Who’s Linked To O'Connell: Filling Out The Staff

[SemperFeist]

Just now, RpMc said:

Back to my Fangio (or someone from his tree) or bust stance now.

Given the Patriots connection, I’m not surprised. 

[SteelKing728]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

So Vic Fangio is still unemployed how?

 

Bears got Alan Williams as their DC who was with Eberflus on the Colts at least Vic is not going back to the Bears.  

 

 

Hell hire Sean Desai!  The dude is smart as can be, great communicator and is the former Bears DC this past season.  Shoot I think the Raiders maybe beat them to it, Vikings are stupid for not hiring Desai that dude has skills but maybe it would be foolish because he should be a NFL head coach in a year or two so they would not have him long.  

Never heard of him. I think Fangio would be awesome, but I get the feeling that we'll be stuck with someone like Mike Pettine.

[Ozzy]

2 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

Never heard of him. I think Fangio would be awesome, but I get the feeling that we'll be stuck with someone like Mike Pettine.

That would suck to get Pettine, if they go 3/4 defense might as well get a great 3/4 defensive coach not Mike Pettine who is tough but clearly that Packers D was greatly better without him than with him.  

 

Desai is smart as can be, very young but got his undergrad degree at Boston University, then his Masters at Columbia University then got a Doctorate at Temple.  Would love him as our DC.

[solidvikingfan]

3 hours ago, Ozzy said:

So Vic Fangio is still unemployed how?

 

Bears got Alan Williams as their DC who was with Eberflus on the Colts at least Vic is not going back to the Bears.  

 

 

Hell hire Sean Desai!  The dude is smart as can be, great communicator and is the former Bears DC this past season.  Shoot I think the Raiders maybe beat them to it, Vikings are stupid for not hiring Desai that dude has skills but maybe it would be foolish because he should be a NFL head coach in a year or two so they would not have him long.  

You shouldn't be forcing coaches on our new head coach if he is actually looking to bring these guys on fine but that does not sound like what you believe.

[Ozzy]

6 hours ago, solidvikingfan said:

You shouldn't be forcing coaches on our new head coach if he is actually looking to bring these guys on fine but that does not sound like what you believe.

Forcing coaches on our new coach?  It is my opinion, and as of right now O'Connell's ability as a head coach is a question mark because he is so inexperienced and unlike Zac Taylor on the Bengals....Joe Burrow is not all of a sudden walking through that door.   So like most great head coaches do, surrounded yourself with equal to even better coaches and then everyone wins.  

 

If not then clearly he might have some issues, Raiders brought in Graham as the DC so Desai is still out there and if they do not see that he is easily one of the best defensive coordinators currently available, then they are doing a poor job.  But I guess people hire who they know obviously so sadly they might just go down that route.  

[vikingsrule]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Forcing coaches on our new coach?  It is my opinion, and as of right now O'Connell's ability as a head coach is a question mark because he is so inexperienced and unlike Zac Taylor on the Bengals....Joe Burrow is not all of a sudden walking through that door.   So like most great head coaches do, surrounded yourself with equal to even better coaches and then everyone wins.  

 

If not then clearly he might have some issues, Raiders brought in Graham as the DC so Desai is still out there and if they do not see that he is easily one of the best defensive coordinators currently available, then they are doing a poor job.  But I guess people hire who they know obviously so sadly they might just go down that route.  

I just hope the new coaching staff doesn’t go down the route of only hiring coaches they have a connection to. Might miss out on excellent coaches if O’Connell is unwilling to get out of that comfort zone. Don’t want to see the good old boys club again like we had with Zimmer. 

[Ozzy]

55 minutes ago, vikingsrule said:

I just hope the new coaching staff doesn’t go down the route of only hiring coaches they have a connection to. Might miss out on excellent coaches if O’Connell is unwilling to get out of that comfort zone. Don’t want to see the good old boys club again like we had with Zimmer. 

Exactly, great to hire guys who you have a feel about and obviously Kwesi had a feel and connection to O'Connell, but getting the best guy for the job is better than getting someone you 'know'.  

[wcblack34]

2 hours ago, Ozzy said:

It is my opinion...

 

so Desai is still out there and if they do not see that he is easily one of the best defensive coordinators currently available, then they are doing a poor job.  But I guess people hire who they know obviously so sadly they might just go down that route.  

