Vikings Coaches

Every offseason brings at least some tweaks to an NFL coaching staff. The Minnesota Vikings have done much more than tweak the coaching staff since the end of a disappointing season. It started with the interim tag being removed from offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski's job title. It's his offense now. With things not going as well as expected with John DeFilippo calling the shots last season the general feeling is that Stefanski is getting the job a year late. After coming a game short of the Super Bowl in 2017 the Vikings pushed in all of their chips for 2018. They paid a ton for quarterback Kirk Cousins. Adding DeFilippo after his screaming success as the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles looked like the easy decision to make. Now, it's viewed as a mistake. He was fired with a few games to go and Stefanski replaced him. The Vikings next coaching change pf the offseason was a big one. They got Stefanski some serious offensive coaching help. Gary Kubiak was hired as assistant head coach/offensive adviser. Kubiak won a Super Bowl as a quarterbacks coach, two Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator, and a Super Bowl as a head coach. That's some serious coaching. It's also some serious coaching success. He isn't coming to Minnesota alone. He brought a few coaches with him. Son Klint Kubiak will coach quarterbacks. Brian Pariani will coach tight ends. Rick Dennison will coach the offensive line and coordinate the running game. Pariani and Dennison have each coached with the senior Kubiak for nearly two decades. This will be the junior Kubiak's second stint with the Vikings. He was the assistant receivers/quality control coach from 2013-14. During that time he became close with Stefanski. It's been reported that it was Stefanski that pushed for the hiring of the Kubiak group. In that group the Vikings have added some of the best zone blocking and play action coaches in the business. There's little doubt that these schemes will become staples of the Vikings offense. That should suit Kirk Cousins just fine as he excels at play action. That's why it was such a damn mystery that it wasn't used more last season. Why pay so much for a new quarterback and not play to his strengths? Cousins isn't the only player that should benefit. Running back Dalvin Cook just has to look to what Terrell Davis and Arian Foster did in this offense to be absolutely thrilled about his potential in it. Perhaps most importantly, we might finally see some direction and improvement from the offensive line. Everyone involved with the team will benefit from that. More along the lines of a coaching staff tweak is the shifting of assistant quarterbacks coach Drew Petzing to receivers coach. He's replacing Darrell Hazell, whose contract expired at the end of the 2018 season. Petzing has been with the Vikings since 2014 and assisted with the receivers from 2016-17.  The final coaching tweak became necessary when special teams coordinator Mike Priefer bolted to his hometown Cleveland Browns. Personally, I feel like it was a good time for the Vikings and Priefer to go their separate ways. He has been and is a terrific coach but it felt like the special teams groups had grown a bit stale. The place kicking has been horrendous but I think that has more to do with kickers Blair Walsh, Kai Forbath, Daniel Carlson, and Dan Bailey getting something like the "yips." Missing extra points is a kicking issue. It's not a coaching issue. Although, five consecutive kickers getting the "yips" is rather extraordinary. Anyway, Priefer's in Cleveland and former Miami Dolphins special teams coach Marwan Maalouf has been hired to replace him. While Maalouf's coaching style and philosophy is something of an unknown, he and Dolphins special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi had their team's units playing well. In particular, the Dolphins were excellent at blocking kicks and punts. Outside of a game against the Carolina Panthers a few years ago the Vikings haven't done much of that since the 1970s. I like the addition of Maalouf but it's just an optimistic guess at this point.

There's always a chance that another tweak or two takes place. Maybe Terence Newman decides that he wants to return for another year of assisting with the defensive backs. For now, the Vikings coaching staff looks complete.

Minnesota Vikings Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Mike Zimmer

Coordinators
Offensive Coordinator: Kevin Stefanski
Defensive Coordinator: George Edwards
Special Teams Coordinator: Marwan Maalouf

Assistants
Assistant head coach/offensive adviser: Gary Kubiak
Quarterbacks: Klint Kubiak
Running Backs: Kennedy Polamalu
Receivers: Drew Petzing
Tight Ends: Brian Pariani
Offensive Line/Run Game Coordinator: Rick Dennison
Assistant Offensive Line: Andrew Janocko
Defensive Line: Andre Patterson
Assistant Defensive Line: Robert Rodriguez
Linebackers: Adam Zimmer
Defensive Backs: Jerry Gray
Assistant Defensive Backs: Jeff Howard
Defensive Quality Control: Nick Rallis
Assistant Special Teams: Ryan Ficken
Head Strength and Conditioning: Mark Uyeyama
Assistant Strength and Conditioning: Chaz Mahle

Assistant Strength and Conditioning: Derik Keyes