The Minnesota Vikings woke to a surprise on Wednesday morning. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner resigned.
I have tremendous respect for Mike Zimmer, our coaching staff, and our players and at this time I think it is in the best interest of the team to step down. I thank the Wilf family for my time here in Minnesota and want to see our players and coaches achieve success.
-Norv Turner
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said that he was surprised when Turner informed him of the decision. Despite the fact that Zimmer has always stressed honesty as being his policy some in the media have landed on the possibility that this was more of a team decision than Turner's decision. Who really knows what transpired Wednesday morning? Obviously Turner no longer had the desire to continue coaching the Vikings offense. Did he have a philosophical difference with Zimmer about the direction of the offense and the team? Probably. He resigned. Was there some big conspiracy to force Turner out? Probably not. Zimmer was surprised by the decision. The only person talking that knows the story is Zimmer and he's probably done talking about it. It is what it is, as so many in the league tend to say. Turner resigned and the Vikings are moving forward. Anything else is, at best, speculation and I trust Zimmer far more than any of the honks on the Vikings beat and in the national media. The more these jokers try to pry out some dirt the less it becomes about football and the people involved. Turner felt it best that he resigned. Zimmer was surprised. The Detroit Lions visit on Sunday. Let's just move on.
One thing that is certain is that Pat Shurmur is now running the Vikings offense. He was hired in the offseason to coach tight ends but he does have head coaching as well as offensive coordinator experience. It's quite a luxury for a team to have a football coach as experienced as Shumur coaching tight ends. With his resume' he was likely in the running for any open offensive coordinator position. Why would he take a job coaching tight ends? There was some speculation at the time that he was hired with this succession in mind. Turner had admitted that his long, successful coaching career was nearing an end. In a perfect world this coaching change would have taken place until the end of the season. But this Vikings season has been far from a perfect scenario.
Sometimes change is good. Maybe this change can ignite something in the Vikings. The last two games, both losses, have been terrible after a great 5-0 start. Maybe the quicker passing concepts of Shurmur's West Coast roots will be a better fit for an offensive line that is really struggling. The Vikings offense adjusting to the way that their new offensive coordinator does things is helped by the fact that quarterback Sam Bradford played for Shurmur with the St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles.
If I could change anything about how this challenging matter was handled it would be in how the Vikings informed the players. Basically, they didn't. Zimmer had an impromptu press conference before he informed any of the players. Some of the players found out when the media asked them for their reactions. Nice. Maybe it was just poor timing. Maybe the Vikings felt that they had to get in front of the story with the media and the players hadn't arrived for meetings and practice. It just feels like it could've/should've been handled better. The players shouldn't be getting this sort of news from the media.
Many thanks to Norv Turner for all that he's done for the Vikings offense. All of the players that he's coached are better for it.
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