett Anderson (Founder) is a passionate Viking fan hailing from Sin City, Las Vegas. He can remember, as a child, scraping his knee on the playground and his friends being completely shocked by the purple blood trickling from the wound. When Brett isn't scouring the Internet for some semblance of Vikings news, he enjoys blindly putting money on them to beat whoever their opponent may be, and daydreams about being their next Tight End. Brett graduated from UNLV with a degree in Architecture and specializes in web/graphic design; he hopes to provide this site’s visitors with the best Vikings experience on the net.

Tags: everson griffen

View Comments

Franciscan Viking says:

Jan 6, 2016 at 11:57 am

Nice to see a few of our guys in the mix on this award. That final sack Griffen made on Rodgers with 5:35 left in the 4th quarter was one of the greatest I have ever seen, in the relentless-pursuit, second-effort, incredible-speed, shoestring-tackleness of it all, and all with the game on the line and the season in the balance (in Lambeau no less). One of the announcers--I believe it was Collinsworth--said it reminded him of Hercules, and indeed it was reminiscent of that.