Tag: Ed Donatell

Commanders hire Tom Donatell as defensive backs coach

Donatell is the son of a longtime NFL assistant coach.

Dan Quinn filled another position on his defensive staff Wednesday, naming Tom Donatell as Washington’s new defensive backs coach.

Donatell, 34, played defensive back at Iowa and began his coaching career at the college level as a graduate assistant at the University of South Florida in 2013. After two seasons there, he took the position at UCLA for the next two seasons.

He came to the NFL in 2017, joining Pete Carroll’s staff with the Seattle Seahawks. Donatell was a quality control/defensive assistant in Seattle. It was there that Donatell worked with new Commanders linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. Norton was Seattle’s defensive coordinator for three of Donatell’s four seasons with the Seahawks.

He joined Brandon Staley’s staff with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2021 as the assistant defensive backs coach. He was promoted to defensive passing game coordinator/secondary coach in 2023, but Staley and his staff were fired at the conclusion of the season.

Donatell is the son of longtime NFL assistant Ed Donatell. The elder Donatell has coached the secondary for numerous NFL teams and has been the defensive coordinator for the Packers, Falcons and Vikings.

Donatell joins Jason Simmons, who was named Washington’s defensive pass game coordinator last week.

5 defensive coordinator options for new Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh

Here are a few potential candidates for the Chargers’ defensive coordinator position under Jim Harbaugh.

The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh to be the new head coach on Wednesday.

While Los Angeles still needs to find a general manager, the next thing on the to-do list is to fill out the coaching staff. Harbaugh will make the decision on who he wants on his staff in 2024.

That said, here are five options for the team’s defensive coordinator.

Vikings lose another assistant coach

The Vikings have now lost six assistants so far this year

The Minnesota Vikings had some coaches earlier this offseason requested for interviews with all of them coming on the offensive side of the football. None of them resulted in new positions for them, but they have lost multiple assistant coaches since then.

Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Cardinals took the Vikings sixth assistant coach in hiring assistant linebackers coach Sam Siefkes to be their linebackers coach.

The Vikings had already lost five coaches prior to Siefkes accepting the job with the Cardinals.

  • Assistant quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson-Houston Texans
  • Defensive coordinator Ed Donatell-Terminated
  • Inside linebackers coach Greg Manusky-Terminated
  • Defensive line assistant A’lique Terry-Oregon Ducks
  • Assistant special teams coordinator Ben Kotwica-Denver Broncos

Siefkes joined the Vikings in 2021 as a quality control coach before getting promoted to assistant linebackers coach with new head coach Kevin O’Connell.

Expect new defensive coordinator Brian Flores to continue building up his staff with his own guys.

Breaking down new Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ defense

Brian Flores has had a lot of success as a defensive play caller. @TheKevinFielder breaks down what he brings to Minnesota scheme wise

The Minnesota Vikings have a new defensive coordinator, and their schemes couldn’t be more different.

According to multiple reports, the Vikings will hire Brian Flores as their new defensive coordinator. Flores was most recently the linebackers coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Flores is more known for this time with the Miami Dolphins, though. Over three seasons, he built the Dolphins’ defense into a death star. Whether it was blitzing the life out of the Baltimore Ravens or giving Jared Goff a Sunday to forget, the Dolphins were one of football’s most discussed defenses.

How did Brian Flores do it? By building a scheme that predicates itself on being aggressive and creating havoc plays on defense.

Zulgad: Vikings turn to new coordinator Brian Flores to lead defensive makeover

From @jzulgad: The Vikings defense struggled mightily and Flores might have the remedy by playing a different style

Brian Flores’ resume is an interesting one.

Flores spent 11 years as an assistant with future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick of the Patriots, was head coach of the Miami Dolphins for three years and last season was a defensive assistant for the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin.

But his variety of titles never has included that of defensive coordinator. That changed Monday.

Twenty-four hours after the Vikings’ appeared to be in jeopardy of going 0-for-3 on their top choices to replace Ed Donatell, Flores informed the Arizona Cardinals he was going to forgo a second interview for their head coaching position and would be joining Kevin O’Connell’s staff as defensive coordinator.

Flores, who will turn 42 on Feb. 24, is betting on himself as he takes over a defense that was one of the worst in the NFL last season. Former Broncos defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and Seattle assistant Sean Desai also were candidates, but Evero decided to accept the coordinator’s job in Carolina on Sunday and Desai told the Vikings late last week that he was focused on trying to become the coordinator in Denver.

There likely were a variety of reasons for Evero and Desai’s decisions but Minnesota’s shortcomings on defense couldn’t be dismissed.

The Vikings won 13 games and the NFC North title this season, but finished second-to-last in the NFL in total defense, giving up 388.7 yards per game, and tied for 28th with 25.1 points given up per game. Donatell’s pass defense was 31st and the run defense was 20th.

