Vikings ST coach Matt Daniels is behind defense's takeaway mindset
Daniels works with the defense on forcing turnovers
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — When Minnesota Vikings special teams coach Matt Daniels was an assistant in Dallas, he worked underneath one of the most respected ‘teams coaches in the league, John Fassel. Together they “banged the table” to take over control of coaching players on how to force turnovers, running the drills and talking to them in meetings about the best ways to steal the football away from the opposing offense.
So when Daniels arrived in Minnesota alongside defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, he asked if he could teach the “techniques and tactics” of the turnover game. Donatell agreed and the Vikings’ defense finished eighth in takeaways in 2022. Brian Flores was hired the following year as DC, he liked Daniels’s approach from ‘22 when it came to turnovers and wanted him to continue to run that element of the defense.
Fast forward to Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers. When cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. punched the ball away from tight end Tucker Kraft, Daniels was the first guy Murphy Jr. was looking for and nobody jumped higher in the air than Daniels.
The former defensive back turned coach had been preaching to Murphy Jr. that he needed to play the football when he was tackling.
“Coach [Daniels] is always on me during practice to try to get the ball out so that was on my mind as soon as he cut back to throw a punch at the ball to try to get it out and obviously the ball came out,” Murphy Jr. said.
That was the 10th turnover the Vikings have caused this year, which ranks No. 2 in the NFL. Since Daniels took over as “turnover guy,” only five teams have taken the football away from their opponents more than the Vikings.
Certainly there is a case to be made that turnovers can fluctuate from week to week or season to season but Daniels believes than instilling the right type of mentality about getting the ball away from the offense can have an impact.
“We always talk about kinda building this subconscious mindset when it comes to being able to punch the football out or attack the football,” Daniels said. “And that's really what we've been [doing]. You have to be intentional about it and obviously create this conscious mindset of going for the football but eventually you wanted to become subconscious.”
Daniels cited author Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” as being influential in the way he’s trying to teach the players.
“We don't realize the power of our subconscious,” Daniels said. “So that's kind of where that came from. So it's cool to see the results kind of come from the process of it all and to see the results come to action on the field.”
Of course, believing in creating turnovers wouldn’t mean much if the Vikings didn’t have the players or scheme capable of making plays. Daniels explained that creating interceptions and fumbles all begins with the Vikings’ ability to pressure opposing QBs. Pro-Football Reference lists the Vikings as having the second best pressure rate so far in the NFL.
“I think the biggest thing is is we always talk about disruption,” Daniels said. “It's a quarterback driven league so we always talk about how can we create disruption to the quarterback pressures, hits, hurries, sacks, it's kind of how we categorize that…. so we're just trying to figure out how can we find a way to continue to find pressure on a quarterback disrupt him in the backfield get him off the spot throughout the time and the rhythm of the offense And that's been huge for us.”
According to Sportsline.com, the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game 78.6% of the time over the last five years.
Daniels is having a ball watching his team be on the right side of that margin so far this season.
“It's great, man, I enjoy doing it,” Daniels said. “I'm grateful for Flo to give me the opportunity to do it. We all know that turnovers and takeaways is the biggest statistic in our game. So we just continue to try to find a way to stay on the positive side of it.”
That was a beautiful peanut punch by Murphy.
Hi Matthew... Quick question... In the case that Flores gets an HC job somewhere next year, do you think Daniels would have a good shot at being his replacement?