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Why Dennis Green couldn't take us all the way


y*so*blu

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3 hours ago, Virginia Viking said:

The defense...the defense...the defense.  Denny paid little attention to that side of the ball, yet they weren't completely lacking in talent, however, especially in the Moss, Carter, Reed years the offense was a quick strike offense.  This meant that the defense was on the field a lot more than the offense was.  I think I would have let Denny go in favor of promoting Tony Dungy to head coach...but, that's using my 20/20 hindsight!!

I remember reading somewhere that Green himself was afraid that would happen. And it was a real possibility, because his struggles with the media were getting worse and they had just come off an 8-8 season in '95. Looking back, I wish we'd promoted Dungy as well. 

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On 5/18/2019 at 4:54 PM, Klomp said:

I'd actually argue that the QB position was a major part of his struggles.

1992: Rich Gannon was 27 and team started 8-3, but Green benched him for Sean Salisbury in Week 12
1993: Signed 34-year old Jim McMahon
1994: Signed 37-year old Warren Moon
1996: Brad Johnson replaced injured Moon
1998: Signed 35-year old Randall Cunningham
1999: Job split between 36-year old Cunningham and 32-year old Jeff George
2000: Job given to 23-year old Daunte Culpepper

I always considered Denny to be a great offensive mind, and in many ways he was, but I don't think he knew how to develop QB's very well.  I will always remember an interview I heard on Sirius NFL Radio of Rich Gannon where he sang the praises of Mike McCarthy.  He gave a huge amount of credit to McCarthy for helping him when he was playing in Kansas City.  He said it was McCarthy who taught him how to study film, how to prepare for games and many of the other things that were required to become a very good NFL quarterback.  He said he learned things from McCarthy that he had never even heard of up to that point in his career.  As we all know, Gannon played in Minnesota for a number of years before ending up in KC.  This was a real eye-opener for me when it came to Denny's deficiencies as a coach.

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10 minutes ago, Uncle Buck said:

I always considered Denny to be a great offensive mind, and in many ways he was, but I don't think he knew how to develop QB's very well.  I will always remember an interview I heard on Sirius NFL Radio of Rich Gannon where he sang the praises of Mike McCarthy.  He gave a huge amount of credit to McCarthy for helping him when he was playing in Kansas City.  He said it was McCarthy who taught him how to study film, how to prepare for games and many of the other things that were required to become a very good NFL quarterback.  He said he learned things from McCarthy that he had never even heard of up to that point in his career.  As we all know, Gannon played in Minnesota for a number of years before ending up in KC.  This was a real eye-opener for me when it came to Denny's deficiencies as a coach.

Gannon and Green only spent 1992 together. Before that was Burns/Schnelker and one year of Tom Moore as OC.

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6 hours ago, Klomp said:

Gannon and Green only spent 1992 together. Before that was Burns/Schnelker and one year of Tom Moore as OC.

Oh ok.  Still, it doesn't surprise me with Burnsie either.  He was the guy who refused to work with what we had in Herschel Walker after the front office mortgaged the farm for him. 

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1 hour ago, Uncle Buck said:

Oh ok.  Still, it doesn't surprise me with Burnsie either.  He was the guy who refused to work with what we had in Herschel Walker after the front office mortgaged the farm for him. 

I don't think he refused to work with Herschel, he just didn't know how to use him.  

And in reference to Gannon, I do think that the failure of teaching him falls more on Burns and Schnelker...because it should also be noted that, unlike in KC, the Vikings didn't have a QB coach under Burns...and there were 2 veteran QBs ahead of Gannon in Kramer and Wilson who had zero interest in helping Gannon, as they were more interested in sustaining their own careers (well, at least Wilson was, Kramer spent all of his free time getting wasted)...then he had Sean Salisbury ahead of him who was trying to get his first starting job, so he certainly wasn't interested in helping either.   He didn't get a real QB coach in until his 5th year in the league (1991) when Marc Trestman was moved to QB coach after spending his first year back with the Vikings as Burns' assistant.    

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