You state this as if it is fact, yet say it's your opinion. The "fact" is that there guys are in the league, day in and day out. Even the most non-casual of casual fans has only a fraction of the knowledge of the other coaches in the league than KOC (or any other coach) does. Maybe he is highly regarded in NFL circles too. But maybe KOC has a different vision for what he wants his defense to be and who should run it. 

He can't even have discussions (officially) with other coaches yet. Maybe he picks your guy, maybe he doesn't. Maybe your guy gets picked up before the Super Bowl by another team. 

Right now, the only real move that KOC could make that would make me think we made a bad choice is if he hired Dom Capers. 

[Ozzy]

5 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

You state this as if it is fact, yet say it's your opinion. The "fact" is that there guys are in the league, day in and day out. Even the most non-casual of casual fans has only a fraction of the knowledge of the other coaches in the league than KOC (or any other coach) does. Maybe he is highly regarded in NFL circles too. But maybe KOC has a different vision for what he wants his defense to be and who should run it. 

He can't even have discussions (officially) with other coaches yet. Maybe he picks your guy, maybe he doesn't. Maybe your guy gets picked up before the Super Bowl by another team. 

Right now, the only real move that KOC could make that would make me think we made a bad choice is if he hired Dom Capers. 

It sucks because he is probably missing out on a lot of guys in this wait time, but I cannot imagine they can't contact people at least and decisions can be made even before a deadline, go as Bill on the Patriots about that one.  You clearly have a better opinion of O'Connell than I do, I was not a super fan of his before the signing because I think it is just a copy cat thing, sign the Sean McVay assistant that was a former failed QB in college or the NFL.  At least it is in potentially the right direction and is a better direction than signing Jim Harbaugh as the HC at least.  

 

Hopefully he turns out to be great but will see, so who he hires will show just how good of a coach he is because it is wildly important.  Andre Patterson and McCardell should be brought back and if they are not that says a lot.  Could also say the same thing about Kennedy Polamalu arguably.  Vikings lost Janocko which is not a huge loss and Ficken which sucks because special teams was pretty good last year.  But if you think of all the nonsense before the season with Dennison, no real shocker the season ended up like it did, Zimmer at least was on the right side of things in terms of that little debate between those two.  

[vikingsrule]

47 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

It sucks because he is probably missing out on a lot of guys in this wait time, but I cannot imagine they can't contact people at least and decisions can be made even before a deadline, go as Bill on the Patriots about that one.  You clearly have a better opinion of O'Connell than I do, I was not a super fan of his before the signing because I think it is just a copy cat thing, sign the Sean McVay assistant that was a former failed QB in college or the NFL.  At least it is in potentially the right direction and is a better direction than signing Jim Harbaugh as the HC at least.  

 

Hopefully he turns out to be great but will see, so who he hires will show just how good of a coach he is because it is wildly important.  Andre Patterson and McCardell should be brought back and if they are not that says a lot.  Could also say the same thing about Kennedy Polamalu arguably.  Vikings lost Janocko which is not a huge loss and Ficken which sucks because special teams was pretty good last year.  But if you think of all the nonsense before the season with Dennison, no real shocker the season ended up like it did, Zimmer at least was on the right side of things in terms of that little debate between those two.  

Just because O’Connell was a bad QB doesn’t make him a bad coach. But I do generally agree, it’s getting tiresome seeing all these young coaches who have a connection to McVay get a job. Some of these hires just don’t seem warranted, but who knows. Can’t deny the successes those hires have had. Just never saw it with O’Connell but I am glad they hired more of an offensive focused coach. Would rather deal with turnover on defense than offense.

[Ozzy]

4 minutes ago, vikingsrule said:

Just because O’Connell was a bad QB doesn’t make him a bad coach. But I do generally agree, it’s getting tiresome seeing all these young coaches who have a connection to McVay get a job. Some of these hires just don’t seem warranted, but who knows. Can’t deny the successes those hires have had. Just never saw it with O’Connell but I am glad they hired more of an offensive focused coach. Would rather deal with turnover on defense than offense.

True is nice to have a offensive minded coach no question, but yeah it is getting pretty nuts, even Josh McCown who has literally never coach in the NFL has talk of being a HC with no coaching experience.  But is nothing new, usually backup QBs with little skill study the game then become assistants later because they know the offense which makes sense.  Is kind of nuts though, Zac Taylor, Matt LaFleur, Kevin O'Connell and Brandon Staley are all former white college QBs, I was shocked when recently Mike Kafka even got a OC job being behind Bieniemy and Andy Reid, but the dude is smart went to Northwestern so whatever.

