Getty Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell joins the team in their interview with Los Angeles Chargers wide receivers coach Chris Beatty on Saturday, February 19, 2022.
The Minnesota Vikings are closing in on filling the role of head coach Kevin O’Connell‘s right-hand man.
Minnesota has already interviewed Los Angeles Rams assistant head coach Thomas Brown for its offensive coordinator position, while Rams tight ends coach Wes Phillips is also a candidate, per Pro Football Talk.
However, a new candidate in Los Angeles has emerged.
“#Chargers WR coach Chris Beatty is interviewing for the #Vikings OC job today, per source,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero tweeted on Saturday, February 19.
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Background on Beatty
A former Candian Football League wide receiver with the Baltimore Stallions, Beatty started his coaching career in the high school ranks.
He won three consecutive state titles with Landstown High School in Virginia Beach, where he coached a Percy Harvin-led team to a No. 9 national ranking and a 14-0 season in 2004 and earned the Virginia High School League AAA Coach of the Year award.
Beatty moved on to his college coaching career at Hampton University. He served as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in 2006, when the Pirates posted the No. 7 scoring offense in the FCS with 34.2 points per game.
Beatty stayed just one year at Hampton University before climbing the college ranks as a coach for running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks and offensive coordinator for 15 years in the ACC, Big Ten and Southeastern Conference.
He gained recognition as a “master recruiter,” often garnering the top talent in Virginia due to his reputation in the state, per Pilot Online.
In his final two years of college coaching at Pittsburgh, Beatty helped the Panthers sign four top 20 prospects out of Virginia to its 2021 recruiting class before he departed for the wide receivers coach position with the Chargers.
“Chris did outstanding work as our receivers coach the past two seasons,” Narduzzi said in a statement on Beatty. “He was a major asset for us as a teacher as well as a recruiter. We are grateful for Chris’ efforts at Pitt and wish him and his family the very best with the Chargers. I know he’s had aspirations to coach in the NFL, and I’m confident he’ll make a great impact on Coach (Brandon) Staley’s staff.”
With Beatty’s departure, Cardiac City’s Mike Wilson projected that Pitt could lose some allure. The Panthers have lost 2021 recruits in four-star defensive end Naquan Brown and three-star running back Malik Newton since Beatty left.
“The loss of Beatty to the NFL could have a devastating effect on Pitt’s recruiting efforts in Virginia, which was the assistant coach’s territory,” Wilson wrote. “Over the last two years, Beatty developed a pipeline to Pitt in the heart of the ACC footprint, and he succeeded in attracting several elite prospects to the Steel City.”
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Beatty Shows Collaborative Qualities New Regime is Looking For
After a successful first year in the NFL, Beatty, 48, could follow a similar path to promotion he took in college.
The Chargers were one of just three teams with two 1,000 yard receivers in Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. Allen is a lock for 1,000 yards a season when healthy; however, Williams, a five-year veteran, had a breakout season in 2021.
Williams posted career highs in catches (76), receiving yards (1,146) and posted nine touchdowns in 16 games last season.
Utilized primarily as a size-speed threat on the outside throughout his career with Phillip Rivers under center, Williams took ownership of a slot role similar as Los Angeles aimed to target him more in the slot in 2021.
“I thought Mike had a lot of untapped potential as far as his route tree and expanding on some of the things he’d done in the past,” Beatty said, per Chargers.com. “I think everyone got a chance to see he’s got a lot more to his game than deep balls and posting people up on 40-yard throws down the field or fade routes in the end zone. He can make plays in that 10 to 20-yard range as well and he did a great job at that and making people miss after the catch.”
Williams relished his opportunities, posting a career-high 415 yards after the catch. He’s currently ranked the seventh most valuable free agent by Pro Football Focus this offseason after a breakout year under Beatty, who pushed early conversations and a collaborative approach to reinventing the veteran wide receiver’s game.
“It was one of those things where you’d have a conversation with him and show him the tape of the [New Orleans Saints] offense with Michael Thomas playing in that position, the routes he ran and some of the things he did that does fit Mike’s game. We had an early conversation of what our expectations were and we almost hit dead on of what those [goal] numbers were,” Beatty said. “We sat down, him and I together. You could see it really from the first scrimmage at SoFi that this guy’s got a different skillset than everybody else on our team. He’s a matchup problem. Those relationships started early. We could see it early and we knew what the system entailed for that position as a whole. None of it surprised us too much, with how well he played.”
Beatty’s ability to collaborate and background as a recruiter are qualities the Vikings are looking for as they continue to diversify the experience among their coaching staff.