Kevin O'Connell's response when asked about Ed Donatell's future
After being shredded by Daniel Jones and the New York Giants in a playoff loss Sunday in Minneapolis, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell was blitzed with numerous questions about what he can do to improve the team for 2023.
No person was under the heat lamp more than defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, whose defense surrendered five scoring drives of 75-plus yards to the Giants as the bend-don't-break approach failed on the biggest stage.
Minutes after the Vikings' season came to a crashing halt in a 31-24 loss to the Giants, O'Connell was asked if he's considering making changes at defensive coordinator.
"I think Ed [Donatell] tried to do the best he could this year across the board, installing the defense and the scheme that we manifested together and hoped that it would come to life. He worked his absolute tail off and his commitment to try and make some adjustments and improve was there each and every week all season long," O'Connell said.
"I'm going to look at every aspect, special teams, offense, defense, personnel with [General Manager Kwesi-Adofo Mensah] all across the board. How we can improve schematically? All those things are really for a different time and different conversations once we've had a chance to collect ourselves and evaluate what took place this year."
Minnesota's defense allowed 265.6 pass yards per game and 7.7 yards per completion, which ranked No. 31 and No. 30 respectively in the NFL during the regular season. It was no different against the Giants as they allowed 286 passing yards and 11.9 yards per completion.
Daniel Jones has thrown for 300-plus yards three times this season and two of them were against the Vikings.
"There was some issues with explosive, big plays again tonight," O'Connell said. "Across the board, we're going to take a look at everything. That's my job. I'm responsible."
Donatell has long been under the microscope in Minnesota and his future is certainly unknown as O'Connell and the Vikings look to make improvements during a long offseason for the 2023-24 NFL season.
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.