>>>ALL THINGS VIKINGS<<<

Justin Jefferson is happy to have an offensive head coach in Kevin O’Connell

Late in the 2021 season, there were subtle signs that Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson wasn’t entirely thrilled with the situation in Minnesota, prompting concerns that perhaps he’d eventually want out.

With the news that the Vikings plan to hire Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell to be the team’s next head coach, Jefferson is all in.


“I’ve been watching the Rams offense for a minute now,” Jefferson told NFL Network from the Pro Bowl, via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “They get their playmakers the ball. They have some tremendous plays, Cooper Kupp wide open all the time. So I’m excited for it. This is my first head coach that’s going to be on the offensive side instead of the defensive side, so I’m happy.”

Running back Dalvin Cook, who had a significant degree of loyalty to former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, also sounds excited about O’Connell.

“[O’Connell] was with Kirk [Cousins] in Washington so Kirk has been kind of telling me, ‘Great guy to be around. Full of energy. Going to bring the energy,'” Cook told NFL Network, via Tomasson. “So I’m just looking forward to it. It’s a new opportunity, new era, new energy, so we got to take advantage of it. . . . We got a new head man, we got a new G.M., so we just got to put the right people around us and we just got to go get it.”

O’Connell won’t officially be hired until after the Super Bowl. And as we learned a couple of days after the Super Bowl played four years ago in Minneapolis, no head-coaching hire is done until it’s done.

PFT

 

Yeah tell me about it no deal is done until his signature and ink is drying on the dotted line then the deal is done

 

Wow just wow Capt Checkdown showed up at the Pro Bowl.. everybody saw what he's all about

 

Reports: Curtis Modkins expected to join Vikings as run game coordinator



The Minnesota Vikings are expected to add Denver Broncos running backs coach Curtis Modkins as their run game coordinator and running backs coach, according to multiple reports.

Modkins joined the Broncos coaching in 2018 under head coach Vance Joseph and remained with the team through the tenure of Vic Fangio as head coach.


Modkins has experience working alongside new Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. Both Modkins and O’Connell worked together on Chip Kelly’s staff with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. Modkins was the team’s offensive coordinator while O’Connell was in charge of special projects. New Vikings G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was also with the 49ers as manager of football research and development in the front office.

Modkins has served as an assistant in the NFL since 2008 when he joined the Kansas City Chiefs as a running backs coach after five years coaching running backs at Georgia Tech. He served in the same role for the Arizona Cardinals in 2009 and then spent three seasons as offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills. A three-year stint as running backs coach of the Detroit Lions preceded the one-year coordinator tenure with the 49ers. He spent one year coaching running backs with the Chicago Bears in 2017 before joining the Broncos in 2018.

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Report: Vikings interviewed Anthony Weaver for defensive coordinator



The Vikings’ list of defensive coordinator candidates reportedly includes Ravens defensive line coach/run game coordinator Anthony Weaver.

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reports that the team has interviewed Weaver. They have also requested an interview with Lions defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant as they wait to officially name Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell as their next head coach.


Weaver interviewed for the defensive coordinator position in Baltimore before they hired Mike Macdonald to fill the opening on John Harbaugh’s staff. Weaver was also a candidate for the Broncos, but they are set to hire Rams secondary coach Ejiro Evero for that opening.

Weaver joined the Ravens in 2021 and he previously worked for the Texans, Browns, Bills, and Jets. O’Connell was Cleveland’s quarterbacks coach in 2015 and Weaver was the defensive line coach that year.

 

Report: Vikings working to hire Ed Donatell as defensive coordinator



There was a report last week that the Seahawks were expected to hire Ed Donatell for a role on their defensive coaching staff other than defensive coordinator, but it looks like he’s headed for a different team.

ESPN reports that Donatell and the Vikings are working on a deal that would make him the defensive coordinator in Minnesota. Donatell spent the last three years in the same role on Vic Fangio’s staff with the Broncos.


Donatell ould be working for Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota, although he can’t officially be named the Vikings’ head coach until after he wraps up his duties as the Rams offensive coordinator in the Super Bowl.

Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai, Ravens defensive line coach/run game coordinator Anthony Weaver, and Lions defensive backs coach/pass game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant have interviewed with the Vikings. Desai has also been mentioned as a possible Seahawks addition.

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• The Minnesota Vikings hired former Browns executive Ryan Grigson in a senior personnel position. Grigson spent the past two seasons with Cleveland as the team's senior football advisor, where he worked with new Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Longtime NFL assistant Ed Donatell has emerged as a strong candidate for the team's vacant defensive coordinator job, per Pelissero. Donatell was most recently the Broncos' DC for three seasons.

NFL.com

 

If Ed Donatell can help especially the defensive backfield,well at least there turning the page no more of the same old same old

 

If they improve at the backend and improve the run-stop... Im happy.

