Posts tagged: karl dunbar

Alan Williams Hired As Defensive Coordinator As Personnel Changes End

January 21, 2012, by 5 comments

A few weeks into the offseason, the Vikings are done making personnel changes after hiring Alan Williams as defensive coordinator and Brendan Daly as the defensive line coach. Before I jump into more details about the two new Vikings coaches (although, one of them was previously a Vikings coach in 2006-08), below is a quick recap of the few changes that were made to personnel.

  1. Karl Dunbar is fired as defensive line coach.
  2. Vikings interview anyone and everyone for the defensive coordinator position (while Fred Pagac officially holds the position)
  3. Fred Pagac is officially demoted to linebackers coach
  4. Alan Williams and Brendan Daly rumors surface. Mike Singletary remains Vikings Assistant Head Coach.
  5. Alan Williams and Brendan Daly officially announced as defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, respectively.

The Alan Williams and the Brendan Daly signings should be no surprise as the Vikings, for the longest time, are apparently only capable of hiring friends.

Alan Williams was previously the Colts defensive backs coach for 10 years. For two of those years, Leslie Frazier worked with Williams (including the Colts team that won the Super Bowl in 2006-07).

Williams will have his work cut out for him as the Vikings tote one of the NFL’s worst pass defenses. Hopefully, with the addition of a long-time defensive backs coach, the Vikings depleted secondary will receive some attention this offseason and can come back as a stronger unit in 2012. The hiring of Williams ensures that the Vikings will remain a 4-3, Tampa-2 style defense as that is what Williams ran with the Colts.

Brendan Daly, who was an assistant defensive line coach for the Vikings from 2006-08, was hired back to replace Dunbar as the defensive line coach. He comes from being the defensive line coach with St. Louis Rams from 2009-11. It should be noted that Daly was with the Vikings as an assistant defensive line coach during a stretch of time where they were the NFL’s best run defense.

For my own personal opinion on the additions to the Vikings personnel, continue reading by clicking the button below.

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Sounds Like Dunbar Is Out

January 6, 2012, by No comments yet

Reports are starting to surface that the Vikings have, as expected, officially parted ways with defensive line coach Karl Dunbar.

Some may find it funny that Dunbar, a fairly longstanding and respected member of the coaching staff, is being fired after one of his key players nearly broke the single season sack record.

The problem Leslie Frazier has with Dunbar may never be made public, but there are a few things to point towards when wondering why this has happened.

First, in May, Dunbar was charged with sexual assault and he received a restraining order as a result of the woman’s complaints.  That type of thing will never sit well with an organization trying to maintain a positive public image.

Secondly, I found it interesting that Jared Allen recently came out and enthusiastically defended defensive coordinator Fred Pagac but never said a word (that I heard or read, anyways) about what a great job Dunbar, his position coach, had been doing.  Allen is seemingly willing to fight tooth and nail for Pagac, which makes his silence on Dunbar even more telling.

Dunbar is likely the first of multiple coaching changes to be made on defense.

Pagac may or may not stay in his current role and may even be bound to leave the team all together.  We already passed along the fact that the Vikings are talking to Raheem Morris about a role on the defense.

Another interesting thing to throw into all of that, Larry Fitzgerald Sr. is a fairly connected guy within the Minnesota sports community, and he is under the impression that Mike Singletary will be the next defensive coordinator of your Minnesota Vikings.