Talking Brett Favre on Sports Overnight America

Last night, I joined Pat Mauro of Sports Overnight America in the wee hours of the morning to discuss Brett Favre, the Vikings, and the Timberwolves.

In case you missed it—or if 12:40 CDT was past your bedtime—the text of our conversation is below, with a little bit of my excess verbiage trimmed for the sake of brevity.

The Favre and Vikings chatter is covered here. You can read the T’Wolves talk here.

Special thanks to Pat—who was a terrific host—for having me on board.

 

Pat Mauro: Is Brett Favre going to be a Viking? It almost seems like every fan, everyone involved with the Vikings—unless your name is Sage Rosenfels—would like the sound of Brett Favre as quarterback of this team. Am I out there in saying that?

 

Marino Eccher: No, I think you’re pretty on-the-ball there, Pat. First of all, to answer your question, I do think barring a major setback with that arm, you are going to see Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform come training camp time.

And for the most part, I think the team is going to feel pretty good about that. Now obviously, that depends on which Brett Favre you’re getting.

If you get the guy who, through the first 11 games of last year, threw those 22 touchdowns, 13 picks, completed about 70 percent of his passes, well, it’s all good and gravy.

If you get the guy, who went 1-4 to close out the season, couldn’t make a throw to save his life, and ended up needing bicep surgery for a torn tendon, you’re going to have some problems with that.

 

PM: Thomas Jones said, “Hey, we lost because of Brett Favre,” and he ended up eating his words, because of that. He chose not to pursue that a little bit farther.

But the Jets were in pretty good position to go to the playoffs, and if you look at everything that happened those last four or five games, Brett Favre was basically the reason they didn’t go to the playoffs.

 

ME: I think it’s kind of a double-edged sword, because you look at the first two-thirds of the season, and it was Favre this, Favre that, the Favre experiment’s working, the team is 8-3. People are talking about, “Are the Jets gonna get a first-round bye?” People are mentioning the Jets as a Super Bowl contender.

But Favre fell off the wagon in a huge way in that last third of the season, completed fewer than 60 percent of his passes, two touchdowns, nine interceptions…he was really struggling to make throws that throughout his career had just been second nature to him.

Now, if he comes to the Vikings, you’re probably going to get that same kind of up-and-down feeling. Whether it’s deserved or not, at the end of this season, if you have Brett Favre quarterbacking the whole way, you’re going to say either it was Brett Favre who got them to the top of the mountain, or Brett Favre that could not do it.

 

PM: With the Jets, they wound up getting rid of Chad Pennington, who went to Miami and wound up having a really good year for them and appears to be their guy. In Minnesota, it was Gus Frerotte last year, it was Jackson, they ended up adding Rosenfels.

It’s almost like, even Brett Favre—and we don’t know what’s up with the shoulder, we don’t know if it’s 100 percent—but it’s almost like, “Brett Favre’s better than all those guys,” isn’t he?

 

ME: Absolutely…if Brett Favre is anything close to, not even his three-time MVP status, but if he’s anything close to what he was at the beginning of last year, or what he was in 2007 in Green Bay, he’s a tremendous upgrade over Rosenfels, he’s a tremendous upgrade over Tarvaris Jackson.

In regards to Rosenfels, you’re talking about a 31-year-old career backup, a guy who has been distinctly average over his NFL career. He’s a fine second option, he’s a fine veteran presence if you’re trying to push a young quarterback.

But he’s not a long-term solution, he doesn’t have a lot of star power, and he does not have a tremendous track record of success.

When you talk about Tarvaris Jackson, you talk about a guy, who, last season, he threw nine touchdowns, two interceptions, you look at that and say, “Hey, maybe he’s coming along a little bit.”

….Jackson is a guy who only threw for about 117 yards a game last season. What that tells you is the Vikings were not comfortable putting the ball in his hands.

It tells you that they did not think he was the guy who could win games…In that playoff game against the Eagles, Jackson did not look good.

So if you’re got Favre anything close to healthy, if you’ve got an arm that’s anything close to working, you certainly have to look at him as a dramatic upgrade over the position as it stands right now.

 

PM: If he’s healthy, you figure that the majority of the time, he says, “Hike,” and gives the ball to Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson’s going to be carrying the load, and that takes a lot of pressure off whoever the quarterback is.

…We know Brett Favre’s getting older, it’s not the Brett Favre of a few years back, but if it’s just the Brett Favre of the first 11 or 12 games with the Jets last year, this is a better Vikings team than they were last year.

 

ME: And I think that’s going to be be the case. Now, what you have to wonder about a little bit is putting Favre in that situation and saying, “OK, you’re the second fiddle on this offense to a feature back.”

Because really, throughout Favre’s career, that’s not really happened. He has always been the focal point of the offense, and he’s never lined up in front of somebody who’s a bigger name than he is.

In Green Bay, Ahman Green had a couple of good years. Favre’s last year there, Ryan Grant kind of came on late. But he’s never shared the backfield with a star running back.

