Vikings Defensive Assistant Lands New Job Interview

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Jan 27, 2025

Daronte Jones - Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach — Credit: Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

On Sunday, while the Minnesota Vikings watched from home, the 2024-25 Super Bowl competitors were decided. Early in the day, the Philadelphia Eagles ended the Washington Commanders’ 2024 Cinderella Story, to earn the NFC’s representation.

In the evening, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills to seal their third-straight AFC Championship, and five of the last six. That means, in two weeks, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs will play for their third-straight Super Bowl title, something that has never been done before.

But while the Eagles and Chiefs prepare for the final game of the NFL season, the rest of the league is well into offseason mode. That includes the Vikings, who have already extended head coach Kevin O’Connell. Reports say general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is next.

Minnesota Vikings defensive assistant receives 2nd interview request

Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Daronte Jones — Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

What about the rest of the coaching staff? It appears both Brian Flores and Josh McCown are sticking around for another season. The former struck out in all three of his head coaching interviews, the latter just one. Yet, there are some concerns still, over possible assistant departures.

Assistant QB Coach Grant Udinski has been a finalist for multiple OC jobs, but has yet to receive an offer. On the the other side of the football Monday morning, another Minnesota Vikings assistant received his second interview request of the offseason.

According to Tom Pelissero (NFL Network), defensive backs coach Daronte Jones — who was already interviewed for the Chicago Bears DC job — received his second interview request of the offseason, this one with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The #Jaguars are interviewing Daronte Jones for their defensive coordinator position this morning, per source. Their first interview.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 27, 2025

Daronte Jones, 46, has been working as the Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach for the past two seasons, since Brian Flores was hired. He was not on Ed Donatell’s staff, when the Vikings defense finished 31st in the league in passing yards allowed, but he did hold the same job for Mike Zimmer’s staff back in 2020.

Why are NFL teams interested in Vikings’ DB Coach Daronte Jones?

The 2024 Minnesota Vikings defense gave up a lot of yards (4,114), the fifth most league-wide, in fact. But boy, did this year’s secondary have a nose for the football, intercepting opposing quarterbacks 24 times, which pushed their turnover total up to 33, tied for most in the NFL.

Back to the passing production they allowed, because it warrants closer examination. Yes, the Vikings defense surrendered over 4,100 yards of passing offense in 2024. Much of that, however, had more to do with how good the Vikings were against the run (1,588 yds allowed – 2nd least in NFL) and how often the 14-3 NFC North runner-ups held leads (a lot).

Those two things combined for a deadly combination that forced opposing offenses into throwing the ball a total of 637 times vs the Vikings. That’s the most pass attempts faced by any defense all season.

And while Daronte Jones’ secondary may have allowed a lot of yards last season, it’s worth noting that big plays were not easy to come by. According to Pro Football Reference, opposing QBs averaged just 6.0 NET yards per pass attempt vs the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, among the best 10 defenses in the league.

’24 Def (NY/A)	Team	TO	FL	Pass Att	Pass Yds	Pass TD	Int	NY/A ▲	TO%
1	Eagles	26	13	542	2961	22	13	5.1	14.1
2	Broncos	25	10	606	3752	22	15	5.6	12.4

7	49ers	17	6	516	3278	25	11	5.9	9.0
8	Seahawks	18	5	569	3603	26	13	5.9	9.3
9	Packers	31	14	565	3658	23	17	6.0	16.2
10	Vikings	33	9	637	4114	24	24	6.0	16.6
11	Titans	18	7	473	3014	27	11	6.0	8.7
12	Commanders	17	10	496	3221	25	7	6.0	8.8
13	Ravens	17	5	625	4150	27	12	6.1	9.1
14	Chiefs	20	7	569	3720	24	13	6.1	11.4

23	Lions	24	8	610	4148	18	16	6.4	13.3

30	Bears	24	13	503	3705	17	11	6.8	13.0
31	Panthers	17	8	530	3820	35	9	6.8	8.6
32	Jaguars	9	3	580	4375	29	6	7.1	4.4
	Avg Team	20.6	8.5	556.6	3699.5	25.3	12.1	6.2	10

Pro-Football-Reference.com

Outside of his time in Minnesota, Daronte Jones has been crisscrossing North America since 2010. After injuries and nerve damage ended his collegiate playing career in the late 90’s, the former Temple and Morgan State cornerback turned to coaching.

Daronte Jones coaching history

Per Wikipedia, Jones started out coaching at the high school level (Louisiana 2003-2004) before he got his first collegiate opportunity (2005) at Bowie State University, in his home state of Maryland. He then bounced from UCLA to Hawaii, to Wisconsin, with a CFL stop in between.

Then, in 2016, Daronte Jones took his first job in the NFL as Miami Dolphins assistant defensive backs coach. He also spent two seasons as the Cincinnati Bengals cornerbacks coach, before his time in Minnesota.

Jones has held one defensive coordinator position during his coaching career. He was hired by LSU to be their DC in 2021. It lasted one year. He rejoined the Vikings in 2022, and now here we are.