Minnesota Vikings Interested In Todd Bowles For Defensive Coordinator Position
by Christopher Gates on Jan 15, 2012 9:24 PM CST
in Minnesota Vikings 2012 Off-Season
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PrintSo now that the Minnesota Vikings have officially put Fred Pagac out of his misery and taken the defensive coordinator job away from him, the question of who they'll actually place in that spot is still out there. As pointed out by NMVike in the FanPosts earlier today (during the execution at Lambeau), a new name has emerged, and it appears that the Vikings might have some competition for him.
NFL.com's Jason LaCanfora is reporting that the Vikings are interested in Miami Dolphins' defensive coordinator (and interim head coach) Todd Bowles for the the position of defensive coordinator. The Oakland Raiders have interviewed Bowles for their head coaching position, and the Dolphins are also interested in retaining him as their defensive coordinator, if not removing the "interim" tag from his title. The Dolphins were spurned by former Tennessee Titans' head coach Jeff Fisher, who decided to take the job with the St. Louis Rams.
The Dolphins had a bit of a rough season in 2011, losing their first seven games of the year before recovering to end up with a record of 6-10. Defensively, however, the Dolphins actually appeared to be pretty good on paper, finishing 6th in the National Football League in scoring defense, allowing just 19.6 points/game. (I say "on paper" because I didn't see a whole lot of Dolphins games this season.)
Miami allowed 23.7 points/game during their 0-7 start, but just 16.3 points/game over their final nine (when they went 6-3). Former coach Tony Sparano was fired after the team's 13th game of the year, and Bowles took over the reins, leading Miami to a 2-1 mark in their final three games, with the one blemish being a 27-24 loss to the high-flying New England Patriots.
Bowles sounds like he would be a good get, but it also sounds like we have some competition for him. Hopefully things will sort themselves out on this front relatively soon.
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Sounds pretty good
Except that it doesn’t make much sense to me as to why we would go to the effort of trying to bring him in as DC if he is being courted by multiple teams as their HC… unless it was a real low-key effort…
by liveforadrenaline on Jan 15, 2012 9:34 PM CST reply actions
Exactly...
If you’re being offered a DC position with the 3-13 Vikes and a HC position with the 8-8 Raiders plus your current employer seems to want you for a HC… Hard to see how Minnesota can compete (unless they pull out the really big wallet and then it’s a matter of whether or not that’s the best way to spend the dough). Sure, Oakland has a reputation for being dysfunctional, but the Dolphins seem to want that rep as well.
Honestly, with the lack of a lot of talent on D
why didn’t we just stick with what we had? If Frazier can stay, why not the whole bunch? This seems like making moves just for the sake of making moves. Very odd.
maybe it's because of the player mutiny on defense that was happening.
well then who the hell are you talkin' to...are you talkin' to me?
Sounds like a good grab to me. He seemed like a pretty good coach as an interim at Miami.
Let’s go for it. Him or Spags.
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." -Mark Twain
This doesn't bode well for Singletary
If Singletary was “their guy” (and apparently he has already interviewed for the position), then a)why are they now interested in Todd Bowles? b)why are they potentially interested in Luis Castillo (should PHI hire Spagnuolo) and c)why did they offer Pagac the Linebackers position?
As much as we all fear that Singletary and Pagac just swap positions, with this new development, I don’t see it. I think the bigger question is, will Pagac want to stay on as the LB coach. If not, then they probably keep Singletary as the LB coach. Then the next question is, can they find another DC. If not, then they probably keep Singletary as the DC and roll with either Pagac or somebody else as the LB coach. But in both cases, I think Singletary is merely a fall back option, and at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see then hire somebody new for both the DC and LB positions.
Ponder. Peterson. Percy. Purple Perfection.
