Kirk Cousins felt muddled by Ed Donatell’s defense last year. “It’s really muddy,” he said. “So when you drop back, you don’t quite know what you’re getting. … I think it’s a great scheme, and they do a great job. It just makes practice difficult.” Kevin O’Connell backed up his inherited quarterback, saying, “That family of defense has really caused a lot of people problems, and it’s because it puts a lot of stress on the quarterback.”
That family meaning the Vic Fangio-style defense that Donatell learned from the infamous defensive coach. The Fangio defense has spread around the league like wildfire, but the Minnesota Vikings’ opponents torched it. At the beginning of the season, Donatell’s bend-don’t-break unit did enough to allow the Vikings to sneak by in close games. But it broke against Mike White and the New York Jets in Week 13.
O’Connell tried to put a positive spin on it throughout the year. Even at the end of the season, when a reporter asked about Donatell’s job status, he emphasized how much work Donatell put in every week. But the laid-back O’Connell needed an authoritarian to complement wry offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and charismatic special teams coordinator Matt Daniels. Fortunately, his new defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, says it as it is.
“I’m concerned with everything,” Flores said before the first training camp practice on Wednesday. “There’s not a part of the defense that we’re not going to coach our butts off to make sure it’s right.”
Well, then.
But what’s he supposed to say? Any defensive coordinator was going to have trouble taking over for Mike Zimmer. His defense had fallen apart in his final two years as head coach, and the core players were aging. The Vikings held onto Eric Kendricks and Patrick Peterson and added Za’Darius Smith as a pass-rusher. But now those guys are gone.
Harrison Smith took a pay cut to stay; Danielle Hunter wants a raise before taking the field. Harrison Phillips and Jordan Hicks were reliable veterans, and Brian Asamoah, Josh Mettelus, and Akayleb Evans showed signs of promise. Still, Flores is building most of the defense from scratch.
The Vikings will need free-agent acquisitions Byron Murphy Jr., Marcus Davenport, and Dean Lowry to be effective to keep things from going haywire. Murphy, 25, needs to fill in for Peterson, a reliable veteran corner. And Davenport, 26, needs to take pressure off Hunter like Za’Darius Smith did before knee issues hobbled him halfway through the season.
If Murphy and Davenport do their jobs, Minnesota will have replaced two players on the wrong side of 30 with guys entering their primes. If they don’t, though, Flores may have some choice words for the group.
Unlike Zimmer’s teams, this year’s group will win with offense. O’Connell and Co. have to know that Cousins, Justin Jefferson, and T.J. Hockenson will have to drive winnings. Perhaps we get contract-year Kirk, and he continues to feed off his Netflix bump. But Flores can’t still be concerned with the defense when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town in Week 1. The Vikings have to win that game because the next four are:
- At the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night.
- Against Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers.
- On the road against Bryce Young, Adam Thielen, and the Carolina Panthers.
- At home against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Jalen Hurts, Herbert, and Mahomes will tear apart an unprepared defense, and the Vikings don’t want to be known as the team that Young broke out against. Minnesota’s offense has a chance to be special this year, but even the 1998 Vikings needed to get stops. Flores should be honest about the state of his unit. And most defensive players respond well to structure and intensity.
Last year, Cousins was still learning the offense. That was evident in Netflix’s Quarterback documentary and his comments throughout the year. Perhaps that’s why he was muddled. Also, Fangio’s scheme has worked elsewhere. And it was always going to be hard to go from Zimmer, a defensive genius, to whoever took over as the defensive coordinator. But it was a mess last season, and Flores will coach his butt off to fix it. That’s as reassuring as he can be this time of year.
