2014 Current and Potential Coaches

[admvp]

I'll be he isn't.

What is so horrendous about that hire? There are Vikes fans all over the board drooling over the Vikings opportunity to hire Zimmer, a longtime coach with a good reputation who has never been a head coach and has never been the defensive coordinator of a team with a playoff win and yet the Lions made a horrible choice in hiring a coach that won an AFC Championship as a head coach and was the offensive coordinator of the last year's Super Bowl winner? Where is the logic behind any of that?

Don't get me wrong. I like Zimmer as a candidate and Detroit is unkind to coaches so I don't necessarily expect Caldwell to succeed but his resumé is a lot better than the coach so many Vikings fans are dying to see the team hire.

And Brad Childress had two division titles, one of which came with Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte. Not exactly an ideal QB situation, yet we earned a 3-seed that year. He also had us within 5-10 yards of going to a Super Bowl. He was the offensive coordinator of the '03 Eagles, who made the NFC championship, and the '04 Eagles, who made the Super Bowl. And he was the QB coach of two more Eagles teams ('01 and '02) who made the NFC championship.

Childress's resume is also better than Zimmer's, so maybe he wouldn't be such a bad hire either?

It is my opinion that Caldwell merely rode the coattails of Peyton Manning, and did not himself do all that much. Bill Callahan made a Super Bowl once! I'm not going to sit here and say he deserved no credit at all, but again, when you've got Peyton Manning, you don't have to be a great coach.

And when Bill Simmons makes sideline zombie jokes about a guy, I feel like that usually means the guy is a pretty bad coach.

[frosted]

I wonder if you would be as anxious about it if you didn't take in Sports Media?

Just a thought.

I'm fine with Spielman taking his time. I do not get the impression the Vikings are dithering on this. People need to remember that Childress was the media consensus candidate when he was hired here. Look how well that turned out.

Honestly my view on this is that I do not have any reason to think Spielman will or will not do a good job on the coaching hire. We've never seen him hire a coach in MN. I'm neutral on the topic. What I do know is that Sports Media buzz is just buzz and not always in line with NFL decision making.

Ins't there still a mystery candidate out there?

Heck once the new guy gets in thing are really going to get interesting. Which favored starters fall out of favor? I can see that happening big tim in the Secondary and LB units. Same at OG. Which assistants stay on? This rollercoaster is just getting started.

On the Linehan thing: I'm skeptical of having him here as the OC. One of the Lion's biggest issues has been Stafford's turnovers. Also when Linehan was HC of the Rams they were not exactly stellar and that was with a #1 Pick QB in Sam Bradford. Point being Linehan has had his hands on two young QBs and the results have been somewhat mixed. I'm sure that the individual players had a roll here as well, but if we conclude the Linehan would be a great OC with our new young QB then we'd be putting all the onus of the past on aforementioned players. I do no think that is fair either.

A fair point - my thing is, the offenses he has directed have been productive and generally scored a lot of points. That's what you want from an offense.

[frosted]

@mortreport Mike Zimmer and Vikings are moving toward a deal, hoping to complete negotiations by today, per league sources.

Looks like it is as close to official as it can be without being official. Mort is usually dead on.

[Mothman]

I wonder if you would be as anxious about it if you didn't take in Sports Media?

Just a thought.

I'm fine with Spielman taking his time. I do not get the impression the Vikings are dithering on this. People need to remember that Childress was the media consensus candidate when he was hired here. Look how well that turned out.

Honestly my view on this is that I do not have any reason to think Spielman will or will not do a good job on the coaching hire. We've never seen him hire a coach in MN. I'm neutral on the topic. What I do know is that Sports Media buzz is just buzz and not always in line with NFL decision making.

Ins't there still a mystery candidate out there?

As far as I can tell from the reports I've read, we're aware of the candidates for the job but the Vikings have supposedly narrowed the search down to 3 finalists: Zimmer, Bowles and one of the other candidates so yes, that third candidate is a mystery but he's likely to be one of the coaches we've already heard associated with the job.

On the Linehan thing: I'm skeptical of having him here as the OC. One of the Lion's biggest issues has been Stafford's turnovers

Linehan did good work in helping Culpepper improve his game and cut down on turnovers but Culpepper wanted to change his game and become a better QB. Does Stafford? He's made some comments that suggest he's not all that interested in working to improve his mechanics as a QB. If he doesn't have the right attitude, there's not much Linehan or anyone else will be able to do to help him cut down on turnovers.

Also when Linehan was HC of the Rams they were not exactly stellar and that was with a #1 Pick QB in Sam Bradford. Point being Linehan has had his hands on two young QBs and the results have been somewhat mixed.

Linehan never worked with Bradford. Marc Bulger was the Rams QB when Linehan was their head coach.

I'm sure that the individual players had a roll here as well, but if we conclude the Linehan would be a great OC with our new young QB then we'd be putting all the onus of the past on aforementioned players. I do no think that is fair either.

I think it's fair to say a player is more responsible for his performance than anyone else. A coach can help him learn and improve but that takes a willingness to learn and improve from the player and that player must be able to implement what he's being taught. Culpepper's TD to INT ratio (and, I think, his overall performance) steadily improved under Linehan. Stafford had one spectacular year under Linehan too but he's fallen into bad habits. It seems more likely that Stafford is to blame for that than his offensive coordinator.

[Mothman]

Looks like it is as close to official as it can be without being official. Mort is usually dead on.

He's pretty reliable so perhaps we'll have a definitive answer soon. Thanks for the info.

[frosted]

@AdamSchefter Vikings are hiring Mike Zimmer as their HC, per league source.

[PotGoblin]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10297 ... head-coach

[PotGoblin]

on nfl.com now also - http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... next-coach

[admvp]

Zim Zim Zim!!! YES!!!!

[radar55]

Hot damn.....its about time

[dead_poet]

@AdamSchefter: One candidate Vikings HC Mike Zimmer is considering as his offensive coordinator is Browns OC Norv Turner, per league sources

[HardcoreVikesFan]

THANK GOD. I was losing confidence in this team's ability to make a concise decision. I cannot wait to see what Mike Zimmer will bring to this team!!! SKOL VIKINGS!

[frosted]

@RapSheet #Bengals LB coach Paul Guenther is still deciding if he wants to join Mike Zimmer in Minnesota or stay in Cincy as DC.

I'd be cool with that..and Turner as OC wouldn't be bad.

[PacificNorseWest]

Would love Norv as OC. He gets a bad rap because of his limited successes as HC, but the reason he gets so many HC looks is simply with how great of an OC he is.

Obviously the one thing that can make any great offensive mind look great is a quarterback. Vikings get one and it's set.

[dead_poet]

Get Norv in here pronto. Rudolph will likely have career highs