The Tennessee Titans have announced that it’s hiring former Vikings defensive lineman Kenechi Udeze as an assistant coach.
Udeze, who played all of his four NFL seasons with the Vikings, was hired to be the Titans’ assistant defensive line coach. He will work under current defensive line coach Terrell Williams.
A former first-round pick, Udeze had two years with Minnesota where he tallied five sacks. His career was cut short after he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia.
The former defensive end has had coaching stints with USC, Vanderbilt and LSU. He worked as an analyst on the defensive staff during LSU’s title-winning 2019 campaign.
Udeze arrives to a Titans team that is coming off a playoff berth. That said, Tennessee had some glaring weaknesses in 2020, especially on defense. On PFF’s pass-rush rankings, the only group ranked worse than the Titans was the Vikings.
“There were times that it looked like we put all three phases together, played really well, and then there were stints where we didn’t do that,” Tenneseee head coach Mike Vrabel said in a statement. “We’re going to evaluate the roster and the coaching staff, the plays that we run, and the scheme that we have and everything across the board. We ultimately didn’t win a championship.”
