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Less than twenty-four hours after the Phlop in Philadelphia, the Minnesota Vikings officially find themselves in need of a new Offensive Coordinator.
Confirming reports that we had heard for the past couple of weeks, the New York Giants have announced that Pat Shurmur is the new head coach of their team. The Giants fired Ben McAdoo before the season ended, and now have got their guy.
Shurmur came to the Vikings before the start of the 2016 season as the team’s tight ends coach, but was promoted to Offensive Coordinator following the resignation of Norv Turner before the halfway point of that season. Shurmur was given the permanent OC title prior to this season.
Under Shurmur’s watch this year, the Vikings’ offense improved dramatically in both yardage and points scored on their way to a 13-3 record and the team’s second NFC North division title in three seasons. He pulled this off despite going with what would have been his third choice at quarterback and the early season injury to star running back Dalvin Cook.
With Shurmur officially on his way to New York, a couple of names have surfaced as potential replacements. One of them is McAdoo, which makes no sense to me, because he was awful with the Giants. The other is former San Diego Chargers head coach Mike McCoy. McCoy was the Offensive Coordinator of the Denver Broncos until this past November, when he was fired. Because Denver’s offense was awful.
Personally, I hope that this team goes out and finds someone dynamic and aggressive, whether it’s from the NFL ranks or they dip into the college realm to find their guy. Or they could promote Kevin Stefanski, who has been with the team since the Brad Childress years and has coached tight ends and running backs with the Vikings. He is currently the team’s quarterbacks coach.
But, as we’ve suspected would be the case, Pat Shurmur is no longer the Offensive Coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings. We wish him the best in his future endeavors, except for when the Vikings play the Giants.