Brendan Daly enters his 8th season in the NFL in 2013 and is coming off a 2012 campaign that saw his linemen display depth and playmaking with 7 big men racking up sacks and the unit grabbing 5 fumble recoveries and an INT for a TD. The 2012 Vikings held opponents to 64 fewer offensive points than in 2011 and jumped to the 16th-ranked total defense in the NFL, a 5-spot jump from 2011.
The 2012 Vikings defense improved over the previous season and keyed the club’s run to a 10-6 mark and playoff berth that was one of the NFL’s biggest surprises. The Vikings held opponents to 14 points or less in 6 wins and helped the club win the 4 final games of the season to earn a postseason appearance.
Brendan Daly enters his 8th season in the NFL in 2013 and is coming off a 2012 campaign that saw his linemen display depth and playmaking with 7 big men racking up sacks and the unit grabbing 5 fumble recoveries and an INT for a TD. The 2012 Vikings held opponents to 64 fewer offensive points than in 2011 and jumped to the 16th-ranked total defense in the NFL, a 5-spot jump from 2011.
The 2012 Vikings defense improved over the previous season and keyed the club’s run to a 10-6 mark and playoff berth that was one of the NFL’s biggest surprises. The Vikings held opponents to 14 points or less in 6 wins and helped the club win the 4 final games of the season to earn a postseason appearance.
Perennial Pro Bowler Jared Allen led the Vikings with 12 sacks while the LDE tandem of Brian Robison notched 8.5 and Everson Griffen had 8.0. Griffen showed his big-play ability with a 29-yard INT return TD at St. Louis (12/16) and had a career-best 3.0 sacks in the regular season finale vs. Green Bay (12/30). Robison notched his career-best 3.5 sacks vs. Arizona (10/21) and had a career-best 8 passes defensed on the season.
Daly returned to the Vikings in 2012, where he had served as an assistant along the defensive line from 2006-08, before spending 2009-11 leading the Rams defensive line.
During his tenure with St. Louis, Daly helped former 1st-round pick Chris Long fulfill his potential with a career-best 13.0-sack performance in 2011, ending the season ranked 7th in the NFL and ranked 4th among fellow DEs. Long was named a Pro Bowl alternate for 2011 and keyed a Rams defense that notched 82 sacks in 2010-11, the 6th-most in the NFL in that 2-season span. Long’s 13.0-sack season in 2011 marked the 2nd straight season a Rams DE notched double-digit sacks, joining James Hall’s 10.5 in 2010. Long’s breakout 2011 came after he had 17.5 career sacks in his opening 3 seasons with the Rams.
The 2010 Rams notched 43 sacks as a team, the 7th-most in the NFL for the season. The defensive line got production and leadership from Hall’s 10.5 sacks and added 11-year NFL vet Fred Robbins at DT where he garnered a career-best 6.0 sacks. Long’s 8.5 sacks in 2011 was his career-best at the time after notching 9.0 sacks in his opening 2 seasons in 2008-09.
Daly started his NFL career on the Vikings staff from 2006-08 where he helped the Vikings defensive line build on their reputation as a run-stuffing juggernaut. The Vikings line featured DTs Pat Williams and Kevin Williams each making Pro Bowl appearances in each of the 3 seasons and Jared Allen earned a spot in the Pro Bowl in his 1st season with the team after being acquired in a trade with Kansas City in 2008.
Daly worked in the college ranks as the defensive line coach at Villanova in 2005 and TEs coach at Illinois State in 2004. From 2001-03 Daly was on the staff at Oklahoma State when Vikings All-Pro Kevin Williams played for the Cowboys and helped the squad earn bowl berths twice. Daly got his coaching start at Ridgewood High in New Port Richey, FL in 1997 before moving on to Drake in 1998 coaching TEs, at Villanova in 1999 and as a graduate assistant at Maryland in 2000.
A TE at Drake as a player, Daly earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the Des Moines school. Daly and wife, Keely, have a son, Liam and daughters Ciara and Avelin.
