Viking Fire Defense Coordinator Ed Donatell Star Tribune

Viking Fire Defense Coordinator Ed Donatell

The Vikings fired defensive coordinator Ed Donatell on Thursday afternoon and decided to seek a new leader for their ailing defense.

Minnesota ranked 28th in the NFL in points allowed and 31st in yards in 2022, and gave up at least 400 yards in seven of its last 10 games of the season. The Vikings conceded 431 yards in their 31-24 loss to the Giants in Sunday’s NFC wildcard playoffs, a loss that indicated Donatell’s release could be imminent.

“Today I informed Ed Donatell that we will be going in a different direction as defensive coordinator in 2023,” coach Kevin O’Connell said in a statement. “Although this was a difficult decision due to the enormous respect I have for Ed as a person and as a coach, I believe it is the right move for the future of our football team.”

The move came a day after O’Connell’s season-ending press conference, in which the manager said he was still evaluating the Vikings’ staff and had not made any decisions about potential changes.

However, Donatell’s future had seemed in doubt ever since the Vikings lost to the Lions on December 11, prompting O’Connell to call for a more aggressive defense. He said at the time he wasn’t considering switching defensive play-callers “at the moment” and that the Vikings had changed some of their coverage schemes in the final weeks of the season, playing more man coverage and moving cornerback Patrick Peterson to the short side the field to deny easy throws to opposing quarterbacks.

The Lions game was the Vikings’ fifth straight game in which they conceded at least 400 yards. They did so only once in their last four games of the regular season, but that came on Dec. 24 against the Giants when quarterback Daniel Jones had one of his best days of the season. Then, in the wildcard round, Jones became the first NFL player to throw at least 300 yards and two touchdowns while rushing at least 70 yards in a playoff game.

Donatell’s dismissal could just be the first of the big changes for the Vikings defense this offseason. Cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Chandon Sullivan and defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson are all scheduled to face free agency in March, and players like safety Harrison Smith, edge rusher Za’Darius Smith and linebacker Eric Kendricks could become salary-cap victims if the Vikings, who by will have to vacate more than $18 million for the start of the league year in March, will not work out restructured contracts with the veterans.

Donatell, 65, had been Fangio’s defensive coordinator for the past three seasons at Denver Vic, and O’Connell hired Donatell to oversee Fangio’s plan in Minnesota. The approach has become popular across the league and impressed O’Connell when he was the Rams’ offensive coordinator, coaching against Brandon Staley’s similar defense. O’Connell found the scheme, which aims to eliminate big plays with two deep safeties and prioritize misleading pass coverage over heavy running fronts, one of the most difficult to solve in the league. He brought in Donatell to oversee the defensive shift, which would mean new roles for players like Danielle Hunter and Harrison Smith after years in Mike Zimmer’s system.

Despite using two-safety coverage more than almost any other team in the NFL, the Vikings were prone to big plays throughout the season. They gave up 73 games of 20 yards or more during the regular season, the second most in the league behind only Detroit, as reporting misunderstandings caused receivers to run in open field. The Vikings also gave up a lot of space in the intermediate zones, with their cornerbacks playing off the line of scrimmage, and looked particularly vulnerable as their late-season pass rush struggled to generate consistent pressure.

“Every team in this league goes through the roster evaluation process to put players into the roles that you think will best suit them,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “I feel like some of our guys really got through that with ease. It was a work in progress for some of our guys to find their lead role and how to be successful. Ultimately it’s up to us as coaches and me as the head football coach to make sure I look at this long and hard and decide what’s best for our team from a human perspective to move forward together [General Manager] Kwesi [Adofo-Mensah] and how we deploy our staff.”

Donatell didn’t respond to a message asking for comment. His son Steve, an offensive quality control coach for the Vikings, remained on the coaching staff Thursday night.

Under NFL rules, the Vikings must interview at least one outside minority candidate for a coordinator position.

Aubrey Pleasant, former Lions defensive backs coach, Seahawks assistant head coach Sean Desai, and Ravens assistant head coach Anthony Weaver all applied for the job as Vikings defensive coordinator before Donatell was hired last year. The Rams also blocked O’Connell’s request to interview defensive back coach Jonathan Cooley about a job on the Vikings staff last year. Vikings assistant head coach Mike Pettine and outside linebackers coach Greg Manusky were NFL defensive coordinators, and Vikings defensive backs coach Daronte Jones was defensive coordinator at LSU.