Vikings hiring Mike Pettine for unknown role

One of the coaches that had been rumored to be a candidate for the defensive coordinator position with the Minnesota Vikings will now, reportedly, be joining the team in a different capacity.

According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the Vikings will be bringing in Mike Pettine to be a part of Kevin O’Connell’s new coaching staff. The role that Pettine will hold with the Vikings is not known at the present time. . .it won’t be as the defensive coordinator, as Ed Donatell will be filling that role. . .but he does bring plenty of experience.

This will be the third different NFC North team that Pettine has been a part of in the past five seasons. He spent this past season with the Chicago Bears as a senior defensive consultant, and prior to that was the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers for three seasons. He’s also been a defensive coordinator with the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills, and also served as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and 2015.

It seems likely that Pettine will serve in the same sort of role with the Vikings that he had with Chicago. Minnesota had Paul Guenther on staff as a senior consultant last season, so Pettine could slide into that same role without too much difficulty.