Getty Doug Pederson will interview for the Minnesota Vikings open head coach position.
After several rumors, the Minnesota Vikings will interview former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson to fill their head coach vacancy, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora reported last week.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Vikings ownership wants to run an exhaustive search, and Pederson is arguably one of the most experienced head coach candidates currently interviewing for a new job.
He led the Eagles to a 2017 Super Bowl victory to the Vikings’ chagrin, defeating Minnesota 38-7 in the NFC Championship Game that season.
In an attempt to learn from the franchise’s biggest defeat of the past decade, the Vikings hired the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo as the team’s offensive coordinator the following offseason. DeFilippo attempted to install similar run-option concepts that helped a Nick Foles-led Eagles offense outpace Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
However, Mike Zimmer blew up the potential of the team adopting the new scheme before it reached fruition.
Minnesota may have another chance to adopt a new identity on offense with the Eagles’ offensive architect himself in Pederson — a potential that has former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber excited in the possible hiring of Pederson.
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Leber Lauds Pederson
After La Canfora broke that Pederson will interview with the Vikings, Leber met the news with high praise of Pederson.
“I like the rumors of Doug Pederson to the Vikes. His offensive expertise and creativity with Cousins, Cook, (Justin Jefferson) would (be) incredible,” Leber tweeted. “Brings a level of experience others don’t have.”
I like the rumors of Doug Pederson to the Vikes. His offensive expertise and creativity with Cousins, Cook, JJ would incredible.
Brings a level of experience others don’t have.
CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin added that Pederson would make a strong personality fit for the Vikings who emphasized having a strong communicator and collaborator in their next head coach.
“Would expect Doug Pederson to be a serious candidate for the # Vikings’ job. MIN players spoke about the deterioration of player/coach connection after Mike Zimmer’s departure,” Benjamin tweeted, adding that Pederson could work with keeping Kirk Cousins in his plans to rebuild the team. “Doug was/is beloved in locker room. Plus, he could work w/ Kirk Cousins in a ‘soft rebuild.’ “
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Vikings Offense Thrived With Eagles Installs Before Zimmer Blew It Up
Star Tribune reporter Ben Goessling recently unearthed several stories from Zimmer’s tenure that involved the former Vikings head coach clashing with offensive staff.
The signing of Kirk Cousins came along with the hiring of DeFilippo as Spielman attempted to reinvent the Vikings offense after a promising 2017 season.
However, Zimmer was irked by both moves.
An ill-fated hire in 2018 set off a chain reaction of changes. Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, a Spielman-and-Sparano favorite who was hired after Philadelphia beat the Vikings 38-7 in that championship game, clashed with Zimmer almost immediately.
The coach quickly grew irritated by DeFilippo’s preference for complex play design, run-pass options and throwing to set up the run, staples of the Eagles offense that had torched the Vikings the January before. Zimmer stepped up his private criticism of the offense after a Week 4 game during which Cousins threw for 422 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-31 loss to the Rams.
After the Vikings scored 37 points to improve to 4-2-1 in a win over the Jets, sources said, Zimmer lambasted DeFilippo in a team meeting for not running the ball enough; he made his issues with DeFilippo’s approach public after losses in Week 11 and 13. The Vikings would not score more than 24 points in six games following the Jets win, and after a Monday night Week 14 loss in Seattle where they narrowly avoided a shutout, Zimmer fired DeFilippo and replaced him with Kevin Stefanski.
Last year, NFL insider Tyler Dunne revealed Zimmer had never intended to see DeFillipo’s offensive innovations through, blowing up RPO plays with the offense’s playbook in hand during training camp that preseason.
From Dunne:
Problems began that spring when, with the offense’s play script in hand, Zimmer would call specific plays on defense to blow up whatever the offense was trying to run, per sources. There’s a reason Minnesota never injected RPOs into its scheme like every other smart team seemed to after Nick Foles (miraculously) upset Tom Brady in the Super Bowl — Zimmer purposely mucked those plays up and then chastised the offense for being too gimmicky.
It became a running joke with offensive players.
Cheat code in hand, Zimmer called plays to screw them over.
When the offense followed orders and stuck to a steady diet of runs and play-action and screens in practice, Zimmer asked them to run more dropback passes the next practice. They did. They felt Zimmer’s wrath. “What!?” one source remembers him shouting. “We’re a dropback f—— team now?”
Despite Zimmer’s resistance, the Vikings offense thrived.
“Adam Thielen became the first player ever to eclipse 100 yards in each of the first eight games of a season. Cousins became the first quarterback ever to throw for 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns and 10 picks or less while completing 70 percent of his passes. Diggs was happy. Diggs averaged 10 targets per game. And if not for putrid kicking, a scary incident involving Everson Griffen before a loss to the Bills (one source recalls the building being on lockdown for three hours, saying ‘guys were on edge, concerned’) and the defense hemorrhaging 556 yards to the Rams, the Vikings no doubt could’ve entered a Nov. 18 showdown at Chicago even better than 5-3-1,” Dunne wrote.
However… Zimmer was fuming, with the team’s recent tilt toward passing to set up the run.
“Out of that night’s 25-20 loss on national TV, the head coach issued a public mandate that the Vikings needed to run the ball more,” Dunne added. “Just like that, everyone knew the Vikings were going to run, promptly shut down the run, the offensive coordinator was fired and — in Week 17, against the Bears’ B team, at home, a playoff spot on the line — the Vikings produced 10 points and 164 yards.
“Says one of the many ex-assistants to cycle through this staff: ‘That tells you everything you need to know about what the players think of Zim. Right there. That game.’ “