The Vikings' new-school vision of a shared ownership between players and coaches continued to unfold Thursday at TCO Performance Center as coach Kevin O'Connell introduced three coordinators he feels can develop, teach, lead, motivate and, just as importantly, collaborate with today's NFL player.
O'Connell praised each of them and then stepped aside as 65-year-old defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, 43-year-old offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and 32-year-old special teams coordinator Matt Daniels spent a lot of the next 45 minutes explaining the importance of coaches evolving to maximize player performance.
"I know that times change," said Phillips, who followed O'Connell from the Super Bowl-champion Rams staff. "There was a time when you could probably walk up and kick a player in the butt, and that was accepted. I'm glad we've changed in some of those aspects. There was coaching from fear in a lot of ways."
The most powerful words uttered in the wake of former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer's firing last month came from All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks. He asked that the new regime bring a culture of communication in which players have a voice as opposed to there being a "fear-based" organization.
Donatell is the same age as Zimmer. He's heading into his 33rd season as an NFL coach and his fourth stint as a defensive coordinator. But full-on old-school he is not.
Donatell said he connected immediately with the 36-year-old O'Connell in their interview, saying he stays young by being around "young, open, progressive, new ideas," including analytics.
"You gotta work at it, because there's more layers when you get up there in age a little bit," he said. "When you can combine staying current and using your experience, then you've got something. And that's my intention.
"So what do I do? I listen to young people. I put energy into learning from them. People say, 'These kids have changed.' People have been changing since the beginning of time. It's our job, as leaders, to work to relate to them."
Daniels, meanwhile, was a player as recently as 2015. He played for noted NFL special teams guru John Fassel with the Rams, and then worked with him as his assistant with the Rams and Cowboys the past four years.
"The biggest thing with us is we're always looking for ideas from the players," Daniels said. "They're the ones out there doing it."
Phillips, the son and grandson of former NFL head coaches Wade and Bum Phillips, passed along a piece of advice Bum gave him that was ahead of Bum's time coaching in the 1970s and '80s.
"My grandfather was like, 'I'd rather have a guy who wants to do it than a guy who was scared of me and try to make him do it,'" Phillips said. "These guys understand the 'why.' Really, all we're trying to get these guys to understand is why we want to do it, and if they understand the 'why' most of the time that means they're going to be performing better."
Donatell said a partnership with the players can create more fun, which he believes can bring more success.
"I choose to do both, to have success and have a good time," he said. "We want a cultural advantage. We want a culture where a guy puts on a Vikings uniform, he just plays better. Culture means everything. People say, 'Do your job.' It's not just that. It's the environment. It's the community."
Phillips said players "have changed, but they haven't changed," adding that all coaches should be psychology majors because the job "really is dealing with people, dealing with personalities, a lot of alpha-type personalities."
"They're still the elite athlete-type guys, but personality-wise, they've certainly changed," he said. "I think they're more empowered than they ever were. In a good way.
"They understand that this really is a players' game. It's about these guys. You don't have to be disrespectful. … Kind of the days of getting on them and try to coach from fear is not going to work anymore. These are grown men that have earned the respect, that have earned the right to be here.
"Ultimately, the more tools we can provide them to do their job, the better off we're all going to be. Our success is linked."
