Vikings Finalize 2022 Coaching Staff, Which Includes a Game Management Coordinator

The Vikings' 2022 coaching staff is officially complete. The team announced the hires of six more coaches on Tuesday, as well as the retention of several pieces of Mike Zimmer's 2021 staff.

These are the new additions:

Greg Manusky – Inside Linebackers
Ryan Cordell – Pass Game Specialist/Game Management Coordinator
Steve Donatell – Quality Control - Defense
Derron Montgomery – Quality Control - Offense
Tony Sorrentino – Assistant WRs
A’Lique Terry – Assistant DL

We already knew about Manusky, a veteran coach with 12 years of experience as an NFL defensive coordinator and a former special teams ace who spent three years playing for the Vikings in the early 1990s.

The person with the title and background that stand out the most in this third wave of official hires is Cordell. He has experience working in both the front office and on the coaching side with the 49ers and Browns, and he's overlapped with Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in both places. The second part of Cordell's title — game management coordinator — is highly intriguing.

Here's what head coach Kevin O'Connell said to beat writers at the combine in Indianapolis about why that role is important:

"One of our critical football philosophy points, we really have a few, but one of them is being situational masters, and that’s a term that you throw out there, what does that mean? It’s an all-encompassing approach to how you handle the situations in games, and that’s a year-round thing. It’s in the spring. We’ll be constantly looking at what we would do in certain situations, having plans for those situations that come up and then you practice them and teach not only your offense but you teach defensively, how you’re going to defend that exact situation."

Cordell will help both in the offseason and during the week in preparing for how players and coaches will handle certain situations. Along with assistant coach Mike Pettine, he'll likely be in communication with O'Connell during games as important decisions come up — things like whether to call a timeout or challenge a play, whether to go for it on fourth down, or how to handle a late-clock situation, for example.

O'Connell also talked about the importance of being smart and effective at the end of the first half and into the start of the second, which was a big issue for the Vikings last season.

Steve Donatell is Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell's son. He played linebacker at Wake Forest and was most recently coaching at Stanford.

The Vikings also officially retained assistant defensive backs coach Roy Anderson, assistant linebackers coach Sam Siefkes, and their entire strength and conditioning staff, in addition to wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell.

Here's the fully completed coaching staff:

Head coach: Kevin O'Connell
Assistant head coach: Mike Pettine
Offensive coordinator: Wes Phillips
Quarterbacks: Chris O'Hara

Assistant quarterbacks: Jerrod Johnson

Running backs/run game coordinator: Curtis Modkins
Wide receivers: Keenan McCardell

Assistant wide receivers: Tony Sorrentino

Tight ends/passing game coordinator: Brian Angelichio
Pass game specialist/game management coordinator: Ryan Cordell
Offensive line: Chris Kuper

Assistant offensive line: Justin Rascati

Offensive quality control: Derron Montgomery
Defensive coordinator: Ed Donatell
Defensive line: Chris Rumph

Assistant defensive line: A'Lique Terry

Outside linebackers/pass rush specialist: Mike Smith
Inside linebackers: Greg Manusky

Assistant linebackers: Sam Siefkes

Defensive backs: Daronte Jones

Assistant defensive backs: Roy Anderson

Defensive quality control: Steve Donatell
Special teams coordinator: Matt Daniels

Assistant special teams: Ben Kotwica

Head strength and conditioning: Josh Hingst

Assistant strength and conditioning: Derik Keyes
Assistant strength and conditioning: Marquis Johnson

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