Vikings hiring Matt Daniels as special teams coordinator

Kevin O’Connell’s first coaching staff with the Minnesota Vikings is nearly complete.

Numerous sources are reporting that the Vikings will be hiring Matt Daniels to be their new special teams coach, filling the spot vacated by Ryan Ficken when he took the same role with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Daniels had a brief career in the NFL as a player. He was an undrafted free agent out of Duke in 2012 and played in a handful of games for the St. Louis Rams and the San Diego Chargers over the course of four seasons. He got into coaching in 2018 as the assistant special teams coordinator for the Rams, holding that role for two seasons before taking the same role with the Dallas Cowboys before the 2020 season. He has been in that role for the past two seasons and will now get the chance to run the show on special teams for the Vikings.

Daniels’ time in Los Angeles did not overlap with O’Connell’s, as O’Connel was hired as the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2020, which was the year that Daniels left for Dallas.

At age 32, Daniels will (likely) be the youngest coach on the Vikings’ staff, and I’d have to believe he’s one of the youngest assistant coaches in the league at any position.

With the hiring of Daniels, the only two remaining spots on the coaching staff are both on the defensive side of the ball, as the Vikings still need a linebackers coach and a secondary coach. I would expect news on that front will be coming shortly so that the staff can be completed.