 

Right I forgot about that the run stop game that has to be improved Michael Pierce was a bust and he was a very big guy

 

The Minnesota Vikings are hiring former Chicago Bears assistant Chris Rumph as their new defensive line, according to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network.

Rumph served in the same role for the Bears last season under head coach Matt Nagy. He previously served as an outside linebackers coach for the Houston Texans in 2020.


Rumph had spent many years as a top assistant in the college ranks, including stints at Clemson (defensive ends coach, 2006-2010), Alabama (defensive line coach, 2011-2013), Texas (assistant head coach/defensive line coach, 2014), Florida (defensive line coach/co-defensive coordinator 2015-2017) and Tennessee (co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach, 2018-2019).

Additionally, the Vikings are set to retain wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com.

McCardell joined the Vikings last year after four years working as a receivers coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Justin Jefferson had a monster year under McCardell and it would make sense why the Vikings would want that relationship to continue into the future. Jefferson had 108 catches for 1,616 yards and 10 touchdowns this year in Minnesota.

 

Kirk Cousins calls Kevin O’Connell “a great football mind”



Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell is expected to become the Vikings’ head coach after the Super Bowl, and Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is thrilled.

Cousins said this morning on NFL Network that he knows O’Connell well from the season they spent together in 2017, when Cousins was Washington’s quarterback and O’Connell was the quarterbacks coach. And Cousins thinks he benefited from that experience.


“With Kevin I see a lot of the similarities that I saw with Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Sean McVay,” Cousins said. “When they were hired as head coaches you knew they had great football minds, they were innovative, hard workers, good with people. The only real question was, they’re young. Do they have the experience? I think time has proven with Kyle, Matt and Sean that they knew what they were doing and they were able to learn quickly and being a head coach wasn’t too big for them. So I feel a similar sense with Kevin. He is a great football mind. He’s been around a lot of a great football minds. He’s a hard worker. He was big in my development. The fact that he’s never been a head coach before, that he’s a little younger than a lot of head coaches, I think the track record with the other guys would suggest that he’ll be just fine.”

With Cousins set to cost $45 million against the Vikings’ salary cap in 2022, Minnesota badly needs him to play like a franchise quarterback. If O’Connell can make that happen, the Vikings will be in good shape. If not, they’re likely looking for a new quarterback in 2023.

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The one hundred million dollar question can the Vikings win a SB with Capt Kirk and Kevin O'Connell?

 

Yes... I think so. Stop and think about Justin Jefferson being even better at WR, solid run game and improved (hopefully) defensive play... why not?

I like Kirk, not the contract, but i do believe he can take this team deep if given a real shot. I think the whole thing will be better with the right coaching and play-calling.

 

It appears that offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell won’t be the only member of the Rams’ offensive coaching staff who will be heading to Minnesota once Super Bowl LVI is in the books.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that tight ends coach/passing game coordinator Wes Phillips is expected to join O’Connell with the Vikings. Phillips is expected to be the offensive coordinator or passing game coordinator on O’Connell’s first staff with the NFC North team.


Phillips joined the Rams as their tight ends coach in 2019 and added the passing game coordinator title in 2021. He spent the previous five seasons coaching tight ends with Washington and worked for the Cowboys from 2007-2013. His father Wade Phillips was the head coach in Dallas from 2007 until he was fired eight games into the 2010 season.

With O’Connell and Phillips moving on, the Rams will have some spots to fill on their offensive staff. Schefter reports that Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who was a Rams assistant for three seasons, is a candidate to return to the team along with former Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olsen. Running backs coach/assistant head coach Thomas Brown could also be in the offensive coordinator mix.

PFT

 

Now Capt Kirk it's time big boy pants no more of this check down stuff,time to take command and be the leader of the Vikings you do have it in you don't you? NO MORE OF THE MILK TOAST STUFF

 

A former NFL head coach is expected to be on Kevin O’Connell’s first Vikings coaching staff.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the Vikings plan to hire former Browns head coach Mike Pettine. Pettine has been a defensive coordinator for several teams, but would have a different role with the Vikings because Ed Donatell is set to run their defense.


Pettine was a senior defensive assistant for the Bears in 2021 and he ran the Packers defense for the previous three seasons. He was 10-22 over two seasons as the Browns’ head coach and has also been a coordinator with the Bills and Jets.

O’Connell, who is currently the Rams offensive coordinator and can be hired once the Super Bowl is over, was on the Jets for parts of three seasons when Pettine was with the team and he served as the Browns’ quarterbacks coach in Pettine’s final season in Cleveland.

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Is this true I just saw this AD got arrested in LA for domestic violence WTF is this guy's problem it always something with him

 

As far as I know... its true. Read the same thing yesterday.

 

Peterson, who had been in Los Angeles for pre-Super Bowl festivities, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after an incident with his wife on a plane that was about to take off, according to TMZ.com.

The report says the plane had already pulled out of the gate and then had to turn around and return to the gate so Peterson could be removed from the plane.