Vikings announce nine assistant coaches for Kevin O'Connell's staff

Ahead of a news conference to introduce Kevin O'Connell as their next head coach on Thursday, the Vikings announced they had hired nine assistant coaches for O'Connell's staff.

The team officially named Ed Donatell its defensive coordinator, adding the former Broncos defensive coordinator to the staff and hiring Mike Pettine — the head coach in Cleveland in 2014-15, when O'Connell got his first NFL job as a quarterbacks coach, and the Packers' defensive coordinator from 2018-20 — as assistant head coach. The Vikings had been looking for an experienced assistant to serve in an advisory role on each side of the ball for the 36-year-old O'Connell, a first-time head coach; Pettine figures to fill the role on defense as he works alongside Donatell. The team also added Chris Rumph, who had worked at Clemson and Alabama before coaching with the Texans and Bears in the NFL, as its defensive line coach.

O'Connell indicated on Thursday the Vikings would operate from a 3-4 base defense, though he added they'd mix in some four-man fronts and would spend plenty of time in nickel packages that have four linemen. He sought out the 65-year-old Donatell, he said, because of his time working for Vic Fangio in a defense that's been copied around the NFL, as teams seek to limit big plays with deep safeties and force impatient quarterbacks to throw interceptions into zone coverages.

"What really drew me to Ed Donatell was his ability to teach a system that I know is very hard to play against as a quarterback and as an offensive coach," O'Connell said. "I've experienced it in Los Angeles. There's definitely different forms of it going around the league right now, but obviously Ed's experience with Vic Fangio and his connection to that system is something that really drew me to him, and then obviously the person that he is was huge for me."

On offense, two longtime NFL assistants — Brian Angelichio and Curtis Modkins — join O'Connell's staff as pass game and run game coordinators. Angelichio will also coach tight ends and Modkins will coach running backs.

O'Connell brought Chris O'Hara, who most recently had been an offensive assistant on his Rams staff, with him to Minnesota as the Vikings' new QB coach. Jerrod Johnson, who had played quarterback for a year in the NFL and had most recently worked with the Colts, joins the team as the assistant quarterbacks coach.

Former Broncos guard Chris Kuper, who coached for the past six seasons with Miami and Denver, will be the team's offensive line coach. He'll be assisted by Justin Rascati, another former college quarterback who had worked with Kuper as a Broncos offensive quality control coach.

Wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell, who has become a favorite of Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, is expected to stay in his position. The Vikings are also believed to be interested in two Rams assistants — running backs coach Thomas Brown and tight ends coach Wes Phillips — for the offensive coordinator job, and will reportedly be interviewing Brown on Friday.