The season ended just the most appropriate way possible: with a loss featuring dumb penalties, inconsistent play, and a not-quite-NFL-record-setting sack total from Jared Allen, the only Viking going to the Pro Bowl this year.
Tom Pelissero is predicting some swift changes in the coaching staff now that the season is done, almost certainly starting with the firing (or demotion) of defensive co-ordinator Fred Pagac:
Owners Zygi and Mark Wilf were expected to remain in the Twin Cities as well, increasing the chances that shakeups to the coaching staff that have been under discussion for over a month could be finalized by the end of the week.
“I think you’ve got to look at everything,” Frazier said. “I don’t think you can not look at everything.”
All indications continue to be that Frazier is safe, in spite of a 6-16 record since taking over on an interim basis on Nov. 22, 2010.
The same can’t be said for a defensive staff that mostly survived the cleanout process when Frazier was given the job on a full-time basis last January.
The questions are whether the Vikings will move away from the Tampa-2/Cover-2 scheme they’ve played for years and how Frazier will go about letting some assistants go — firing them or simply giving them permission to seek other jobs while he interviews potential successors, as he did with Darrell Bevell and Brian Murphy a year ago.
“We’ll see what happens,” linebacker Chad Greenway said, speaking generally. “You know it’s always room for change, but personnel or coaches — you don’t know. It’s always fluid in this league and you hope as many people can stick around, but you know it’s not possible.”
Barring a surprising change of course, the Vikings are expected to relieve Fred Pagac of his duties after one tumultuous season as defensive coordinator in which he wasn’t allowed to run his preferred Cover-1 blitz attack, lost the confidence of some players within the first month and was stripped of play-calling duties for a stretch in November. He remains respected as a linebackers coach, though, and could be retained if he accepts a lesser role.
