The Minnesota Vikings have some coaching decisions to make. Those decisions are highlighted by the need for a new offensive coordinator. Gary Kubiak opted to retire this month rather than return for a second season of calling plays for the Vikings offense. Finding a new offensive coordinator isn’t the only coaching decision that needs to be made. The contracts of special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf and strength and conditioning coach Mark Uyeyama weren’t renewed and LSU plucked defensive backs coach Daronte Jones to be their new defensive coordinator.
Gary Kubiak has been playing and coaching football for so long that whether to coach another year was an annual decision that he had to make. He debated that decision for a few weeks and decided that the 2020 NFL season would be his last. My primary hope had been that he’d return as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator. That won’t happen. My secondary hope had been that he’d return as an adviser. When Kubiak joined the Vikings during the 2019 offseason it was as an adviser to rookie offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski. I was hoping that he’d do the same this year for perhaps rookie offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, his son and current quarterbacks coach. That won’t happen either. Junior is most likely in consideration for the job. If he gets it, he’ll be on his own. He’s 33. He’s never called plays. He’s coached quarterbacks in the NFL for four years. Maybe it’s a little early for him to run his own offense. He’s been around NFL coaching for all of his 33 years. Going by this and recent head coach-hiring cycles, it’s turning into a young man’s game, especially on offense. It’s become routine for teams to gamble on coaches with little to no experience calling plays. I go back and forth on this. I can see the Vikings gambling on Junior. The only thing we know for sure is that Mike Zimmer wants to retain the Kubiak offense. He’ll get that with Klint Kubiak. The Vikings do have some experienced playcallers in Rick Dennison and Kennedy Polamalu to assist him. Dennison and Brian Pariani have been coaching so long with Gary Kubiak that Senior’s presence will be felt.
As for the other coaching vacancies, the Vikings’ special teams were so bad that it would’ve be a stunner if Marwan Maalouf was still with the team. An excessive number of injuries can be bad news for a strength and conditioning coach. The Vikings had an excessive number of injuries. From afar, it’s difficult to judge the work of a team’s strength and conditioning coach. If the injuries are a reason for the change, it isn’t a surprise that Mark Uyeyama’s contract wasn’t renewed. Losing Daronte Jones hurts. The Vikings needed rookie cornerbacks to step up this season. Due to an absurd number of injuries, the Vikings needed a lot of cornerbacks, rookies and street free agents, to step up this season. Jones was instrumental in the development of rookies Jeff Gladney, Cameron Dantzler, and Harrison Hand and getting in-season additions Chris Jones and Dylan Mabin into the playing rotation. Zimmer was very complimentary of Jones’ work with a group of players that changed weekly. He left for a great opportunity. He’s earned it. It’s a shame that he was in Minnesota for a single season.
So, the Vikings need:
Offensive Coordinator
Special Teams Coordinator
Secondary Coach
Strength and Conditioning
I hate this time of year when the Vikings have coaching vacancies. It’s a completion thing for me as it’s difficult to think about other (more important?) things when there’s these coaching unknowns. It’s possible that the Vikings fill all vacancies internal promotions.
Offensive Coordinator-Klint Kubiak
Special Teams Coordinator-Ryan Ficken
Secondary Coach-Roy Anderson
Strength and Conditioning-Derik Keyes/Chaz Mahle
Maybe. Maybe not.
There were reports this week that the Vikings interviewed New York Giants’ assistant defensive backs coach for the Special Teams job. Instead, the replacement for Maalouf came from within. Yesterday, it was reported that Ryan Ficken was promoted from assistant special teams coach. He probably should’ve gotten the coordinator job over Marwan Maalouf two years ago. That was then. It’s Ficken’s job now. He’s the Vikings’ most tenured coach as his time with the team stretches to the Brad Childress era. He’s assisted the special teams for eight seasons.
There have also been reports that the Vikings are hiring former Philadelphia Eagles’ strength and conditioning coach Josh Hingst to replace Mark Uyeyama. Hingst had been with the Eagles since 2013 but wasn’t retained by new head coach Nick Sirianni. Prior to the Eagles, Hingst worked with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Nebraska.
With these current coaching vacancies it’s interesting that the Vikings’ first external hire of the offseason is for a position that wasn’t vacant. News popped early yesterday that Keenan McCardell will be the new receivers coach in Minnesota. This is an outstanding addition. McCardell was one of the league’s better receivers in the 1990s. He first appeared on my radar as a coach when he was at Maryland from 2014-15. There, he coached Stefon Diggs. McCardell jumped to the NFL in 2017 with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He’d been there until Urban Meyer brought in his own coaches this month. From Diggs to D.J. Chark to Laviska Shenault, receivers get better with McCardell’s coaching. Diggs raved about the impact of his college position coach. I’m excited to see to what McCardell can do with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, Chad Beebe, Olabisi Johnson and the rest of the receivers that the Vikings’ bring to training camp next summer.
The Vikings have a receivers coach and that makes things interesting. The thinking is that current receivers coach Andrew Janocko will move to quarterbacks coach and Klint Kubiak will make the move from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. Quarterbacks would be Janocko’s third position group with the Vikings. He coached offensive line from 2017-19 and receivers last season. He played quarterback at Pitt and coached the position at Mercyhurst in 2014. Kubiak at 33 and Janocko at 32 would put a lot of youth and inexperience in critical coaching roles. For what it’s worth, both come from coaching families so both have been around the game for all of their 30+ years.
Until the coaching decisions are made it’s all speculation.
What isn’t speculation is that the Vikings have a new special teams coordinator, a new strength and conditioning coach, and a new receivers coach. So, in the time that it took to piece this post together the Vikings have promoted a coach to fill a vacancy, hired a coach to fill a vacancy, and hired a coach for a vacancy that they didn’t have.
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