It’s going to be interesting to see, if he ends up in Minnesota, if he’s comfortable in a system where he’s not asked to carry the load, where he’s not asked to win the game by himself, where he’s just asked to kind of get out of the way and make the throws when he needs to make ‘em. It’s going to be interesting to see if that famous Favre ego can handle that.

 

PM: Do you get the feeling that if this doesn’t happen—and I think we all get the feeling it is going to happen—but if it doesn’t happen, the Minnesota faithful are going to be greatly disappointed?

ME: Well, I think at this point, there will certainly be a letdown, because over the last couple weeks, month or so, it’s been kind of an open secret that if everything is alright medically, Favre is gonna end up with the Vikings.

Over the last week, you’ve seen reports pop up from a couple of different sources, you’ve seen reports pop up from Minnesota’s KFAN that there is a contract in place, and that it’s all but a done deal.

So now that it’s come this far, I think that yeah, if Favre doesn’t end up being the guy, Vikings fans are gonna come down off that high a little bit, because they’re not sold on Tarvaris Jackson, and I don’t think they’re convinced that Sage Rosenfels is anything special.

 

PM: Rosenfels put up some pretty good numbers with the Texans, but how much of this with the Vikings organization is about, “Hey, Brett Favre gives up the best chance of winning,” versus, “Brett Favre’s gonna put a lot of seats in the stands.”

 

ME: …I don’t think there’s any question in their minds that Favre gives them the best chance of winning.

I think there is something intoxicating about the idea of bringing him on board. I think it creates a buzz. I don’t know that the Vikings have a whole lot of trouble putting butts in the seats, so to speak…but I think there’s something about Brett Favre that makes both the organization and fans stop and say, “Wow, that would really be something special to have going on this year.”

 

PM: Do you ever wish as a Vikings fan that they played in an outdoor stadium?

 

ME: You know, I don’t. I’ve spent a little too much time in the winter in Minnesota to wish that rationally, and when Zygi Wilf came out a couple years ago and said, “Let’s get an outdoor stadium,” I said, “Great, I’m gonna get a plasma; I will be very comfortable at home if that’s the case.”

And I think Brett Favre would not be thinking about this as seriously as he is if the Vikings played outdoors, because over the last couple years, we’ve seen that that reputation of his as an outdoor quarterback, as a guy who just loves to mix it up in the elements, is not what it used to be.

He did not look comfortable—even dating back to that last playoff game in Green Bay in 2007, he had a couple of bad games last year outdoors, so I think playing indoors this year can only be good for Brett Favre at this point.

 

PM: You know, we all love Brett Favre, Brett Favre’s a great ambassador for football, as long as Brett Favre continues to play, I’ll be a fan of his, but do you ever get the impression that Brett Favre is a little bit overrated?

You talk about the playoff game a couple years ago, throwing the pick against the Giants. He’s thrown a lot of crucial picks in the playoffs. I know he’s done a lot of great things, there’s no question, he’s obviously a Hall of Famer, but do you think because we all like Brett Favre so much, that when you get right down to it, he’s a little overrated?

 

ME: …I don’t think there’s any question that this point that with all the love that’s been heaped on Favre throughout the years, that he is kind of riding a little bit on those ’95, ’96, ’97, really magical seasons…and on the “good old boy” stuff—everybody likes his, “Aw, shucks,” and “He’s a gamer,” “He loves to play the game,” and I think he’s earned that.

I think he certainly has a little bit of an overrated stature at this point. Now, it’s hard to say, because I think that’s kind of a common sentiment, so it’s hard to say when a guy goes from being overrated to being underrated simply because of that backlash.

Talking Brett Favre on Sports Overnight America

Last night, I joined Pat Mauro of Sports Overnight America in the wee hours of the morning to discuss Brett Favre, the Vikings, and the Timberwolves.

In case you missed it—or if 12:40 CDT was past your bedtime—the text of our conversation is below, with a little bit of my excess verbiage trimmed for the sake of brevity.

The Favre and Vikings chatter is covered here. You can read the T’Wolves talk here.

Special thanks to Pat—who was a terrific host—for having me on board.

 

Pat Mauro: Is Brett Favre going to be a Viking? It almost seems like every fan, everyone involved with the Vikings—unless your name is Sage Rosenfels—would like the sound of Brett Favre as quarterback of this team. Am I out there in saying that?

 

Marino Eccher: No, I think you’re pretty on-the-ball there, Pat. First of all, to answer your question, I do think barring a major setback with that arm, you are going to see Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform come training camp time.

And for the most part, I think the team is going to feel pretty good about that. Now obviously, that depends on which Brett Favre you’re getting.

If you get the guy who, through the first 11 games of last year, threw those 22 touchdowns, 13 picks, completed about 70 percent of his passes, well, it’s all good and gravy.

If you get the guy, who went 1-4 to close out the season, couldn’t make a throw to save his life, and ended up needing bicep surgery for a torn tendon, you’re going to have some problems with that.

