5 Ed Donatell replacements Vikings need to reach their ceiling

Aubrey Pleasant is an outside-the-box candidate the Vikings need on staff

Of all of the potential Vikings defensive coordinator candidates, Aubrey Pleasant is perhaps the most interesting. He was another man considered a rising star in the coaching community coming into last season as the Lions defensive backs coach. However, after the team’s poor start to the 2022 campaign, he was fired.

But it speaks to what people around the NFL think of Pleasant that he was hired not long after as an offensive consultant for the Packers, a role that he helped finish the season in.

Pleasant has a relationship with Kevin O’Connell from their time together on the Rams coaching staff. On top of that, he is also already somewhat familiar with Minnesota given that he was a candidate for the defensive coordinator job when the team opted to hire Donatell instead. Now they could get a second crack at hiring him.

Perhaps hiring a former defensive backs coach who was just fired might be rich for the new Vikings defensive coordinator. There might be some push-back there. With that being said, trying to hire Pleasant as an assistant on the new defensive staff if that is the case would make a lot of sense. He’s someone whose future is bright and that the team would benefit from having in the building.

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