Ellefson achieved his dream by reaching the NFL but had to walk away from the game. Kevin O’Connell gave him a chance to explore coaching and he’s loving it.
After a minicamp practice in late May 2023, Minnesota Vikings tight end Ben Ellefson went to Kevin O’Connell’s office to talk with the head coach about his future.
He told O’Connell that he couldn’t play anymore. There was nothing Ellefson would have rather done than continue to battle with his teammates but his body just wouldn’t allow it anymore. Multiple surgeries made playing too painful to continue being the player that once fought his way from North Dakota State to the NFL.
When Ellefson, who hadn’t turned 27 yet at the time of his retirement, laid it out for his head coach, O’Connell got up from his desk and sat down next to him. That made it personal. O’Connell told him that that he felt for him and asked him about his plan after football.
“I told him that I want to be around here,” Ellefson said in a sit-down interview with Purple Insider this week. “I told him that I’ve always wanted to get into coaching. If there’s anything I can do — if I can go pick up coffees for coaches, whatever it is.”
When O’Connell announced to the media a few days later that Ellefson would be retiring and joining the organization, he had no idea what the ex-tight end’s job was going to be. He just knew that he wanted him in the building.
One year later, Ellefson has found his spot as an offensive assistant. He works with the tight ends, helps with the gameplan and does charting from upstairs on gamedays. He couldn’t be happier.
NDSU to the NFL
The fact that Ellefson made the NFL makes him an extreme outlier. He grew up in Hawley, Minnesota, population around 2,200. The small town near the North Dakota border will probably never have another athlete as dominant as him.
Ellefson led the Hawley Nuggets football team to a 41-6 record over his four seasons and the team made the state tournament three times. He was named the conference’s Most Valuable Receiver in each of his final three seasons and posted preposterous numbers in the process. Ellefson made 100 catches for 1,872 yards and 28 touchdowns in his prep career, rushed 107 times for 884 yards and 17 TDs and was named Hawley’s defensive MVP with 128 tackles his senior year including 13 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Oh, and he was a four-year starter on the basketball team, becoming Hawley’s all-time scoring leader and three-time conference leader in rebounding. He was also Academic All-State.
Growing up, Ellefson wanted to play in the NFL in the same way every other kid wants to play in the NFL. Every Sunday he sat in front of the TV with his family and watched Pro Bowl tight end Kyle Rudolph, figuring maybe that could someday be him. But it didn’t become real until he stepped on campus at North Dakota State University and had a conversation with his position coach Tyler Roehl.
Roehl asked him: What are your goals? Ellefson said his goal was to play in the NFL. So Roehl coached him that way, making it clear that his ticket to the league was going to be physicality and technique, especially as a blocker. He may have been the biggest and fastest guy to ever grace the fields of Hawley, Minnesota, but that wasn’t likely to be the case at the highest level.
“Getting to NDSU you get humbled a little bit when you play against better competition,” Ellefson said. “My way to get on the field was to be a dominant run blocker and do what I can in the pass game and contribute that way. With the coaching that I had and techniques and fundamentals that [coach Roehl] instilled in me, the little details of everything, that really helped me get an edge when I might not be the biggest guy or fastest guy but I have better technique and I can get to my leverage and get to where I need to in order to block a guy. That helped quite a bit elevating to the next level.”
When the dust settled on Ellefson’s career at NDSU, he was a key blocker in an offense that averaged nearly 300 yards per game rushing during his senior season and he became the all-time university leader in touchdowns by a tight end (16). He was also a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell, which is given to the college football player with the best combination of academics, community service and on-field performance.
Ellefson went to the East-West Shrine game with hopes of putting his name on the map. He knew that he wasn’t going to get drafted but figured a good performance there could result in some interest as an undrafted free agent.
Indeed he impressed at the Shrine Bowl and the 6-foot-3, 250-pound tight end was picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars after the draft as a UDFA. He ended up on the practice squad after being waived during final cuts out of camp but was elevated to the active roster several times during his first season and played a total of 133 offensive plays and 63 special teams snaps. Ellefson was largely used as a run blocker, leaning on the physicality he was taught by coach Roehl.
The following year, he was waived again out of camp. It so happened that one day after the Jags cut him, Vikings tight end Irv Smith Jr. was declared out for the season after getting injured in the final game of the preseason. The Vikings claimed Ellefson and he contributed again as a run blocker and special teamer. His 2021 highlight came against Seattle when he played 30 snaps and the Vikings dominated on the ground with 140 yards.
It was already icing on the cake for Ellefson to play in the NFL. In Minnesota? The real version was even better than what he imagined.
“It’s hard to describe, there’s a lot of history being a [Vikings] fan growing up my whole life,” Ellefson said. “When I got claimed here, it was a dream come true. You get to come home, the family’s all excited and everything. Then to contribute, whether it was special teams or blocking or catching a couple balls, it was pretty remarkable and something I’ll remember for a long time…Wearing 82 [Kyle Rudolph’s number] when I was playing here was pretty cool, a full-circle moment. .”