 

PM: Thomas Jones said, “Hey, we lost because of Brett Favre,” and he ended up eating his words, because of that. He chose not to pursue that a little bit farther.

But the Jets were in pretty good position to go to the playoffs, and if you look at everything that happened those last four or five games, Brett Favre was basically the reason they didn’t go to the playoffs.

 

ME: I think it’s kind of a double-edged sword, because you look at the first two-thirds of the season, and it was Favre this, Favre that, the Favre experiment’s working, the team is 8-3. People are talking about, “Are the Jets gonna get a first-round bye?” People are mentioning the Jets as a Super Bowl contender.

But Favre fell off the wagon in a huge way in that last third of the season, completed fewer than 60 percent of his passes, two touchdowns, nine interceptions…he was really struggling to make throws that throughout his career had just been second nature to him.

Now, if he comes to the Vikings, you’re probably going to get that same kind of up-and-down feeling. Whether it’s deserved or not, at the end of this season, if you have Brett Favre quarterbacking the whole way, you’re going to say either it was Brett Favre who got them to the top of the mountain, or Brett Favre that could not do it.

 

PM: With the Jets, they wound up getting rid of Chad Pennington, who went to Miami and wound up having a really good year for them and appears to be their guy. In Minnesota, it was Gus Frerotte last year, it was Jackson, they ended up adding Rosenfels.

It’s almost like, even Brett Favre—and we don’t know what’s up with the shoulder, we don’t know if it’s 100 percent—but it’s almost like, “Brett Favre’s better than all those guys,” isn’t he?

 

ME: Absolutely…if Brett Favre is anything close to, not even his three-time MVP status, but if he’s anything close to what he was at the beginning of last year, or what he was in 2007 in Green Bay, he’s a tremendous upgrade over Rosenfels, he’s a tremendous upgrade over Tarvaris Jackson.

In regards to Rosenfels, you’re talking about a 31-year-old career backup, a guy who has been distinctly average over his NFL career. He’s a fine second option, he’s a fine veteran presence if you’re trying to push a young quarterback.

But he’s not a long-term solution, he doesn’t have a lot of star power, and he does not have a tremendous track record of success.

When you talk about Tarvaris Jackson, you talk about a guy, who, last season, he threw nine touchdowns, two interceptions, you look at that and say, “Hey, maybe he’s coming along a little bit.”

….Jackson is a guy who only threw for about 117 yards a game last season. What that tells you is the Vikings were not comfortable putting the ball in his hands.

It tells you that they did not think he was the guy who could win games…In that playoff game against the Eagles, Jackson did not look good.

So if you’re got Favre anything close to healthy, if you’ve got an arm that’s anything close to working, you certainly have to look at him as a dramatic upgrade over the position as it stands right now.

 

PM: If he’s healthy, you figure that the majority of the time, he says, “Hike,” and gives the ball to Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson’s going to be carrying the load, and that takes a lot of pressure off whoever the quarterback is.

…We know Brett Favre’s getting older, it’s not the Brett Favre of a few years back, but if it’s just the Brett Favre of the first 11 or 12 games with the Jets last year, this is a better Vikings team than they were last year.

 

ME: And I think that’s going to be be the case. Now, what you have to wonder about a little bit is putting Favre in that situation and saying, “OK, you’re the second fiddle on this offense to a feature back.”

Because really, throughout Favre’s career, that’s not really happened. He has always been the focal point of the offense, and he’s never lined up in front of somebody who’s a bigger name than he is.

In Green Bay, Ahman Green had a couple of good years. Favre’s last year there, Ryan Grant kind of came on late. But he’s never shared the backfield with a star running back.

It’s going to be interesting to see, if he ends up in Minnesota, if he’s comfortable in a system where he’s not asked to carry the load, where he’s not asked to win the game by himself, where he’s just asked to kind of get out of the way and make the throws when he needs to make ‘em. It’s going to be interesting to see if that famous Favre ego can handle that.

 

PM: Do you get the feeling that if this doesn’t happen—and I think we all get the feeling it is going to happen—but if it doesn’t happen, the Minnesota faithful are going to be greatly disappointed?

ME: Well, I think at this point, there will certainly be a letdown, because over the last couple weeks, month or so, it’s been kind of an open secret that if everything is alright medically, Favre is gonna end up with the Vikings.

Over the last week, you’ve seen reports pop up from a couple of different sources, you’ve seen reports pop up from Minnesota’s KFAN that there is a contract in place, and that it’s all but a done deal.

So now that it’s come this far, I think that yeah, if Favre doesn’t end up being the guy, Vikings fans are gonna come down off that high a little bit, because they’re not sold on Tarvaris Jackson, and I don’t think they’re convinced that Sage Rosenfels is anything special.

 

PM: Rosenfels put up some pretty good numbers with the Texans, but how much of this with the Vikings organization is about, “Hey, Brett Favre gives up the best chance of winning,” versus, “Brett Favre’s gonna put a lot of seats in the stands.”

