Wednesday, January 18, 2017

East-West Shrine Game Coaches

The 2017 East-West Shrine Game will be played this Saturday. An interesting aspect of the Shrine game this year is the coaches that are coaching in it. The NFL is partnering with the all-star game to give development opportunities to their assistant coaches. The league will supply the coaching staffs for the two teams from assistant coaches on teams that didn't make the playoffs. At the conclusion of the NFL regular season, teams nominated deserving assistant coaches who were then reviewed by a panel that included NFL football operations staff, East-West Shrine Game leadership, and two members of the NFL's General Mangers Advisory Committee. Once the game's head coaches were selected, each then filled his 11-person staff from among other NFL assistants nominated by the clubs. It's a nice change to an old system and a terrific opportunity for the coaches.

The panel selected Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards as the West head coach and Arizona Cardinals defensive line coach Brenston Buckner as the East head coach. Here are the coaches that will be assisting each head coach.

West Head Coach: George Edwards
Offensive coordinator/QB: Kevin Stefanski
RB: Jemal Singleton
WR: Cam Turner
TE: Andrew Janocko
OL: Hank Fraley
Defensive coordinator: Larry Foote
DL: Drew Wilkin
LB: Dave Borgonzi
DB: Greg Williams
DB: Deshea Townsend
ST: Marquice Williams

East Head Coach: Brenston Buckner
Offensive coordinator/RB: Duce Staley
QB: Press Taylor
WR: Bobby Engram
TE: Richard Angulo
OL: Frank Guifre
Defensive coordinator: Brad White
DL: Sam Mills Jr.
LB: David Lippincott
DB: Curtis Fuller
DB: Dino Vasso
ST: Chase Blackburn

Who knows if this opportunity for these coaches will lead to bigger things but it sure can't hurt.

As a Minnesota Vikings fan it's great that a handful Vikings coaches (Edwards, Sefanski, Janocko, and Fraley) get an up close look at several college football players that could be Vikings football players in a few months.

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