Saw a report a week or so ago on Singletary
Thought only saw the one and nothing else since then. There were alot of concerns about Singletary as some were claiming he seemed more involved with side things, late too some practices and at times seemed distracted. Again, I saw this one, it was on Yahoo I believe, and nothing since, so big grain of salt. But if there seems to be looking outside of the franchise for a DC, perhaps there is some silent concern on Singletary?
Who knows
And if I come across that article I saw, I will post it.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is a war room!
by VikesFaninNM on Jan 15, 2012 9:57 PM CST up reply actions
Found it!
Here’s the link to the article about Singletary
Concerns about Mike Singletary’s preperation
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is a war room!
by VikesFaninNM on Jan 16, 2012 10:56 AM CST up reply actions
yea, i saw that report as well, it was in a piece by pelissero on 1500espn.com
The wild card is Mike Singletary, a longtime friend of Frazier’s who was viewed as a coordinator candidate when he joined the team as assistant head coach/linebackers coach in January, less than a month after the San Francisco 49ers fired him as head coach.
.
Concerns about Singletary’s strategic acumen followed him to Minnesota, and his approach to preparation has raised red flags. According to two sources, Singletary has left assistant Jeff Imamura in charge of some position meetings, skipped all of the Vikings’ meetings the night before last month’s game at Detroit to attend a wedding and has occupied himself much of the season with side projects instead of the next opponent.
.
That all makes it far more likely Frazier will try to engineer a soft exit for Singletary than promote him into a coordinator position for which many experienced candidates could be available. But their close personal relationship complicates the issue.
i’d be happier if he were “no longer with the team”.
well then who the hell are you talkin' to...are you talkin' to me?
funny how our DC targets all have a DB coaching background...
"Th_r_'s n_ h_p_ f_r _ssh_l_ f_ckw_ts."
Can I buy a vowel...?? +1, Kluwe.
A very good kind of funny.
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." -Mark Twain
They always have recently
I think Tomlin was a DB coach, Frazier was DB coach.. Then we go and throw in a LB coach, and look what happens.
by REVENGE4KLUWE on Jan 16, 2012 12:12 AM CST up reply actions
Speilman pointed out how we have a heavy passing division
With Stafford 5,000 yrd passing 41TD’s, Rodgers 45TD’s, and Cutler chucking it for da bears. He’s hoping we can find someone who will help our pass-D in a huge way and boy do we need it.
We can only hope
with our defensive coordinator spot empty at the moment and the scary possibility of Singletary being our new defensive coordinator. We really need to get this guy, fire Singletary, and retain Pagac as our linebacker coach.
According to Judd Zulgad:
No one on the Vikes staff may have job security after next season, including Frazier. Therefore, no big name DC may be willing to take the job or else they may wind up like McDaniels with the Rams. He, did however score by being re-hired by the Pats.
So, there is pretty much no hope of scoring anyone other than Singletary or a no name no experience coach.
Uff-da.
Wouldn't it make more sense to...
Interview candidates from winning teams?? In the same vein the Vikings have a tendency to seek out wide receivers from the Bears. Wouldn’t it make more sense to search for receivers from teams like NE, NO, or Indy??
Who's saying he wants to interview fired coaches?
Sometimes people jump ship to another team if they can get paid more/feel its a better situation. Like Rob Ryan. I don’t think the Browns fired him, he simply left.
by REVENGE4KLUWE on Jan 16, 2012 12:16 AM CST up reply actions
Mike Tomlin
Teams don’t have to fire their coaches. Look at Mike Tomlin. I don’t think he was ever fired. Coaches can be promoted through the ranks.
It's all about COACHING
Look at the 2010 version of the 49ers.
HC – Mike Singletary
DC – Greg Manusky
OC – Mike Johnson
They were fired by the 49ers following the 2010 season and found their new jobs.
BUT… Manusky again got fired after only one year as the Chargers DC. Johnson also got fired after only one year as the UCLA’s OC. Both are now out of job.
Singletary is a LB coach with no experience at defensive coordinator.
not to mention the fact that the 2011 version of the 49ers are in the nfc championship game.
with pretty much the same roster.
well then who the hell are you talkin' to...are you talkin' to me?