 

ME: …I don’t think there’s any question in their minds that Favre gives them the best chance of winning.

I think there is something intoxicating about the idea of bringing him on board. I think it creates a buzz. I don’t know that the Vikings have a whole lot of trouble putting butts in the seats, so to speak…but I think there’s something about Brett Favre that makes both the organization and fans stop and say, “Wow, that would really be something special to have going on this year.”

 

PM: Do you ever wish as a Vikings fan that they played in an outdoor stadium?

 

ME: You know, I don’t. I’ve spent a little too much time in the winter in Minnesota to wish that rationally, and when Zygi Wilf came out a couple years ago and said, “Let’s get an outdoor stadium,” I said, “Great, I’m gonna get a plasma; I will be very comfortable at home if that’s the case.”

And I think Brett Favre would not be thinking about this as seriously as he is if the Vikings played outdoors, because over the last couple years, we’ve seen that that reputation of his as an outdoor quarterback, as a guy who just loves to mix it up in the elements, is not what it used to be.

He did not look comfortable—even dating back to that last playoff game in Green Bay in 2007, he had a couple of bad games last year outdoors, so I think playing indoors this year can only be good for Brett Favre at this point.

 

PM: You know, we all love Brett Favre, Brett Favre’s a great ambassador for football, as long as Brett Favre continues to play, I’ll be a fan of his, but do you ever get the impression that Brett Favre is a little bit overrated?

You talk about the playoff game a couple years ago, throwing the pick against the Giants. He’s thrown a lot of crucial picks in the playoffs. I know he’s done a lot of great things, there’s no question, he’s obviously a Hall of Famer, but do you think because we all like Brett Favre so much, that when you get right down to it, he’s a little overrated?

 

ME: …I don’t think there’s any question that this point that with all the love that’s been heaped on Favre throughout the years, that he is kind of riding a little bit on those ’95, ’96, ’97, really magical seasons…and on the “good old boy” stuff—everybody likes his, “Aw, shucks,” and “He’s a gamer,” “He loves to play the game,” and I think he’s earned that.

I think he certainly has a little bit of an overrated stature at this point. Now, it’s hard to say, because I think that’s kind of a common sentiment, so it’s hard to say when a guy goes from being overrated to being underrated simply because of that backlash.

A 2009 NFC North Cheat-Sheet

Corn-fed linemen, corn-fed linebackers, and corn-fed fans—all set against a bucolic Midwestern backdrop of fields brimming with…well, you get the picture.

What’s not to like about NFC North football?

Earlier this week, we picked the Minnesota Vikings to take home a second straight division title. But what about the rest of the NFL’s heartland division? After all, the North up for grabs among a trio of 5-5 clubs as late as mid-November before the Vikes ran away with the division.

Will the Bears and Packers—who combined to win the first seven NFC North crowns after the division was formed in 2001—restore their duopoly? Will the Lions go from crash-and-burn to party-crashers?

And what horrors befall fantasy owners who draft the wrong Adrian Peterson?

Here, we examine nine outstanding questions facing Minnesota’s three division challengers—and how the answers will impact the NFC North race.

The Minnesota Vikings’ Coaching Staff: A Defensive and Special Teams Profile

This is Part Two of a two-part profile on the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff. This part covers defense and special teams. Part One, which covers head coach Brad Childress and the offense, can be found here.

Prior to the Brad Childress era, the Vikings had a reputation for cycling through defensive coordinators because they couldn’t find one that could field a respectable unit with any consistency.

Over the past three years, Minnesota has faced a more encouraging problem: The team’s stout defense keeps producing candidates for head coaching positions.

Childress’ offensive roots forced him to look outside his own circles to fill out his defensive staff.  Given the considerable success his defensive hires have enjoyed to date, he might want to consider a similar tact when screening candidates for the offense as well.

*    *    *

Childress has no prior history with the first defensive coordinator he hired, Tampa Bay defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin turned enough heads in directing the league’s No. 8 defense that he lasted only a year in Minnesota before the Steelers snatched him away.

That brought Leslie Frazier, another defensive backs coach, into the mix. Frazier picked up a Super Bowl ring with the 2006 Colts, and managed the Eagles’ secondary in Childress’ first few seasons in Philadelphia, making him one of just two Vikings defensive coaches with ties to Childress (the other, assistant defensive backs coach Derek Mason, played cornerback at NAU in two of Childress’ seasons there).

Frazier’s resume actually includes an earlier run as a defensive coordinator. He headed the Bengals defense in 2003 and 2004. Those units finished No. 28 and No. 19 in the league respectively, and Frazier a pink slip from Marvin Lewis after two seasons (considering Cincinnati finished 27th in defense the following year, it’s hard to imagine that Frazier was the problem).

After his promotion in Minnesota, it took Frazier a year to find his bearings. The defense fell to No. 20 in Frazier’s first season, but rebounded to No. 6 in his second year on the job, earning him a handful of head coaching interviews after the 2008 season.

