Vikings hire Paul Guenther as Senior Defensive Assistant

On Wednesday, Minnesota Vikings’ head coach Mike Zimmer added another long-time NFL coach to his defensive coaching staff.

The team has hired Paul Guenther as a senior defensive assistant. The announcement came down earlier on Wednesday.

Guenther. . .and stop me if you’ve heard this one. . .has worked with Mike Zimmer in the past, as the two were on the Cincinnati Bengals’ coaching staff together. When Zimmer took the job as the head coach in Minnesota, Guenther was promoted from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator, a job he held through the 2017 season.

For the past three seasons, Guenther held the defensive coordinator job with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders. He was fired by the Silver and Black in mid-December following a bad loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

This feels similar to what the Vikings did last offseason when they hired Dom Capers to come in and do. . .something. Honestly, for the life of me, I covered this team for the entire 2020 season and still don’t have the foggiest idea what exactly it was that Dom Capers did for this football team.

So, whatever it is that Paul Guenther is going to be doing for the Vikings, I certainly hope it has better results than the last time the team tried the “senior defensive assistant” thing. Given the way the Vikings’ defense looked for most of last season, it almost has to, doesn’t it?