Danielle Hunter injury odds impact: Vikings' NFC North and playoff chances slip, Week 1 spread drops

The Minnesota Vikings recently traded for Jacksonville Jaguars one-time Pro Bowl defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to give the Vikings arguably the best pair of ends in the NFL by pairing Ngakoue with two-time Pro Bowl Danielle Hunter. However, those two will not take the field together until at least Week 4 with Hunter being put on injured reserve Wednesday. Under the new IR rules, Hunter can return after three missed games. One immediate winner of this news is Green Bay, which visits Minnesota on Sunday.

Hunter hasn't practiced since Aug. 14, which was the team's first official one, with some sort of neck injury that the Vikings will only call a "tweak." He hasn't missed a game since his rookie season. It's expected that Ifeadi Odenigbo will get the start in Hunter's place.

The 25-year-old Hunter was a third-round steal in the 2015 draft out of LSU, and he made his presence known right away as a rookie with six sacks in 14 games. The next year, he really joined the league's elite with 12.5 sacks, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to lead the team in that category.

In 2018, Hunter finished tied for fourth in the NFL with 14.5 sacks and was the first player since J.J. Watt and Khalil Mack in 2015 to record at least 70 total tackles, 14.0 sacks and 20 tackles for loss in a season. That earned Hunter his first Pro Bowl nod, and he got another in 2019 with 14.5 more sacks, which also tied for fourth.

In a Dec. 8, 2019, game vs. Detroit, Hunter became the youngest player in league history to reach 50 career sacks. Hunter's 29 sacks over the past two seasons are third in the NFL and his 36 tackles for loss are second.

This is a nice break for the defending NFC North champion Packers for Sunday's huge at the Vikings, who are down to 2.5-point favorites after opening at -3.5. To win the North, the Vikes are short +160 favorites with Green Bay at +170 on the William Hill moneyline odds.

The SportsLine Projection Model (see below) downgrades the Vikings from 9.3 wins to 9.1 without Hunter for three games and from a 43.8 percent of winning the North to 45.2. Minnesota still has a 63.7 percent of returning to the playoffs, but that's down about four percent.

If Hunter misses only the three games, he would also be out Week 2 at Indianapolis and Week 3 vs. Tennessee. Two more good teams. In theory, Hunter could play Week 4 in Houston.

Who wins every NFL game this week? And which teams cover more than 50 percent of the time? Get picks here from the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times and ranked in the Top 10 on NFLPickWatch three of the past four years on straight-up NFL picks.