After the decade-plus of shoddy defense that preceded Tomlin and Frazier in Minnesota, it’s no wonder teams with coaching vacancies thought highly of their work: Prior to 2006, the Vikings hadn’t boasted a top 10 defense since 1994, and hadn’t climbed out of the bottom third of the league since 1998.

Frazier, a starting corner for the iconic 1985 Bears, has built a career on developing standout defensive backs. Frazier guided his Eagles DBs to a total of eight Pro Bowl berths, helped turn Colts safety Bob Sanders into an All-Pro in 2005 and mentored Antoine Winfield to a sterling 2008 (two sacks, two picks, four forced fumbles) that earned the Vikings corner his first trip to Hawai’i.

But the calling card of his Minnesota units has been a steadfast rushing defense. Tomlin left Frazier with the league’s No. 1 run-stopping crew, and Frazier has maintained that distinction in each of his two seasons as coordinator.

That defensive three-peat isn’t merely impressive; it’s historic: The last team that led the league in rushing defense for three or more seasons in a row—the 1966-69 Dallas Cowboys—pre-dated the AFL-NFL merger.

*    *    *

Minnesota’s dominance against the run survived a coordinator swap with a big helping hand from one coach who stayed put: Karl Dunbar, the Vikings’ defensive line tutor and the architect of the “Williams Wall.”         

Childress imported Dunbar from Louisiana State University, where the former Tigers lineman spent a year overseeing the D-Line after six seasons in the NFL as a player and a smattering of other coaching roles, including a turn on the Bears’ staff in 2004.

It’s easy to credit a star-studded group of linemen for Dunbar’s success in Minnesota, but while Dunbar inherited a boatload of talent, he also took over a unit that had yet to live up to its potential. The Vikings’ D-Line already featured Kevin Williams, a 2004 All-Pro selection, and added Pat Williams as a free agent in’05, but still finished 19th against the run the season before Dunbar’s arrival.

In masterminding the line’s rise to the best run-stuffing gang in the business, Dunbar also spurred Pat Williams to his first of three consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl. Last year, Dunbar worked Jared Allen into the mix to key the league’s No. 4 pass rush, with 34 of the Vikings’ 45 sacks coming from the defensive line.

That’s the kind of production that makes Minnesota’s blitz-averse Tampa 2 scheme tick. Given the stirring success of the Vikings defensive line under Dunbar’s care, don’t be surprised to see his name on a short list for the team’s defensive coordinator job if Frazier does make the leap to a head coaching role following this season.

*    *    *

The D-line still faces the prospect of losing the Williamses—who are fighting four-game suspensions after testing positive for a banned dieuretic and are set for a June 15 trial date—to start the year. If that happens, look for Dunbar to enlist the help of linebackers coach Fred Pagac to keep the heat on opposing passers.

Pagac, a longtime Ohio State coach, made stops in Oakland and Kansas City before coming to Minnesota in 2006 to join the Childress regime. He had middle linebacker E.J. Henderson (4.5 sacks, three forced fumbles in 2007) on track for stardom before Henderson went down with a toe injury last year. Pagac also steered outside linebacker Chad Greenway to 5.5 sacks and three forced fumbles in a breakout sophomore campaign last season.

As discussed here, Pagac will have to ready his linebackers to step up as both pass-rushers and run-stoppers if the Williamses’ appeal fails.

The stellar play of Minnesota’s front four has created quite the workload for Vikings defensive backs coach Joe Woods, who spent two years as an assistant coach in Tampa Bay before following Tomlin to the Vikes in 2005. The futility of running against the Williams Wall had meant that Woods’ secondary faced the most passing attempts in the league in both 2006 and 2007 (the addition of Allen to the pass rush in 2008 finally gave opponents pause about dropping back to throw so often).

The non-stop aerial assault has made it difficult for Woods to field a top-tier pass defense, but if he can squeeze a few more interceptions out of a secondary that recorded only 12 picks last year (25th in the league), he’ll help transform an already-formidable defense into a force to be reckoned with.

*    *    *

Minnesota’s only major offseason coaching move—a change at special teams coordinator—targeted a phase of the game that gave the Vikings fits in 2008.

Minnesota finished 23rd in kickoff return average allowed, spotted opponents the highest punt-return average in football, forced the fifth-lowest fair catch total in the league, and coughed up an NFL-worst four touchdowns on kick returns.

The Vikings’ own production, meanwhile—22nd in kickoff return average, 24th in punt returns, one return TD, and more fair catches than any other pro team—fell woefully short of making up the difference.

Paul Ferraro, who presided over last year’s mess in his third season as Childress’ special teams coordinator, is out. Ferraro opted to join new Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo—a former teammate at Springfield College and coaching colleague from multiple gigs—in St. Louis.

Childress elevated Brian Murphy, a special teams assistant entering his fourth season with Minnesota, to the coordinator role. Murphy worked as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin during Childress’ time there, and was back in Madison as special teams coordinator when Childress offered him a place with the Vikings.

