Could Russ Grimm be a part of a potential Mike Mularkey hiring?

Last night, we passed along the news that the Minnesota Vikings were likely not going to bring back Kevin Stefanski as the offensive coordinator, and instead appeared to be focusing on former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey to fill the vacancy.

I understand that doesn’t sound like jazzy or sexy potential hire on the surface, but one of our Twitter followers pointed out a potential aspect to this that I had not previously thought of.

As I talked about in the piece I posted earlier today, Mike Zimmer knows that he needs to fix the offensive line this offseason, and a big part of that is going to be finding an offensive line coach. Much like he did when he hired Tony Sparano, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Zimmer bring in someone with a great deal of experience that he feels he can trust.

Russ Grimm has experience, and he has it in spades.

After an outstanding career as part of the legendary “Hogs” that won three Super Bowls for the Washington Redskins, Grimm retired and joined the coaching ranks. He’s been an offensive line coach for four different teams. . .the Redskins, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Tennessee Titans. . .and has been nothing short of outstanding in all of those spots. When Mularkey took over as the coach of the Titans in 2016, he brought Grimm with him to coach the offensive line, and he transformed the Titans’ offensive line from one of the NFL’s worst to one of its best.

Grimm announced his retirement after Mularkey was relieved of his duties in Tennessee after the 2017 season, but he’s taken breaks from coaching before. After the entire coaching staff in Arizona was dismissed following the 2012 season, Grimm was out of coaching until he joined Mularkey in Tennessee in 2016. Perhaps if Mularkey was hired as an offensive coordinator in Minnesota (or anywhere else, really), he would be able to convince Grimm to join him on the sideline again.

Obviously, there hasn’t been anything formally out there that suggests that Grimm would be a part of any hiring of Mularkey. But I don’t think it can be discounted as a possibility. At this point, Grimm can probably pick his spots when it comes to coaching opportunities, and perhaps working with Mularkey again to rebuild the offensive line for a team with big aspirations would be intriguing to him.

I understand that a lot of people probably wouldn’t be terribly excited by the Minnesota Vikings hiring Mike Mularkey as their offensive coordinator. I likely would be a part of that crowd. However, I’d be a whole lot more excited about it if Russ Grimm could be convinced to come along and spearhead the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the Vikings’ offensive line.