Still the most annoying part is the people of color constantly passed over and over again even with Flores lawsuit, still there is a huge chance that all the head coaches hired in the NFL out of 9 spots all go to some white dude even in the current climate, no owner is stepping up obviously.  At least the Vikings stepped up and hired someone of color to be the GM so good for them in doing that.  Still is nuts that there are more black general managers than there are head coaches, just seems like the hiring process is all out of whack so clearly it is not a GM or team President thing it is an owner thing.

 

 Shahid Kahn is the only minority as an owner in the NFL and even he hired Doug Pederson when many other options where out there.  Then falls back on the QB and the relationship with the HC and the QB is apparently all that really matters in football and Doug Pederson should have a great relationship with Lawrence and was not a terrible hire.  Still to think a defensive minded head coach is going to hurt the QB's development, well that is the line of thinking currently but isn't Sean McDermott a defensive minded head coach?  He is, but oh Brian Daboll is the reason for Josh Allen's success?  No it is clearly a broken system that just goes off player performance/team performance when a lot of the time the great players get head coaches to get a better job when the coach had little to do with the success the player/team had.  

 

[vikesfan89]

A while back I remember seeing speculation that Bill B didn't give his assistants much responsibility which could have something to do with Patriot coaches not have much success elsewhere.  

It seems like even though McVay calls the plays,  his coaches have a lot to do with the game plan and preparation. Could that have anything to do with them finding early success once they leave? 

I have no idea if there is that much difference with how Bill and Mcvay handle the assistant coaches but I just had the thought

[vike daddy]

a NYG FF fan's review of Patrick Graham as a DC: "I want to follow that above post up with one big negative- his 2 minute defense is pretty poor, both at the end of the half and end of the game. We gave up something like 76 points at the end of the first half (last 2 minutes) this year, which is god awful. We forced a decent amount of turnovers at the end of games, but that was the only way we were able to close out games for the most part. 

Another note, although not a negative, is Graham's defenses normally don't reflect great in 'advanced defensive metrics'. This is because he changes the gameplan week to week and will gladly let teams run for 200 yards in a game, for example, if it means the pass game is limited and points scored are ultimately less. 

If you want to see probably the best defensive gameplan he put together while he was in NY, watch the Seahawks game from 2020. Both WFT games from 2020 are fun as well, and you've probably seen this one already, but the Raiders game from this past year was pretty good as well and also exemplifies the point I made about relying on turnovers to close out games."

 

what he said about his 2 minute defense being poor is scary....

[Frank Costello]

It feels like our whole staff is going to be based off Rams coordinators. With KO still working and not able to focus and piece his staff together officially yet. Feels like by the time he is able to, our options will be pretty thin. And they already seemed paper thin to begin with. 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Frank Costello

[Ozzy]

45 minutes ago, vike daddy said:

a NYG FF fan's review of Patrick Graham as a DC: "I want to follow that above post up with one big negative- his 2 minute defense is pretty poor, both at the end of the half and end of the game. We gave up something like 76 points at the end of the first half (last 2 minutes) this year, which is god awful. We forced a decent amount of turnovers at the end of games, but that was the only way we were able to close out games for the most part. 

 

Another note, although not a negative, is Graham's defenses normally don't reflect great in 'advanced defensive metrics'. This is because he changes the gameplan week to week and will gladly let teams run for 200 yards in a game, for example, if it means the pass game is limited and points scored are ultimately less. 

If you want to see probably the best defensive gameplan he put together while he was in NY, watch the Seahawks game from 2020. Both WFT games from 2020 are fun as well, and you've probably seen this one already, but the Raiders game from this past year was pretty good as well and also exemplifies the point I made about relying on turnovers to close out games."

 

what he said about his 2 minute defense being poor is scary....

I have never heard of Patrick Graham before this season honestly, he is from the Patriots for awhile then went to the Giants and just got hired by McDaniels and that Raiders staff.  Great we interviewed him but not all that concerned about not getting him as the DC or HC.  

 

I heard that Mike Zimmer wants to coach in 2022, I would be kind of surprised if he gets hired as a DC anywhere honestly, maybe after a year removed possibly but not sure that many teams are that high on him, sure they got a lot of sacks this year but that D was pretty bad, 3rd worst in total yards allowed per game, 5th worst in passing yards allow per game, 7th worst in rushing yards allowed per game and 9th worst in total points allowed per game.  So bottom of the league across the board and that is with a lot of vets on that D.