The Vikings Head Coach Search Begins

The Minnesota Vikings have their general manager. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. His first task as general is his most important. Find a head coach. 

The Vikings have had initial interviews with eight candidates.

Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defensive Coodinator 

Jonathan Gannon, Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator 

Nathaniel Hackett, Green Bay Packers Offensive Coordinator 

Kellen Moore, Dallas Cowboys Offensive Coordinator 

Raheem Morris, Los Angeles Rams Defensive Coordinator 

Kevin O’Connell, Los Angeles Rams Offensive Coordinator 

Dan Quinn, Dallas Cowboys Defensive Coordinator 

DeMeco Ryans, San Francisco 49ers Defensive Coordinator

With a general manager in the building and part of the process, the Vikings head coach search is the team’s top priority. At the start of the offseason, eight teams had a head coach vacancy. With the announcement this week that Sean Payton was stepping away from the New Orleans Saints, the number of vacancies bumped to nine. More than a quarter of the teams are looking for a head coach. It’s going to be competitive. 

The Vacancies:

Minnesota Vikings 

Chicago Bears

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

The first head coach domino fell yesterday when the Denver Broncos hired Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The Chicago Bears soon followed with the hiring of Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. Perhaps those moves are the start of a coach-hiring flurry. For the past few days, there have been reports that the Jacksonville Jaguars are close to an agreement with Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. A reported obstacle in that getting done appears significant. General manager Trent Baalke. Leftwich doesn’t want him. For some reason, the Jaguars love him. Baalke is a problem wherever he goes. The fact that more than one owner has fallen for the clown is mystifying. It feels like the New York Giants could hire a Buffalo Bills coordinator (or Brian Flores) at any moment. Head coach hires could fill the next couple days. 

Soon after the Broncos and Bears head coach news, Dan Quinn announced that he’s staying with the Cowboys.  

Where does this leave the Vikings? Well, Nathaniel Hackett reportedly impressed in his initial interview. He’s gone. Dan Quinn seemed to be considered a strong candidate for every head coach vacancy. He removed himself from the open market. He’s staying in Dallas. Hackett and Quinn are the only coaches from the Vikings initial candidate list that appear to be no longer on the head coach market. This morning brought news that New York Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will have a virtual interview with the Vikings. That bumps the number of available candidates to seven. Graham is an interesting option. The Giants haven’t had much success recently but Graham’s defense has been a problem for offenses. I actually thought that he might be part of the initial interviews. Obviously, Adofo-Mensah wants to chat with Graham. 

My favorites for the Vikings job: 

DeMeco Ryans

Raheem Morris

Kevin O’Connell follows closely. He’s been linked to Adofo-Mensah due to a single year together with the San Francisco 49ers. O’Connell’s role with the 49ers was termed “Special Projects.” It seems that a person dealing with “special projects” would work closely with someone in “research and development.” Despite working together for a single year, I’d imagine that Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell got to know each other fairly well. 

Everyone’s favorite “Vikings Scooper” Darren Wolfson gets the feeling that the next Vikings next head coach will be Morris, Ryans, or O’Connell. 

Raheem Morris seems to be the safest option simply because he’s been an NFL head coach. His three years as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wasn’t great. He was only 32 when he was hired. He did get a 10-win season out of a ridiculously undermanned, inexperienced team. While he’s spent nearly all of his coaching career on the defensive side of the ball, he did coach offense for five years with the Atlanta Falcons. Morris is a football coach. He’s easily the most experienced, most well-rounded of these contenders. He was the last of the eight initial candidates to be contacted for a virtual interview and was immediately a personal favorite for the job. 

DeMeco Ryans as a candidate for the Vikings head coach job was at first a curiosity. He was a curiosity mostly because he’s only been coaching for five years. He’s been calling a defense for a single year. For me, a couple things took Ryans from a curiosity to a serious contender for the job. 1) His brilliant defensive game plan against the Green Bay Packers. 2) The realization that he’s been coaching defense since he entered the league as a player in 2006. At about the age that Morris was a graduate assistant at Hofstra, Ryans was leading the defense of the Houston Texans defense as a rookie. Ryans was a terrific football player in the league. He was a terrific football player as much for his understanding of the game as his ability to play it. He was an on-field coach and leader for all of his ten years in the league. On paper, he’s been a coach in the league for five years. In reality, he’s been coaching in the league for 15 years. 

As soon as the Vikings needed a new head coach, I was convinced that coach had to be offensive-minded. After an eight-year revolving door of offensive coordinators, the Vikings need consistency on offense. That’s especially true if the Vikings are to prepare and break in a young quarterback in the coming years. Kevin O’Connell might be the next Sid Gillman but we can’t know it because he doesn’t call plays. Is O’Connell simply a candidate for every opening because he works with Sean McVay? Who knows? I do know that there are as many coaching unknowns with O’Connell as there are with any 36-year old assistant coach. There are actually more unknowns with him than a similarly experienced offensive coordinator that actually calls plays. I feel like I’m more familiar with O’Connell’s college quarterbacking days than his six-year nomadic NFL career and seven-year coaching career. The most remarkable thing about his playing career was being released by the New England Patriots after two training camps despite being a third-round pick. It’s not that I’m against O’Connell as the Vikings head coach. I just have no feel for him as a potential head coach. Does working with McVay make him an offensive genius? Who knows? He’s had a steady seven-year climb up the coaching ladder. If Adofo-Mensah is properly impressed with O’Connell after a single year working together, then I’m fine with him as the Vikings head coach. 

If Raheem Morris, DeMeco Ryans, and Kevin O’Connell are the contenders to be the next head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, my preference would look something like this. 

1a. DeMeco Ryans

1b. Raheem Morris

3.   Kevin O’Connell