Minnesota Vikings Have The Roster Quality To Find Top Head Coach, But Key Decision At QB Position Looms

Just a few weeks ago, there was a common thought around the NFL that head coaching openings would not be plentiful at the conclusion of the 2021 season. It seemed likely that the Vikings, Chicago Bears and the Denver Broncos would be in the market for a new head coach, and the Jacksonville Jaguars clearly needed a new leader after firing Urban Meyer late in the season.

However, instead of a foursome of openings, there are eight as the divisional playoffs are about to hit full flight. The Giants fired Joe Judge, the Dolphins got rid of Brian Flores, the Texans canned David Culley and the Raiders have not given their head coaching position to interim boss Rich Bisaccia yet.

When there are four head coaching openings, teams have a much better chance of finding and hiring the right man for the job. But when there’s an eight-pack of vacancies, reeling in the ideal head coach is much more challenging.

First a team has to find the right candidate, and once that happens, it’s a matter of making the right offer and delivering the head coach to the team.

There are many factors that a potential head coach has to consider, but having a team that seems capable of winning is clearly a key factor in finding the best person to fill the position. It’s of a similar vein to Herman Edwards’ famous quote. “You play to win the game. You don’t play to play. You play to win the game.”

It’s probably even more true for coaches. Nobody wants to coach just to say they are a head coach and then lose 15 of 17 games. You might get a year, maybe even two, and then that coach is branded as a loser and is never heard from again. A coach has to win and show improvement to stay among the ranks of the employed.

That may turn out to be good news for the Vikings. While there is quite a bit of work to do on the roster, there are a number of major assets that could easily turn Minnesota back into a winning team and perhaps one that has a chance to do damage in next year’s playoffs. This is especially true on the offensive side of the ball.

The Vikings have superstars in place on offense in Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson. Adam Thielen is a sensational complementary receiver to Jefferson and tight end Tyler Conklin has a chance to become one of the better players at his position.

The offensive line has been up-and-down, but the Vikings don’t need a complete teardown in that area. Adding depth is the key to making that unit successful.

That brings the discussion to the quarterback position, and the impact of Kirk Cousins. Statistically, Cousins has been a solid quarterback for the Vikings for each of the four seasons he has spent with the team. But numbers like his impressive TD-interception ratio don’t tell the full story.

Vikings fans know that Cousins struggles badly in big games against good opponents because he holds onto the ball too long, and often gets overwhelmed by the moment and by the opposing pass rush.

The Cousins factor may be the most difficult for any new coach to come to grips with. It will take a coach with significant courage and foresight to go into a job interview and tell ownership that Cousins has to go.  It’s not easy to look at a quarterback who is coming off a season in which he completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 4,221 yards with 33 touchdowns and 7 interceptions and say that he’s not good enough.

But that’s just what a head coaching candidate has to do if he is going to be long-term winner for the organization.

While deciding on the quarterback will ultimately be a new general manager’s decision, if the head coach says it is a deal breaker, it will go a long way toward establishing credibility in all areas for the new leader.

The Vikings may have the best looking roster of all the team looking for a head coach. But they also have a major trap that proved the undoing of head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman. If Cousins stays with the Vikings, he almost certainly will be a liability for the next administration.