Posts tagged: Mike Singletary

The Bears Want To Talk To Not One Vikings Coach, But Two

January 7, 2013, by 68 comments

The Chicago Bears are going through head coaching candidates like there is no tomorrow now that they have finally decided to end the Lovie Smith era.

Two of the guys they want to take a look at, according to reports, are currently employed by the Minnesota Vikings.  Assistant Head Linebackers Consultant (or something) Mike Singletary and Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer are now on the list to be interviewed in their exhaustive search.

While Singletary possesses a storied history in Chicago and some actually head coaching experience, Priefer is the intriguing name to take note of.  He is certainly a top notch coach and has turned the Vikings special teams into a premier unit during his stay in Minnesota, with reports that he hand-picked kicker Blair Walsh prior to April’s Draft, and Chicago certainly places a high value on special teams.

I was starting to feel offended, although pleasantly at peace, with the fact that no Vikings assistants were being considered for any of the current vacancies throughout the league.

Now we have a little bit of drama to monitor as other teams decide whether or not to scavenge ours.

Vikes To Receive An Extra $1.6 Million In Cap Space

March 12, 2012, by 9 comments

Prior to the signing of Sage Rosenfels, the Vikings were expected to have roughly $23 million in cap space, which is plenty of wiggle room to allow them to be active when free agency kicks off tomorrow.

Today, news broke that the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys have been caught cheating.  They didn’t install a bounty hunter program (that we know of) recently, but they did dump a bunch of money into the uncapped year which the league clearly warned teams not to do.

As a result, the NFL decided to shave the Redskins salary cap by a whopping $36 million, while the Cowboys cap penalty exceeds $10 million.  The NFLPA wouldn’t be happy to see that money just disappear altogether, so the remaining 30 teams that did not cheat will each receive an additional $1.6 million in cap space.

That includes the Vikings.

It also should be noted that Washington was expected to be a major player in the Vincent Jackson sweepstakes, but they now have considerable cap issues that could prevent them from doing so.

In fact, they had to cut safety O.J. Atogwe today, who the Vikings have been previously interested in and who just happens to be married to the daughter of Vikings assistant head coach Mike Singletary.

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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Bears Turn Down Vikings Request

January 17, 2012, by 5 comments

Perhaps the Chicago Bears are also tired of the Vikings long, drawn out search for a new Defensive Coordinator.

Jeremy Fowly of Vikings Now reports that the Bears denied a Vikings request to interview their defensive backs coach, Jon Hoke, for their currently vacant Defensive Coordinator position.

Hoke has a Tampa-2 background which is yet another indication that Leslie Frazier would like to continue to employ a 4-3 defense and that Mike Singletary is unlikely to get the gig.

Another Candidate Name Surfaces

January 16, 2012, by No comments yet

Yet another name has surfaced in the Vikings somewhat bizarre effort to fill the role of Defensive Coordinator.

Here is what we know so far:  Fred Pagac is out, but may return as the linebackers coach.  Raheem Morris and Mel Tucker were interviewed, but accepted other jobs.  Steve Spagnuolo may have the Vikings interested, but he is likely to return to Philadelphia after being dismissed by the Rams.  Finally, Mike Singletary is thought to be a candidate and things could get interesting since Pagac was offered his job with the linebackers.

Phew!

Okay, onto the new news.

According to Jason LaConfora’s Twitter account, the Vikings are expected to interview Colts defensive backs coach Alan Williams on Tuesday morning.  After all, an organization that promotes a guy to General Manager after a 3-13 season would logically be interested in a guy that coached for an organization that just went 2-14.

Williams has worked with Leslie Frazier in the past, having been with the Colts for 10 years, and as Judd Zulgad points out he has a lot of similarities to former Vikings coordinator Mike Tomlin.  Williams is a Tampa-2 guy, which is something that is likely to sit well with Frazier and his vision for his defense.

This search for a Defensive Coordinator is bordering on goofy, as the Vikings seem to be having trouble convincing candidates to join a coach that will enter 2012 on the hot seat in coaching a team that may or may not have a place in which they can, you know, play football. 

It is an understandable challenge.

However, I can’t help but wonder if one or more other things aren’t at play here.

First, if Mike Singletary were a serious candidate for this job, why is Frazier continuing to bring in candidates now that Singletary’s previous position has been offered to Pagac?  If I had to guess, I would say Singletary and his 3-4 scheme is not the direction that Frazier wants to go, and that he is doing his buddy a solid by trying to put out there into the universe the idea that Singletary is actually coveted by at least one NFL team.

Secondly, I can’t help but wonder if Frazier is purposely not pulling the trigger because he actually wants to talk to a coach that is still a part of a team that is alive in the playoffs.  Perhaps Frazier expected this guy’s team to already have lost their playoff game and that he would now be available for an interview?  Perhaps this guy’s defense recently held the 2012 Super Bowl Champion Packers to 388 yards and 20 points while employing a 4-3 defense?

Perhaps.

Why else would it be taking so long for Frazier to fill a position that has unofficially, at least for practical reasons, been vacant for nearly two months now?

Pagac Is Officially Out

January 15, 2012, by 12 comments

The Vikings had been interviewing candidates for a Defensive Coordinator position that was still held by Fred Pagac.

That ends today.

The team has not hired a new defensive coordinator yet, and the list of candidates has again grown and now includes Miami Dolphins interim head coach Todd Bowles, but they did officially remove the title from Pagac.

The Vikings offered for Pagac to return to his previous job of coaching the team’s linebackers, but it is unknown if he will be willing to accept the demotion.  The linebackers job currently is held by Mike Singletary, a candidate for the defensive coordinator position himself.

This move is thought to be a sign the Singletary will be moving to the coordinator position.

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.