Categories: General News
| On 8 years ago

New Offensive Line Identity Coming Fast: Vikings Hire Tony Sparano

By Adam Warwas

Image courtesy of Vikings.com

The Minnesota Vikings parted ways with offensive line coach Jeff Davidson yesterday, as reported yesterday.

Today, Mike Zimmer is wasting no time in making changes that will provide a new identity to a unit that allowed 221 sacks during Davidson’s five years at the helm.

According to Sid Hartman, the Vikings have replaced Davidson with a former colleague of Zimmer’s and another product of the Bill Parcells coaching tree.

Tony Sparano is best known as the former Miami Dolphins head coach that went 29-31 before being fired in 2011. He has since acted as the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets (2012), an assistant head coach and offensive line coach in Oakland (2013 and 2014), and then the tight ends coach in San Francisco this last season.

Sparano is well respected within league circles and will provide some hope to Minnesota’s fan base regarding the offensive line. The Vikings will have plenty of opportunity to overhaul their depth chart along the line, the hope is that center John Sullivan will return fully healthy in 2016, and guard Mike Harris already sounds committed to returning to Minnesota despite his ability to test free agency in March.

Improved blocking up front will go a long ways towards evaluating Teddy Bridgewater’s development as an NFL quarterback, while also improving matters for the Vikings rushing attack that is currently slated to feature another season of Adrian Peterson.

Adam Warwas

Adam Warwas (Founder) has been writing about the Vikings for a total of eight years. Five of those years have been here at Vikings Territory where he continues to surround himself with enough talented individuals that people keep coming back. As proud as he is of what Vikings Territory has become, his real treasures are in his home... a beautiful wife and three amazing children (and a dog named Percy).

Tags: Mike Harris Mike Zimmer tony sparano

View Comments

  • I don't understand why he's available to be our line coach... And why does he keep getting demoted?

  • I thought this guy was the head of the Mafia? Good hire I think. Things can't get much worse on that o-line than they have been.

  • This was a Bill Parcells influenced hire. Bill really thought highly of Sparano. I wonder if Bill will be helping pick players also??

  • Put me in the Morpheus camp of knowing Teddy is the one, no additional evaluation needed. Just need a better offensive line. I get it, but when people say we still need to evaluate him it sounds like Ponder-esque doubts.

    Good to see they identify the offensive line as major priority and are wasting no time.

  • Also I read that Sporano favors a run oriented, physical offense. As someone who wants to move on from Adrian being the focal point of the offense, I don't like the sounds of this. Is this a,signal that we can expect more of the run on first down 80% of the time approach.

    Maybe no reason for concern, but an online coach who understands this is passing league would be comforting. Not saying Soprano doesn't, just concerned that our focus seems still to be on running the offense through AD as signaled by this hire. Perhaps I'm reading too much into Sporano's philosophy of run oriented.

  • Coached with Zim 03 through 06 in Dallas Zimmer knows him in Zimmer I trust. Can't wait for the draft. I don't think that we'll get much in free agency. Just a couple more pieces to the puzzle and supper bowl here we come. Skoll Vikings drink from the skullcap of Rodgers

  • I like this hire and trust that the next step is a couple of free agent moves and high draft picks to give Sporano something better to work with.
    Also hold some hope that Sporano can bring Kalil along to be the player we saw his rookie season.