Murphy will have a pair of offseason personnel pickups at his disposal: Cornerback and coverage specialist Karl Paymah, signed as a free agent out of Denver, and Glenn Holt, a free agent receiver and return man who averaged 24.3 yards per return in three years in Cincinnati. The Vikings also are said to be considering trying first-round pick Percy Harvin, a running back and receiver at Florida, in a return role.

Prior to last year, Minnesota’s special teams performances during Childress’ tenure were eminently serviceable. If Murphy can field merely average coverage and return units, he’ll ingratiate himself to his coaching colleagues on both sides of the ball.

The Minnesota Vikings’ Coaching Staff: An Offensive Profile

When Brad Childress took the reigns as Minnesota’s head coach in 2006, he shied away from the notion that he was the team’s savior.

“I’m just passing along what I’ve learned from great coaches over 30 years, ya know?” Childress told ESPN The Magazine during training camp that August. “This stuff is not revolutionary.”

Even as a mere mortal, however, Childress has spent the last three years remaking the Vikings in his own image.

He swept out the easygoing ways of predecessor and “player’s coach” Mike Tice in favor of a discipline-oriented, sweat-the-little-things regime. He drafted a pet project at quarterback. And he assembled his cast of coordinators and assistants from the familiar pool of the coaching circles through which he’s traveled in his career.

Childresses’ fourth year on the job—his third straight campaign with the same offensive and defensive coordinators—will make or break the fiefdom he’s built in Minnesota. If the Vikings capture a second consecutive NFC North title, look good doing it, and put up a fight in the playoffs, he’ll be in line for an extension next winter. If the team stagnates or regresses, he’ll be polishing his resume.

We’ve already examined some of the roster issues that will impact Minnesota’s fortunes in 2009. Here, we’ll take a closer look at the coaching staff charged with coaxing the Vikings to the next level.

This is Part One of a two-part profile on the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff. This part covers head coach Brad Childress and the offensive staff. Part Two covers Minnesota’s coaching on defense and special teams and can be found here.

*    *    *

Although his Vikings squads have hung their hats on stout defense, Childress cut his teeth on the other side of the ball.

Born and raised an hour west of Chicago in Aurora, Ill., Childress launched his career on the sidelines as a graduate assistant at the University of Illinois in 1978. Later, he worked as a running backs and wide receivers coach for the Illini.

Childress spent six years in Champaign before getting a crack as a quarterbacks coach with the Indianapolis Colts in 1985. It was a pro debut to forget: Colts’ passers completed a brutal 50.2 percent of their throws for 2,811 yards, 15 touchdowns and 20 picks on the year, en route to a 5-11 finish.

Childress was sent packing that offseason in a shakeup that wasn’t completed until midway through the following year, when head coach Rod Dowhower got the ax after an 0-13 start.
 
Childress’ next stop was Northern Arizona University, where he spent four years as an offensive coordinator. There, he first crossed paths with Andy Reid, who spent a year as NAU’s offensive line coach in 1986. Childress followed his NAU stint with a season as a receivers coach at Utah, and served eight years on Barry Alvarez’ staff at Wisconsin—three as a QB coach and five as offensive coordinator.

When Reid landed the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coaching gig in 1999, he brought Childress along as his quarterbacks coach.

This time, Childress stuck around. Philadelphia selected Donovan McNabb out of Syracuse as the second overall pick of the 1999 Draft, and while Eagles fans booed the pick, McNabb thrived under Childress. The quarterback made the first of five consecutive Pro Bowl appearances in his sophomore season – his first full year as an NFL starter.

In 2002, Childress got the nod as Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator, replacing none other than the retiring Rod Dowhower. That season was the first of three straight in which Philadelphia won 12-plus games, including a 2004 run to the Super Bowl. The Eagles scoring offense finished 4th, 11th and 8th during that stretch, and cracked the top 10 in yardage in two of those years.

Childress’ fourth year in the position—the season before he was tabbed as the head honcho in Minnesota—was a classic case of misfortune for a Super Bow loser. Injuries to McNabb and a season-long contract feud between the front office and Terrell Owens derailed Philadelphia’s season. The offense tumbled to No. 18 in scoring and No. 19 in yards, and the Eagles limped to a 6-10 finish.

The poor showing didn’t hurt Childress’ candidacy for head coaching openings, given that the Vikings hired him a week after the season ended.

*    *    *

As Childress put together an offensive staff in Minnesota, he demonstrated a strong preference for candidates who reflected his own history and style.

His pick for offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, suited up as a quarterback for Childress in college. Bevell was a red-shirt freshman at NAU during Childress’ tenure as offensive coordinator there, and later followed Childress to Wisconsin.

There, Bevell started at QB for four seasons—including a 1994 Rose Bowl win—and graduated as the school’s all-time leading passer. Bevell made a handful of college coaching stops before joining the Packers staff in 2000. He was named Green Bay’s quarterbacks coach in 2003, and filled that role for three seasons until Childress plucked him away from the Pack. Bevell’s ties to Brett Favre from those years have fueled ongoing Favre-to-Minnesota speculation.

