While head coach Kevin O'Connell was rewarded with a contract extension from the Minnesota Vikings earlier this year, and there have been some recent rumblings about some of the team's assistant coaches potentially landing extensions this offseason, there's at least one member of the organization's coaching staff who should be worried about their future with the franchise.
Matt Daniels has been the Vikings' special teams coordinator during the entire O'Connell era, and while he's helped steer the team's kicking situation in the right direction, the overall performance of the unit has been pretty underwhelming during the last three seasons.
During a recent episode of the "Purple Daily" podcast, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad recently pointed out how Daniels is likely heading into a critical season with Minnesota, and the team could look for someone else to run its special teams next year if things don't get better in 2025.
"I think this season is incredibly important to Matt [Daniels]. In fact, [in an episode from] a couple of weeks ago, we actually did 3 key way-too-early special teams things to talk about, and one of them was I went through a litany of statistics [and] advanced metrics that showed that, no, the special teams [is not sufficient].
Like the kicking problem is, knock on wood, the kicking problem was addressed, but punting is still not sufficient. There's a lot of things that aren't.
I would say this year is critical for Matt. I think if the special teams, as a whole, does not take a major turn in the right direction, I think that you might have a change.”
In addition to punting, Matt Daniels' future with the Minnesota Vikings might depend on the team's return game
Zulgad mentioned how Minnesota's punting performance hasn't been the greatest under Daniels, and while that's true, improving the team's return game should probably be a bigger priority for the Vikings' special teams coordinator next season.
In 2024, Minnesota ranked last in the NFL in yards per punt return and 31st out of 32 teams in yards per kick return. In fact, the Vikings have never ranked higher than 27th in the league in punt return average during Daniels' three years with the team.
Minnesota did rank fourth in the NFL in 2022 and sixth in 2023 in kick return average, so much of the struggles they experienced last season could potentially be pointed to the departure of Kene Nwangwu, who parted with the Vikings before the start of the 2024 campaign after serving as the team's primary kick returner from 2021 to 2023.
This offseason, Minnesota added some new faces to its roster who could potentially help Daniels fix the team's returning issues.
Speedy veteran wide receiver Rondale Moore joined the Vikings in free agency this year, and he spent his rookie season in 2021 as both a punt and kick returner for the Arizona Cardinals.
Undrafted rookie receiver Silas Bolden, out of Texas, is also someone to keep an eye on this summer as a potential return option for Minnesota. Bolden averaged 10.5 yards per punt return at Texas last season, and at Oregon State in 2022, he led the Pac-12 conference with a 27.2 kick return average.
If one of these two, or someone else, can help the Vikings' return game become an actual factor for the team next season, then Daniels might be able to stick around past the 2025 campaign. If not, then Minnesota will likely be looking for someone new to run its special teams in 2026.
