The Minnesota Vikings have hired Kevin O’Connell and introduced him to the Purple faithful. Next order of business? O’Connell has to round out his coaching staff. Ed Donatell has been his most controversial hire so far. Donatell, 65, coached under Vic Fangio in Denver last year.
Fangio ran one of the best defensive schemes in football, so Vikings fans should be excited about the prospect of bringing him over, right?
Well, Mike Florio let loose on Donatell in his weekly segment with Paul Allen on KFAN.
“I know you’re a team employee, and you have to say all the right things,” prompted Florio. “But…I’m gonna give it to you straight. I’m gonna give it to you honest. When I saw that Ed Donatell was the defensive coordinator of the Vikings, I think I yawned.”
Allen immediately pushed back on Florio, defending his autonomy despite being the voice of the Minnesota Vikings.
“Mike, Mike,” he bristled. “With this ‘You are a team employee. You are programmed to say certain things.’ That whole thing just needs to end. And I’m gonna tell you why.”
Allen then called for the attention of his producer, Eric Nordquist, to back him up on something he said.
“Nordo! Nordo!” he yelled. “When the steam emerged last week that Ed Donatell would be the Vikings defensive coordinator, what was my response?”
“I believe it may or may not have been crickets,” Nordo replied before hitting the “box” drop.
O’Connell’s choice to hire Donatell likely means the Vikings are moving from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4, meaning there will be three down linemen and four linebackers on the field. The Vikings would have to overhaul their personnel to play a defense that they haven’t run since the 1980s.
“Look, I’m in favor of whatever works,” Florio said. “And the problem is if you make a dramatic change to your defense, you better make sure you have the personnel that can run it.
“That’s what the Cowboys did when they went from a 4-3 to a 3-4 with Mike Nolan. And they sucked. They were abysmal. It was historic. And, look, nothing against Ed Donatell. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Anybody getting excited about Ed Donatell being the defensive coordinator? I’m not. Are you?”
O’Connell has created a stir with one of his first hires. It looks like a full-on commitment to an overhauled defense with a coach who the Green Bay Packers fired for giving up a first down on 4th and 26 in the 2004 playoffs.
He’s taking a risk. But so was PA by speaking out against the hiring. Or, well, being left speechless by it.
“Well, I hope you enjoy doing play-by-play for the Vikings from 2002 to 2021, because you’re now going to be fired,” said Florio in jest.
“First order of business for Kevin O’Connell…is fire Michael McDonald as the play-by-play guy for the home radio games.”
