Vikings likely to hire Chris Kuper as offensive line coach

The former UND All-American has transitioned to coaching

We’ve seen at least a couple of names floated today as coaches that will potentially be joining Kevin O’Connell’s staff when he officially becomes the Minnesota Vikings’ head coach after the Super Bowl, and one of those appears to be the man that will coach the team’s offensive linemen.

Reports have surfaced that the Vikings will be hiring Denver Broncos’ assistant offensive line coach Chris Kuper to be the offensive line coach for the purple.

After a successful college career at the University of North Dakota. . .which I guess gives him at least a little bit of “one of us” cred. . .Kuper was drafted by the Broncos in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He spent his entire eight-year NFL career with the Broncos, starting 79 out of a possible 90 career games. He retired after the 2013 season and, after taking a brief break from football, was the offensive line coach at Columbine High School in Colorado in 2015.

He then came back to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins as an offensive quality control assistant in 2016 and the assistant offensive line coach in 2017 and 2018. He then made his return to Denver, where he’s served as the assistant offensive line coach for the past three seasons. As Denver’s assistant offensive line coach, he served as the assistant to Mike Munchak, who is likely going to be let go by the Broncos according to reports.

We know what the Vikings’ offensive line has been like for most of the last decade. . .at least. . .but Kuper will get some promising young pieces to work with in Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, and Ezra Cleveland. The team might even send him on an expedition to see if he can find Wyatt Davis out there somewhere.

The coaching staff is starting to take shape, though we have to once again point out that this is speculative until Kevin O’Connell officially becomes the head coach. These are, undoubtedly, coaches that he’s interested in, but nothing is official until it’s official.