As well as it was going, Ellefson couldn’t escape the injury bug. He got banged up and was placed on IR in late October and spent a big chunk of the 2021 season sidelined.
The same thing happened in 2022. He caught three passes and played double-digit snaps in three games early in the season under O’Connell but ended up going on IR twice.
“The three years that I did play, there were injuries each year,” he said. “The last one was the final straw. Trying to come back and it was still nagging. I didn’t feel that I was the same player before because of the pain that was still lingering. All of it was icing on the cake. A small-town kid from Hawley being able to play [in the NFL] for a few years and have that on my resume was good for me. Grateful for those things. But because of the nagging injuries, I just wasn’t the same level as before.”
A calling to coaching
While he was playing, Ellefson always had it in the back of his mind that he might be interested in coaching one day. His experience with coach Roehl solidified that belief. If someone could push him toward his goals, could he do that for others?
“[Coach Roehl] was encouraging and the way he did it was very demanding,” Ellefson said. “He was pushing me and I knew that he had my best interests at heart. There was a build of trust there because of that. There were times where I wanted to fight him but I knew at the end of the day he had my best interests in mind, going back to those conversations I had with him as a freshman about wanting to play in the NFL.”
After O’Connell agreed to give Ellefson a shot at coaching, they had to figure out exactly what he was going to do. He describes the first year as drinking out of a fire hydrant. As a player he had a specific assignment on each play that he had to follow but coaches have to know every facet of the game. Ellefson worked with the tight ends and tried to offer whatever help he could in the game planning process. The first year was mostly spent learning and learning and learning.
“I love the idea of having some former players on the staff,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got a bunch of them, me probably being the loosest of the term former player. Think of Keenan McCardell, Chris Kuper, Marcus Dixon. I think there’s something about a former Viking that’s been in the trenches with these guys.”
At the end of Year 1 of coaching, Ellefson was worn out. Coaching hours are different. O’Connell told him to take some time and think about whether he wanted to continue on this path.
This is the NFL. This was his dream. There was no way he was going to walk away, no matter how tired he was after the first year.
“I have to have some check-ins with him every now and then to make sure he’s doing well with the transition hours wise, workwise,” O’Connell said. “We tend to work a little bit more and he’s done a heck of a job with that. I’m excited about him and he’s going to be a phenomenal, phenomenal coach. Good young coach already, relates to the players, works his tail off and brings a lot to the table to our staff so, we’re very fortunate to have Ben.”
Star tight end TJ Hockenson has enjoyed having someone who was recently on the field being able to give perspective in the meeting room.
“It’s not just a film that you’re looking at, it’s not just a screen that you have a clicker in your hand and you can pause it and hey, why didn’t you see this?” Hockenson said. “It’s being able to see things fast and being able to see things because we can’t see the whole field. I mean, we only can see certain parts of the field….I can run things through Ben and kind of use him in that stuff. He’s swimming a little bit right now, he’s got a lot going on, but he has a great attitude.”
In Year 2, Ellefson has found his spot within the staff. He’s working closely with the tight ends in meetings and on the practice field. He draws up the scout team cards, which are made up of the looks that they are expecting from their opponent and all the details that come along with that. This year Ellefson has gotten into the run game side, assisting with the install, drawing up the plays that get loaded into players’ iPads.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot but it has to be very detailed,” Ellefson said. “That’s part of the learning process.”
On game day he was on the sideline to start the year helping with signals and substitutions but recently he moved up to the press box where he’s charting offensive plays during the game. He explained what that entails:
“Sometimes in between series a coach might ask, ‘what did we run on this play here?’ and I’ll have it written down,” Ellefson said. “When he’s calling the play you have to be writing pretty fast so sometimes you have to read through the chicken scratch. Coaches might ask how many reps a player got in a series or what we ran on a certain down and what the coverage was. Someone’s doing coverages but I write it down to double check. After the game they get copies of it so they can write notes about each play.”
In a lot of ways, pushing the pedal down on his coaching Oh, to get one more pancake, make one more catch, score one more touchdown.
But Ellefson now feels like he has found his path. He’s taking the same approach as when he was a freshman at NDSU learning from coach Roehl trying to master every detail with bigger and better goals in mind down the road.
If coach Roehl showed him what’s possible in coaching, O’Connell truly made him buy into the impact a coach can have on a group of people.
“The biggest thing is his positivity, it’s contagious,” Ellefson said of O’Connell. “We can have the best practice or worst practice but his attitude is going to stay the same. His ability to express what’s on his mind and speak with confidence and how he has connected everyone, this coaching staff and locker room. He’s connected with individuals so there’s good relationships and people care about each other past the game of football. It’s pretty remarkable.”