Albert Breer wrote this week that the Vikings’ pass rush should improve despite Jonathan Greenard’s departure. Dallas Turner’s continued ascent is the obvious reason. Andrew Van Ginkel remains one of the defense’s most valuable and versatile players.
But Breer also singled out a less expected name.
“Tyler Batty has had a nice start to camp, and he’ll help in that area,” Breer wrote.
That is a notable endorsement for a player who entered training camp as one of the quieter names in Minnesota’s edge-rusher room. Batty was an undrafted rookie a year ago, spent most of his first NFL summer dealing with a knee injury and played only 42 defensive snaps during the regular season.
Now, the opportunity is different.
The Vikings list Batty as the backup to Turner on their first unofficial depth chart. It is not a final declaration of his role, and it does not mean he has won a regular-season job. But it is an early indication that Batty has positioned himself to matter in a room that needs someone to emerge behind Turner and Van Ginkel.
He does not need to become Greenard. Minnesota is not asking one young player to replace a proven veteran’s production by himself. It does need reliable edge depth, however. Batty has a real chance to provide some.
The résumé was more substantial than the draft result
Batty went undrafted out of BYU, but he was not a typical late-spring flyer with only a year of college production.
In five seasons with the Cougars, he played 53 games, started 44 and compiled 224 tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks. He was a team captain and first-team All-Big 12 selection in 2024. There’s also a telling number from his final college season: despite recording only 1.5 sacks, Batty had a career-high 42 pressures.
That helps explain why Minnesota saw something worth developing.
Sack totals can be noisy, especially for players who are asked to set edges, squeeze run lanes and play through blocks rather than hunt quarterbacks on every snap. Batty’s 2024 production did not make him one of the draft’s premier pass rushers, but it suggested he affected the pocket more often than the final sack number indicated.
He had already shown an ability to finish in 2023, when he posted career highs with 5.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.
The problem was projection. Batty entered the league as a 25-year-old rookie without the elite burst or bend that teams covet from a pure edge rusher. The Draft Network described him as a powerful point-of-attack defender with length, an active motor and a useful power-based rush plan. The same evaluation identified concerns about his pad level, anchor and ability to turn the corner.
That profile did not make Batty a clean fit for every defense. But the Vikings opened the checkbook to lure him to the Twin Cities.
At 6-foot-6 and about 271 pounds, Batty is built to play a physical brand of edge football. He can line up as a traditional outside linebacker, play closer to the tackle and use his length to fight blocks. Minnesota’s own training-camp preview identified Batty’s size and tenacity as traits that allow Flores to deploy him in different situations.
That versatility matters more in this defense than it would in a scheme built around simply sending edge rushers upfield.
A rookie season that never gained momentum
Batty’s rookie year was interrupted before it really began.
A knee injury during the preseason landed him on injured reserve as the Vikings finalized their roster. He did not return until October, when the team activated him ahead of a Week 7 game against Philadelphia.
By then, he was trying to catch up in a veteran defense and a crowded outside-linebacker room.
Batty still appeared in 12 games and recorded 11 tackles. Pro Football Focus credited him with 42 defensive snaps, including 32 against the run and only 10 as a pass rusher.
That is not enough work to draw major conclusions about what he can become. It is enough to explain why last season should not be treated as a verdict.
The flashes were unconventional but revealing. In his NFL debut against the Eagles, the Vikings used Batty as part of a creative plan to defend Philadelphia’s tush push. Batty lined up at the bottom of the formation, an unusual role that asked him to absorb force and disrupt the quarterback sneak from underneath.
Earlier in the preseason, Batty got his fingertips on a pass against Houston, helping create an interception for Kahlef Hailassie.
Neither play turned Batty into a household name. Both showed why coaches continued to find uses for him. Before a young reserve defender earns a larger role, he has to prove he can handle limited snaps, unusual assignments and special packages without becoming a liability.
They have to do whatever crazy assignments their coaches have for them. Batty did enough to remain part of the conversation.
The Vikings need more than two edge rushers
Turner and Van Ginkel will lead the position. That much is clear.
The more difficult task is determining which players can be trusted when one of them needs a breather, when Flores wants a heavier front or when the defense needs a specific package against the run. Bo Richter, Chaz Chambliss and Batty are all competing for that kind of work, along with the special-teams responsibilities that often decide the bottom half of an NFL roster.
Batty’s case is straightforward.
He is not the most explosive player in the room. He might not develop into the kind of edge rusher who wins with speed around the corner on third-and-long. But he has the size to play through tight ends and tackles, the college production to suggest he knows how to find the ball and the effort level to make plays away from his alignment. His two competitors lack that length.
There is value in a player who can set a firm edge on first down, chase from the backside and give the defense a different body type from a lighter rush specialist.
That is especially true for a roster that no longer has Greenard’s steady presence. Minnesota does not need every replacement snap to look identical. Flores has built successful defenses by finding what each player does well and putting him in positions to use it.
Batty’s college experience gives him a chance to be one of those role players.
A path built on patience
Batty’s route to this point has not been conventional.
Before his BYU career, he spent two years on a church mission in Spain. He later helped establish Edward’s Hands, an equine-therapy nonprofit run through his family’s ranch in Utah. The Vikings note that the organization was inspired by the son of former BYU coach Ed Lamb.
That background will not secure a place in the rotation. Neither will a strong week of training camp.
But it provides useful context for why the Vikings have continued to invest in him. Batty entered the NFL older than most rookies, with five years of college experience, captaincy credentials and a reputation for effort. His first professional season was slowed by injury, not indifference or a lack of preparation.
Now he has a cleaner runway.
The preseason will help decide how much Batty can realistically contribute in September. He needs to show more than energy. He needs to set the edge, create disruption, play disciplined football and contribute on special teams.
Still, Breer’s note is worth taking seriously. It came from a national reporter surveying the entire Vikings roster, not from a camp recap searching for a new name to mention.
Tyler Batty is no longer merely an undrafted player trying to stick around.
He is an overlooked young defender with a real opening, and the Vikings may need him to take it.
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