Donatell was hired to run a 3-4 scheme that used the same principles that longtime coordinator and former Broncos coach Vic Fangio had made popular around the league. O’Connell hired Donatell in part because Fangio’s defense had caused him so many headaches as an offensive coordinator.

But Donatell spent the last portion of the season on a very hot seat and was fired following the Vikings’ 31-24 loss to the New York Giants in the opening round of the playoffs.

Donatell was the fall guy for the Vikings’ struggles on defense, but he wasn’t completely at fault. The Vikings’ personnel did not fit what Donatell wanted to do in part because of a lack of talent and an aging group. Linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks will be 31 next season, cornerback Patrick Peterson, who will be a free agent next month, will be 33 and safety Harrison Smith just turned 34. Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, who will turn 29 this month, also is set to become a free agent.

Danielle Hunter, who moved from defensive end to a pass-rushing linebacker in the 3-4, finished with 10.5 sacks but never appeared completely comfortable in his new role. Hunter, 28, will be entering the final season of his contract and likely will be looking for a new deal.

A decision also has to be made on outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith, who had 8.5 sacks in his first seven games as a Viking but only 1.5 in his final 10 games. Smith will turn 31 next September.

Flores likely will have a significant role in determining who returns to the Vikings’ roster.

He also runs a 3-4 base defense, so that won’t change, but his approach certainly will be different from Donatell’s. His primary concern was not getting beat deep, something that often didn’t work, and the shell coverage often led to the Vikings giving up big chunks of yards underneath. O’Connell made it clear late in the season that he was urging Donatell to be more aggressive, but that message often seemed to get lost.

That won’t be a problem with Flores, who loves to bring pressure. The Vikings had the ninth-lowest blitz rate in the NFL this past season, sending an extra rusher only 18.9 percent of the time.

How will that change under Flores? The Dolphins had a blitz rate of 31.6 percent in his first season as coach in 2019. That went to 40.8 percent and then 39.6 percent in 2020 and 2021, respectively, before Flores was fired following a 9-8 finish. The issue is that to blitz like this the Vikings’ secondary won’t have much margin for error in coverage.

In Flores’ first season in Miami, the Dolphins went 5-11 and finished last in points allowed and 30th in yards. The following season they improved to 10-6 and were sixth in points and 20th in yards before finishing 16th in points and 15th in yards in 2021.

The Vikings would be thrilled to get to the middle of the pack in points and yards surrendered next season, even if Flores has higher goals. If that happens, Flores’ first official go-around as a defensive coordinator might be brief because he will be in line for a second opportunity as a head coach.

Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com

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Zulgad: Candidates for the Vikings’ defensive coordinator job continue to take a pass

From @jzulgad: The Vikings continue to get told no for their defensive coordinator job. Where could they go from here?

The Vikings’ failure to name a defensive coordinator was a source of consternation for some last week but as the weekend arrived it appeared the pieces were falling into place.

The news on Friday that Sean Desai had pulled his name out of the running for the position so he could focus on pursuing the same job in Denver seemed to be offset by the news Saturday that Ejiro Evero had been released from his contract as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator and was free to talk to the Vikings.

In a season in which the Broncos were terrible on offense, Evero had emerged as a potential head coaching candidate and a hot name in the coordinator market because he was in charge of a successful defense in Denver.

Getting the 42-year-old Evero would have been considered a victory for general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell. Unfortunately for the Vikings, this one will end up in the loss column.

Evero reportedly agreed to become the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, joining the staff of new coach Frank Reich. He will inherit a defense that is considered the strength of the team.

Evero is believed to have gotten big bucks to take the Panthers’ job — no word on what the Vikings might have been willing to offer — but that doesn’t sound like the big issue.

That would be the fact top candidates look at what fired coordinator Ed Donatell had to work with this season and decide the Vikings personnel on defense doesn’t give them much of a chance to be successful. It’s an aging unit with a lack of talent and is badly in need of an overhaul that might take a few years. There’s a reason why the Vikings’ defense was near the bottom of the NFL this season and why so many players struggled to adjust to Donatell’s 3-4 scheme.

Evero also interviewed for the head coaching jobs in Arizona and Indianapolis and aspires to be in charge of his own team one day. His stock might drop if his next stop was with a team that couldn’t stop opponents. Desai, obviously, viewed things the same way.

The Vikings also had interest in New Orleans co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen at the start of this process but he quickly was named the Falcons’ coordinator.

Evero never had an official interview with Minnesota, so of the four people the Vikings interviewed for the job, there are two remaining. One is Pittsburgh assistant and former Miami coach Brian Flores, who remains a candidate for the head coaching position in Arizona, and the other is veteran defensive coordinator and former Browns coach Mike Pettine, who served as O’Connell’s assistant head coach with the Vikings in 2022.