Childress’ own ties to another Pro Bowl passer, meanwhile, led him to his choice for a quarterbacks coach, Kevin Rogers. Rogers and Childress got to know each other while Childress was scouting McNabb out of Syracuse for the Eagles. As the ‘Cuse offensive coordinator at the time, Rogers drew up the plays that helped make McNabb a first-team All-Big East selection for four straight seasons. At Virginia Tech, Rogers helped turn Marcus Vick into a first-team All-ACC pick in Vick’s only season as a full-time quarterback.

Rogers’ track record of mentoring quarterbacks must have crossed Childress mind when he brought another dual-threat passer into the fold at Minnesota: 2006 second-round pick Tarvaris Jackson.

Two other members of Minnesota’s offensive staff—assistant offensive line coach Jim Hueber and running backs coach Eric Bienemy—are on their second go-round with Childress. Hueber was a running backs and O-Line coach at Wisconsin during Childress’ stay with the Badgers, and Bienemy lined up as a running back for the Eagles in Childress’ first season in Philly.

*    *    *   

Neither Childress’ own offensive pedigree nor his habit of hiring familiar faces, however, have translated to a potent Vikings offense. In Childress’ first season as a head coach, the Vikings set franchise lows in first downs and touchdown passes, finishing 23rd in the league in yards gained and 26th in scoring.

After a brutal 104-yard, three first down-effort in a 9-7 loss to Green Bay that season, Childress stood firmly behind what he called “a kick-ass offense,” and said execution—not planning—was the problem.

The team has made progress since, clocking in at 15th and 12th in scoring in 2007 and 2008 respectively, and hovering around the middle of the pack in yardage. But in spite of a coaching staff that features a bevy of quarterback gurus, Minnesota has yet to develop an effective passing attack.

A pair of prolific Adrian Peterson-led rushing campaigns admittedly haven’t helped the Vikings’ pass rankings—No. 28 in 2007, No. 25 in 2008—but Minnesota’s quarterbacks also posted the No. 21 quarterback rating in the league in 2007, followed up by a No. 19 effort last year.

And while offensive line coach Pat Morris (whose multiple coaching stops include a year at NAU before Childress’ time there) deserves credit for orchestrating one of the league’s best run-blocking efforts, Minnesota’s 8.7 percent sack rate in 2008—the fifth-highest in the league—didn’t do Vikings passers any favors.

If Childress and Rogers envisioned Jackson as the second coming of McNabb, they’ve yet to work their magic in bringing the Mississippi State product along: In 19 career starts over three seasons, Jackson has 20 touchdowns and 18 picks, along with a 58.4 percent completion rate. Barring unforeseen circumstance, his shot at a starting job this season likely will be the last such chance he gets with Minnesota.

*    *    *

Childress didn’t call plays in Philadelphia, but did so in his first two seasons in Minnesota. The team’s middling offensive performance in both years prompted him to yield play-calling duties to Bevell in ’08, but the impact was negligible: The Vikings score 14 more points under Bevell’s care, and accrued 91 fewer yards.

Given how closely Childress and Bevell have collaborated over the years, flipping headset responsibilities between the two is unlikely to produce drastically different on-field results. Then again, the same can be said of Childress and Rogers, both of whom have succeeded in the past with a style of quarterback play that they’ve been unable to recreate in Minnesota.

If the Vikings retain Childress past 2009 but want to shake up the offense, look for Bevell or Rogers to take the fall in favor of an outside hire who can push Childress with a fresh perspective.

 

The second part of this profile on Minnesota’s coaching staff—a looks at the team’s defensive and special teams coaches—can be found here.

Ten Questions for Visanthe Shiancoe of the Minnesota Vikings

Just call Visanthe Shiancoe a late bloomer.

The 91st overall pick of the 2003 draft spent four years in obscurity as a Giants reserve. Even after Shiancoe found a role with the Vikings in 2007, even the most dedicated of gridiron enthusiasts would’ve been hard-pressed to identify the tight end walking down the street—let alone justify the five-year, $18.2 million dollar deal ($7 million guaranteed) that Minnesota sent his way.

Since then, however, the Vikings’ investment in Shiancoe has yielded considerable returns. He posted his most productive season in the league in the first year of the deal, and started knocking on the door of the upper echelon of NFL tight ends in the second.

What makes Shiancoe’s motor run on the field? What keeps him busy away from the game? And what else do Vikings fans need to know to understand the man behind No. 81?

Five Personnel Questions That Could Impact the Minnesota Vikings’ Playbook

On the coaching front, the Vikings’ offseason moves were those of a team content with its schemes.

The handful of new faces on Minnesota’s staff—an assistant special teams coach, a player development assistant, and an assistant to the head coach—aren’t exactly the makings of a shake-up, and head coach Brad Childress will go to work with the same group of coordinators that ran the show in ’08.

