Jared Allen arrived in Minnesota via trade from the Kansas City Chiefs before the 2008 season, already an established first-team All-Pro pass rusher. The Vikings gave up a first-round pick and two third-rounders to land him, and he immediately justified the cost. In his first year, he recorded 14.5 sacks, earned another first-team All-Pro selection, and began a stretch of consistent production that would define the next six seasons.

Allen played with a relentless motor and long arms that allowed him to keep pressure on the quarterback even when the initial move was blocked. He set the edge against the run and still found ways to finish plays in the backfield. In 2009, he added another 14.5 sacks and earned first-team All-Pro honors again. His peak came in 2011, when he led the NFL with 22 sacks, won Defensive Player of the Year, and earned his fourth first-team All-Pro selection. That total remains a Vikings single-season record.

He followed with 12 sacks in 2012 and 11.5 more in 2013, remaining a double-digit sack producer in every season he spent in Minnesota. Allen never missed a game during those six years and earned four Pro Bowl selections while wearing purple. After the 2013 season, he left for the Chicago Bears, later spent time with the Carolina Panthers, and then retired. He signed a one-day contract with the Vikings so he could officially leave the league as a member of the team, and he announced the decision in a video that showed him riding a horse into the sunset.

With Minnesota, he finished with 85.5 sacks across six seasons. Those totals, paired with the All-Pro and Defensive Player of the Year recognition, placed him among the franchise’s strongest defensive ends. The Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him in 2025. Three years earlier, the Vikings placed him in their Ring of Honor.