Retool or Rebuild for 2022?

The Vikings are losing over 4,000 defensive snaps from last year’s team, and unless they’re intent on retaining pieces that helped produce a defense that was 30th-ranked in yards, 28th against the pass, 26th against the run and last in two-minute situations, they’ll need to fill those holes with something. Whether that something is of great substance is another question.

If Minnesota wants to improve its defensive trajectory, it will have to be OK with being a bottom-half defense, so long as they get younger and cheaper. They’ll also have to deal with the scheme adjustments that Donatell is introducing.

The scheme is technically shifting to a 3-4 base, but both O’Connell and Donatell are hesitant to acknowledge how heavily the team will lean into it. Both have referred to using multiple fronts and falling back into a familiar nickel look, but the changing defensive system muddies the waters when evaluating the existing talent in the Vikings’ front seven. It doesn’t seem likely the Vikings would need to retain as many nose tackle types as they currently employ, and figuring out whether their defensive ends and linebackers can stand up on the edge will be another challenge in itself.

In theory, there’s a wait-and-see process to figure out who will fit in Donatell’s system, but Adofo-Mensah also voiced that good players typically translate pretty well between schemes. The question is: Do the Vikings have more than a couple of those players under contract?

“I think a lot of that scheme stuff gets overblown,” he said. “It's shades of gray. I don't think somebody would be an elite player in Ed Donatell's scheme and a bad player in somebody else's, I don't think that's how it works.”

O’Connell agreed and contradicted that notion in the same response to a question about Donatell on Tuesday, also using the word “overblown” when it came to scheme concerns but also saying Donatell was looking for good fits.

“He (Donatell) is absolutely submerged in learning our roster right now, learning what we have, how these positions fit with a slight adjustment to the scheme,” O’Connell said. “I think sometimes when you’re calling things from a standpoint of 3-4 to 4-3 that can be a little overblown with how much nickel defense you actually have to play in this league, but I know Ed is excited about a lot of our players we have here returning and the idea of adding some pieces that maybe fit exactly how we want to play.”

Donatell may have been the most honest when assessing the defense he was set to inherit. When asked last week about his plan to turn the group around, much like he did the Broncos defense from 2020 to 2021, Donatell took the long view. And that’s the view fans should be prepared for.

“We are confident that we can, but we’re just on a journey that just started,” he said, “and it’s going to be different than the last journey. But when you’ve done it a few times, I’m confident in that. There will be setbacks along the way, and we may have to tweak things, but we’re very confident, and our path shows that we’ve been able to do that.

“Now, we’ve got to prove it,” Donatell concluded, “and that’s the fun, right?”