Then again, Childress has maintained throughout his three-year tenure at the helm that he’s looking to improve his players, not his plays. After the Vikings managed just three first downs and 104 total yards in a Week 16 loss to Green Bay in 2006—en route to franchise lows of 272 first downs and 13 touchdown passes on the year—Childress insisted that his is “a kick-ass offense when it’s executed properly.”

But while a shift in coaching philosophy is unlikely, a handful of roster changes might compel Childress and his staff to tinker with a few sections of the playbook, whether to play up new strengths or cover for unexpected weaknesses. Here, we’ll examine five Vikings personnel questions that could impact the team’s play calls in ’09.

Five Plays from ’08 that Made the Minnesota Vikings Tick

As a rule, a team trying to lure a 39-year-old quarterback out of retirement has a few kinks to work out when it comes to moving the ball.

After all, Minnesota didn’t start making courtesy calls to Brett Favre in early May just to watch Packer fans squirm. The Vikings were looking to bring the team’s No. 17-ranked offense (and No. 25 passing attack) up to speed with a No. 6 defense.

As it stands, Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and head coach Brad Childress have plenty of shortcomings to shore up.

But not every play in Minnesota’s repertoire needs an overhaul. The seven games in which the Vikings put up 28 points or better last year indicated an offense that was boom or bust, capable of both scoring in a hurry and tripping over its own feet.

We’ll get into the latter a little later. For now, here’s a look at a handful of the calls from ’08 that Childress would do well to keep on the clipboard this season.

Brett Favre to the Minnesota Vikings? Bad Idea

So an anonymous source told ESPN.com that Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings will meet at an undisclosed location for reasons unknown.

Forget deep throws—this year’s version of Favre’s “will he or wont he?” saga is starting to sound an awful lot like Deep Throat.

Actually, the reason for Favre’s clandestine conference with Vikings head coach Brad Childress is well documented: The gun-slinging graybeard wants to talk about a comeback that would put him in purple.

Super.

It’s not hard to spout off a dozen reasons why Favre should go gentle into that good night, for real this time. Legacy, credibility, fans, yada yada yada.

So we’ll skip that part and get to the burning question:

Why on Earth would the Vikings hitch their wagon to Favre?

He raced the Jets out to a 9-3 start last year—before throwing two touchdowns and seven picks in a 1-4 finish to miss the playoffs. He completed a troubling 56 percent of his passes for a minuscule 5.77 yards per attempt.

The drop-off was thanks in part to a bicep injury that the team thought needed surgery, but Favre has yet to go under the knife. He’s hoping the torn tendon heals itself.

That’s a fine idea for someone who plans to spend him time lounging around the farm.

For a man who throws a football for a living? Not so much.

Favre’s last handful of games in bad weather—most notably, his NFC title game defeat two seasons ago, in which he looked like he would rather be anywhere other than frigid Green Bay—suggests that his days as a master of the elements are in the rear-view mirror.

Pushing 40, Favre’s status as an outdoorsman at this point is strictly limited to his affinity for hunting.

How is that going to play when the Vikes roll into Lambeau on Nov. 1? How about when they visit Soldier Field on Dec. 28?

In fact, Favre’s performance last year suggests that at this age, he’s no sure bet to be an upgrade at all over Minnesota’s quarterback situation.

Considering the Vikings’ presumed starter is Tarvaris Jackson, that’s not saying much. Jackson completed 59 percent of his passes against the 66 percent Favre put on the money.

Jackson averaged a fumble per start—Favre coughed up 10 on the season—and was sacked on 8.6 percent of his attempts, while Favre went down 4.8 percent of the time.

But Jackson also threw for nine touchdowns and two interceptions in five starts, while Favre offered up 22 picks to go along with 22 scores.

A team built to win on defense, rushing, and ball control—as Minnesota is—puts a premium on mistake-free football. And even at his best, Favre has never been mistaken for mistake-free.

Jackson is no slam-dunk at quarterback. But at this point, neither is Favre. And only one of the two still has his best football ahead of him.

Then there’s the baggage.

If Favre attracted a media circus in New York, suiting up for a team with no ties to Green Bay, he’ll bring an outright maelstrom with him in a division in which he squares off against the Pack twice a year.

And when his annual “mull the future” routine rolls around in the 2010 offseason, he’ll be Minnesota’s problem.

Remember that Childress isn’t just coaching to win this year—heading into Year Four of a five-year contract, on a team with Super Bowl aspirations, he’s coaching for his job.

He already has taken a tremendous gamble in tying his fate so heavily to Jackson’s development.

For both Childress and the Vikings, Favre would be a bad bet.

« Previous Page

NFL Sport Channel Latest

• Just How Far Would You Go?
• Sorry Rex, But It Isn’t Happening
• Super Bowl Predictions: Five Stat-Free Reasons Why the Eagles Will Reach The Super Bowl
• Seahawks Attempt to Turn Corner With Heavy Pursuit of Pete Carroll
• Bill Cowher Unlikely to Coach in 2010