Today, Leslie Frazier did exactly what every head coach begins a season hoping he doesn’t have to do, he gave his end of the season press conference without being able to boast an NFL Championship.
That doesn’t mean, however, that this three-win team from a year ago doesn’t have plenty of positives to hang their hat on as they leave Winter Park and Frazier made sure to point out each of those.
As anyone could predict, Frazier said all of the right things that one would expect him to say at the presser, which you can watch by clicking here. Because of these expectations, I hardly feel that things he said are really newsworthy because we all knew exactly what would be said.
Christian Ponder is the starter next year. Frazier would like to see everybody back to training camp no matter how old they are getting, how much they are getting paid, or how little they produced this season. Joe Webb will compete for a backup spot again. Percy Harvin has no attitude problems and has no reason to not come back next season.
All positive… but all predictable.
I’m not suggesting he is not genuine when touching on the positives, I simply mean to point out that not much stock should be put into his words when it comes to the touchier subjects.
I will say this, however, I cannot remember a Vikings head coach in my lifetime that presents himself as well as Leslie Frazier. The guy is pure class, and I am excited about him getting his contract extension, which both he and Zygi Wilf indicated would be worked out at some point this offseason.
Leslie Frazier improved greatly in his second season as Head Coach and he represents the Minnesota Vikings organization about as well as, if not better than, any coach in the NFL represents their respective teams.
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I'm not sure I'm comfortable with him saying Ponder is the starter next year? Really? No competition once again? They always at least say there will be competition at every position. Big mistake here Denzel
they have to coddle ponder still a little bit, i think
yeah, frazier is very genuine, his players like him, respect him, and will work hard for him. he's growing nicely into his HC job
now, you can delete this next one, adam, if you wish, and i'll understand, but you mentioned vikings coaches with class (YOU MUST BE 18 OR OLDER TO VIEW THIS NEXT ENTRY. YEAH, IT'S THE LAW!)
YOU MUST BE 18 OR OLDER TO VIEW THIS NEXT ENTRY. YEAH, IT’S THE LAW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNcBFZ26lcI
Loved Burnsie Cal....and he loved the four letter words. It's amazing....that's what old Bud was listening to on that headset all those years. He never batted an eye.
and that was after a game they WON
i liked the last one best
Geez Cal I dont know how much more they should coddle Ponder? Is he really that fragile? No offense Freds. I think he's been coddled way too much and I havent seen any reason to think he's the answer. Maybe I'm watching the wrong games or something? He needs a true competition and go from there.
idk what exactly it is, but ponder just seems kind of naive. some guys you need to whip like a stubborn donkey, some guys have to be handled with kid gloves
Ponder's obvioulsy the starter going into the season, the question is who do they bring in to compete to be the backup. They really should try to trade Webb to one of the zone read oriented teams in the league that could actually use him. He's entering the last year of his contract next year so if they can get something for him they might as well. I love having an athletic backup that can bring the play-ground offense to the game at any moment, but it's pretty obvious that there isn't much room for that in the Musgrave offense. They need a decent backup that fits the system and hopefully they'll be able to get a guy that does push Ponder. The competition would be good for him. Christian needs to learn a little from Frazier though. PFT has his comments where he used Percy's name in the past tense several times on the rumor board. Dude, if someone asks you if you expect the best receiver on the team to return next year you say yes and leave it alone like Frazier did. Same thing about the injury he had. If your listed with an elbow on the injury report tell the press your elbow is messed up and than mention the tricep after. Don't say your elbow is fine. Your team can get fined for this stuff.
"that this three-win team doesn’t have plenty of positives to hang their hat on as they leave Winter Park and Frazier made sure to point out each of those."
That's a typo, right? The 3 win team was last year right? This is a 10 win team (Unbelievably).
I'm with you Adam, I like Leslie Fraizer a WHOLE lot more today than I did a year ago.
Still would like to see him, just once, grab his hat and throw it on the field at a bad call, maybe even kick a little dirt every once in awhile. . .
Agreed freddy, emotion is needed in football now a days. Heck i love watching ozzie guillen during baseball season
Franny***
Fran,
Understandable,Would be cool.But he is alot like Tony Dungy... Class act, I wish i could stay as calm as him.
Even in everyday life...
Thanks for the catch Fran. Now that everybody has read this that is going to, and never will again... I fixed it, lol.
Thanks :)
I still like the idea of adding one more year, make someone in the NFL earn their money for once. I don't wanna be stuck with the next wisenhunt/turner/ryan/Turner/childress and not be able to dump him because he just got an extension.
Absolutely agree. Frazier is a decent coach, no question but let’s be real here, he's riding the back of one of the best RB's the NFL has ever seen and who wouldn't look good? I still see the lack of adjustments most every game. This last playoff game is the prime example. Why didn't he walk over to Musgrave after he noticed Musgrave had decided Webb was a pocket passer and say something like; "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!??" Then he should have thrown his hat on the field, kicked some dirt over Musgrave’s shoes and yanked Musgrave’s headset off him and took over the offense.
The jury is still out. Let’s see what he does next season. Hopefully the Wilfs learned a lesson after they extended Childo prematurely.
He should of just punched him right in the neck.
Really tho, I'm fine with his calm demeanor. But I guess everybody's different.
LOL Cart...I caught an image of Les going all gangsta on Musgrave...awesome.
I would have loved to have seen it. Would have possibly changed the outcome of the game. We'll never know.