Vikings add two more coaches to incoming staff

Kevin O’Connell’s coaching staff is continuing to take shape, as the Minnesota Vikings appear to have selected a couple more coaches to join the team next week.

One of those has been in and around the NFL for quite a while in Deshea Townsend, who will be coming in to coach the Vikings’ secondary. Townsend had a solid career as a player, spending twelve seasons as a cornerback with the Pittsburgh Steelers before finishing his career with the Indianapolis Colts in 2010. From there, he moved into the coaching ranks, coaching defensive backs with the Arizona Cardinals, Mississippi State University, the Tennessee Titans, and the New York Giants. In 2019, he joined the Chicago Bears as their secondary coach, and had been there for the past three seasons.

Townsend will take over for Karl Scott, who will not be remaining with the team and could be on his way to join the Seattle Seahawks.

The other is running backs coach Curtis Modkins, who comes to Minnesota from the Denver Broncos. After starting his coaching career at his alma mater, Texas Christian University, and making stops at New Mexico and Georgia Tech as a secondary coach, he started coaching running backs in the NFL in 2008 with the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s made a number of NFL stops over the course of his coaching career, mostly as a running backs coach, but has gotten two stints as an offensive coordinator. He was the OC for the Buffalo Bills from 2010 to 2012 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

Modkins will replace Kennedy Polamalu in a move that comes as a bit of a surprise, at least to me. I thought Polamalu might be one of the other coaches that the Vikings would try to keep in the fold, but it doesn’t appear that will be the case.

The Vikings are filling out the new coaching staff for when Kevin O’Connell takes over on Monday. As they add more coaches, we’ll tell you a little bit about them right here.