Matt Daniels Reveals Unknown Job on Minnesota’s Coaching Staff
Matt Daniels, the king of nicknames, is best known as the Vikings’ special teams coordinator. What’s not as well known is that he has another very important role.
Apparently, the man is in charge of the defense’s turnover strategy.
As it stands, the Vikings have a league-leading 8 interceptions (tied with the Green Bay Packers). Go ahead and toss on a pair of fumble recoveries and Minnesota has forced 10 turnovers as a defense, second only to the Packers. Clearly, Daniels is doing something right.
Matt Daniels is the Turnovers Coach
The job began back in 2022.
At the time, Ed Donatell was coordinating Minnesota’s defense. Daniels explains that he approached the DC about taking on the job: “When Ed Donatell came in, I approached him, told him that I wanted to be the guy to present the turnovers for the opponents. Run the drills. Talk about the techniques and tactics. And he gave me the job responsibility.”
Donatell, of course, didn’t last too long. Daniels has stayed in the job, though: “Coming in with ’23 when Flo got hired, he asked who was in charge of the turnovers. He said he liked the way that it was done in ’22 and he wanted to keep things the same way. So, I got the job again.”
So far, the team has been “seeing some good results.”
Indeed, Minnesota is forcing a lot of turnovers, largely due to the pressure that’s taking place up front. Daniels gives credit to the front for creating a lot of pressure on quarterbacks, thus contributing to the ability to pluck passes out of the sky and to force some fumbles. Daniels described it as “disruption to the quarterback.”
Originally, the topic came up due to the plays from Byron Murphy. The corner was getting picked on quite a bit during the game but finished off the contest with a pair of clutch turnovers: 1 interception and 1 forced fumble.
Matt Daniels notes that he had been getting after Murphy recently, instructing the corner to have a “conscience mindset of going for the football.” Apparently, Murphy said that he thought of the special teams coordinator since Daniels had “really been on him specifically when it comes to attacking the football” with some “hard coaching” in recent days.
“It’s good to see,” Daniels concludes.
Next up for Minnesota is going to be a contest in London, England against the New York Jets. Taking down Aaron Rodgers and his 2-2 team will become a lot easier if Daniels’ coaching is able to coax some more turnovers out of that Minnesota defense.
Oh, and taking care of the football elsewhere — no more muffed punts, for instance — will be similarly vital when it comes to climbing up to 5-0 prior to the bye.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