Wouldn't it be nice if we were interested in assistants from
WINNING teams? The better teams in the league are going to try and raid coaching staffs of the Packers, Texans, Bengals, Saints, etc. Playoff teams. We’re attempting to raid the staffs of fellow top 10 drafting teams (and getting turned down quite a bit I might add).
Like others have suggested, maybe the college coaches are where we should be looking now since the NFL assistants seem to be avoiding us.
The problem appears to be
That people are walking into a potential one year job as Frazier et al will be gone after next year. A clean sweep is a strong possibility if the season ends up the same next year so people aren’t inclined to leave what they have for this. If the Wilfs clean house next year, then you would see interested parties then, but not this year. Unless they throw gobs of money at someone, but that wouldn’t make too much sense.
Just get it RIGHT this time
We need to make sure we assemble a great coaching staff this time around. The great teams have great coaching staffs.. Imagine that.
I would actually like to see Bowles get the job. He did a good job with the DB’s in Dallas, as well as in Miami. And he held the team together when he was the interim coach for the last three games. His players rallied around him all season, as did the rest of the team for the last three games. He’s better than Morris, cheaper than Spags, and probably more open to coming here than Tucker. Personally, I hope this happens.
I hope Pagac comes back with LB’s. He was actually very successful at that position, and he’s familiar with the players and the situation already.
As far as Singletary goes, I don’t really care if he stays or not, however I hope it’s in a smaller capacity. Defensive Assistant/Assistant to the Head Coach, this could allow Leslie to keep his BFF in house, and allow Singletary time for all of his side projects. There, you get to have your cake and enjoy it too.
I would actually like to see Juan Castillo join our staff if fired/demoted by the Eagles. He’s a respected, experienced and loyal coach who could help our staff. Many teams have an offensive/defensive quality control coach, or offensive/defensive assistant and we have neither of those positions. I would be completely for adding a new coaching position so that Juan Castillo could join our staff. He brings a lot of experience and knowledge on both sides of the ball, and would be a great add to our staff.
I’m interested to see what happens to the rest of our defensive staff from Pagac’s possible demotion, to the shuffling around, and what happens with Joe Woods.
At this point I ideally would like to see:
HC- Leslie Frazier
OC- Bill Musgrave
QB- Craig Johnson
AQB- Kevin Stefanski
RB- James Saxon
WR- George Stewart
AWR- Ryan Ficken
TE- Jimmie Johnson
OL- Jeff Davidson
AOL- Ryan Silverfield
Offensive/Defensive Quality Control, Offensive/Defensive Assistant, Assitant Head Coach- Juan Castillo
DC- Todd Bowles
DL- Diron Reynolds
ADL-????
LB- Fred Pagac
ALB- Jeff Imamura
DB- Joe Woods
ADB- Matt Sheldon
Defensive Assistant/Special Assistant to Head Coach- Mike Singletary
STC- Mike Preifer
ASTC- Chris White
We keep the continuity in the offensive staff for our young QB/players. We add a lot of experience and knowledge with Juan Castillo in a new position(s) appointed by Coach Frazier. We get a respected up and comer in Todd Bowles as our DC, Pagac goes back to his ideal spot with the LB’s, Diron Reynold’s gets a promotion to DL coach (he’s the rumored favorite) which keeps continuity on the DL, anddddd Frazier gets to keep his buddy Singletary in a smaller role.
That’s just my idea anyway.
dfewkes15
Pelissero
@TomPelissero Tom Pelissero
Another Tampa-2 guy. RT @JasonLaCanfora: The Vikings requested permission to interview Colts DB Coach Alan Williams for their DC position.
Continued addition of candidates sure gives the strong impression #Vikings don’t want Singletary as coordinator. They’re searching hard.
I wonder if Frazier is fucking things up with his marriage to the Tampa 2? Looks that way.
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