Anthony Barr could record 100 tackles AND double-digit sacks for the Vikings. Really.

Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr has been injured quite a bit since coming into the league a couple of years ago. Unlike, say, Jadeveon Clowney, Barr has already made a ton of plays in his first two seasons in the league.

Barr was all over the field making plays as a rookie in 2014 until he sustained a knee injury that eventually required surgery and ended his season. Then he had another knee injury that slowed him down during the offseason last spring. Like Clowney, he wasn’t able to work on his craft all that much. He actually had a broken hand and a groin injury during the 2015 season as well that slowed him down a bit, but somehow he still managed to put together a really solid year.

It helps when you have a defensive guru like Mike Zimmer as your head coach, and Barr showed a lot of growth over the course of the season in Zim’s new scheme. Still, seeing him play as well as he did last season, I kept wondering just how much the injuries were holding him back. He certainly didn’t look to be in great shape on film at the start of the season, which makes sense in terms of how much offseason work he missed. It makes one wonder just how good this kid can be with a full offseason of work if he can finally stay healthy.

When Barr came out of college, I wasn’t sure whether he was an off-the-ball linebacker or a rush linebacker/defensive end, but it’s apparent now that he is very comfortable playing off the ball. I can’t help but think he could be a bigger, stronger, much faster version of Vontaze Burfict, whom Zimmer coached in Cincinnati.

That’s why when I look at Barr’s numbers in his first two seasons, while they were definitely respectable, I believe he can do a lot more this year. If he plays 16 games, he should have well over 100 tackles. Let me tell you something else, a healthy and in-shape Barr might get close to double digit sacks as well.

Read that last part again because I f---ing mean it!

Barr is 6’5, 255 pounds and knows how to rush the passer. I don’t care whether he is blitzing inside or from the edge. When he is healthy and in shape, he will wreak havoc in the backfield.

Oh, and Zimmer doesn’t mind sending his linebackers all game. To be honest I’m not even sure Zimmer was comfortable using Barr in all the ways he could have used him last year because he had to learn what Barr could do first and didn’t get to see much out of him during the spring and summer. With the benefit of a season’s worth of film and the all OTAs, mini-camps etc., I would expect Barr’s role to expand tremendously this season.

Might even see him with his hand in the dirt every now and then ... who knows?

What I’m trying to tell you is that while people are rightfully pumping up Khalil Mack and raising expectations for Clowney this year, myself included, just remember to keep an eye on Anthony Barr in Minnesota. By the end of the season he could easily have just as good, if not better, of a season than both of those other guys.