Flores also is in the running to get the DC job in Denver. Does that mean Desai could re-emerge in the Vikings’ search, if he doesn’t get the Broncos job with new coach Sean Payton? Would Desai even want the position after taking his name out of the running?

The other possibility is that more candidates could emerge. Former Wisconsin Badgers DC Jim Leonhard was one name thrown around after Donatell was fired but there have been no reports linking him to the Vikings. Other names that have been floated, but not confirmed, include San Francisco secondary coach Cory Undlin and Philadelphia defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson.

Undlin, 51, who is from St. Cloud, Minn., and Wilson, 40, also hold the titles of defensive pass game specialist and defensive passing game coordinator, respectively.

Obviously, these aren’t the names that were atop the Vikings’ list when this process started, but with each day that passes, and each candidate that ends up elsewhere, it’s looking as if rebuilding the Vikings’ defense is a challenge many don’t want to undertake.

Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com

Vikings are interviewing assistant Mike Pettine for defensive coordinator

The Vikings chose to interview internally, as well as externally for the defensive coordinator position

The Minnesota Vikings are in full swing with defensive coordinator interviews and they added one to the list. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Vikings are interviewing defensive assistant Mike Pettine for their defensive coordinator position on Wednesday. They will also be interviewing Pittsburgh Steelers defensive assistant/linebackers coach Brian Flores on Thursday.

Of all the assistants that were on Ed Donatell’s staff, Pettine was the one that made sense to get promoted. He served as Rex Ryan’s defensive coordinator in New York as well as in Green Bay for three seasons. Before joining the Vikings staff in 2022, Pettine spent a season as an assistant to fellow defensive coordinator candidate Sean Desai.

Flores has been getting head coaching job interviews so it is a good sign that he will still be interviewing for the job. He was the Dolphins head coach for three seasons compiling a 24-25 record with ownership actively wanting to tank. He was also the New England Patriots’ de facto defensive coordinator without the title.

With the Vikings projected to have four interviews completed by Thursday, we should expect a decision relatively soon.

Vikings defensive coordinator search tracker

Stay caught up on all happenings with the defensive coordinator search with our continuously updated tracker

The Minnesota Vikings decided to move on from defensive coordinator Ed Donatell this past Thursday afternoon and it wasn’t much of a surprise. The Vikings’ defense was abysmal last season with the 31tst ranked overall defense and 26th in points allowed per game.

The move to let go Donatell started the coaching search. The Vikings will be interviewing many candidates and this piece will continue to be updated as we get more news.

Vikings request to interview Sean Desai for defensive coordinator

The Vikings are bringing Desai back for an interview for the second-consecutive year

After relieving Ed Donatell of his duties this past Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings have already requested to interview Brian Flores and Ryan Nielsen. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Vikings have added a third name to that list by requesting to interview Seattle Seahawks associate head coach and defensive assistant Sean Desai.

Desai interviewed for the Vikings defensive coordinator job last year before it went to Donatell. He is a protege of Vic Fangio and runs his style of defense. Desai was the defensive coordinator for the Bears in 2021 but was not retained by Matt Eberflus who changed the style of defense that the Bears ran.

Desai’s defense in Chicago was 22nd in points allowed at 23.94 point per game but ranked sixth in total defense. That is somewhat the opposite of what the scheme is designed for but it makes sense when you consider the Bears offense was 24th in the league in total offense and 27th in scoring, averaging a paltry 18.29 points per game. The defense was also put in negative situations often, as the Bears were tied for 30th with a -13 turnover differential.

This season, he spent it with the Seahawks, where head coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt have specialized in cover 3/cover-7 but wanted to incorporate elements of the Fangio scheme into their system. What Desai will run here is likely the Fangio defense, but his exposure to Carroll and Hurt could make him more variable as a play caller.

The Vikings’ defense was the third-oldest in the NFL this season

The Vikings’ defense saw their fair share of struggles this season, one of the reasons behind that was the age on defense

The Minnesota Vikings’ defense ranked 31st in the NFL this season, which ultimately led to the dismissal of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell.

Donatell wasn’t the only issue with the defense, though. The Vikings had a lot of aging veterans on the defensive side of the ball. On Thursday, Bill Barnwell tweeted out the NFL’s snap-weighted age rankings, and the Vikings ranked as the third-oldest defense in the NFL.

This statistic comes as no surprise, as the Vikings’ defense looked slower than the teams they were facing throughout the entire year. Players like Eric Kendricks, Patrick Peterson, Harrison Smith and Za’Darius Smith are all on the wrong side of 30. The NFL is such a fast-paced game, more so now than it was in the past.

When you have aging veterans on your team who are a touch slower than they have been in the past, you are much more likely to give up chunk plays. The Vikings’ defense gave up plenty of those this past season..

This offseason, General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will face a difficult task in instilling youth and speed on the defensive side of the ball. This isn’t something that can be fixed overnight or even in one offseason, but it’ll be important to prioritize younger free agents and hit on draft picks.