Remember how Leslie Frazier was a prodigy defensive coordinator that interviewed for several head coaching positions before he eventually got promoted to the Vikings head coach because the Wilf’s were lazy and Brad Childress just sucked that bad? Well, we all kind of found out why last year when he valiantly led this team to a 3-13 record and opted to play our best athlete late in the season, assuring his knee got shredded. HEACH COOCH!
That type of imbecility (is that a word? Can it be?) has seemed to be the norm, not the exception which Minnesota Vikings coaching, which is why it becomes so god damn confusing when Frazier gives interviews like the one he recently gave to ESPN 1500 during a recent NFL Coaches breakfast. During the communique, Frazier dropped all sorts of common sense gems, like the one here:
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With the signing of John Carlson along with Kyle Rudolph, it seems you’ll continue to play a lot of two-tight sets. That means you’ll only have two receivers on the field much of the time, and you have Percy Harvin and Michael Jenkins. But is a split end to stretch the field vertically still a crucial need? “I think so. It would just help our offense tremendously, to be able to have that one go-to guy down the field that you know can outrun a coverage. We get so much eight-man front because of Adrian in the past. To have that one guy that can stretch the other team vertically, it would open up things for Adrian. It would open up things for Percy. “Last year, Percy was getting doubled so much it was one of the reasons we moved him around as much as we did. If you just leave him at the slot, people can pretty much just take him out of the game. If you put the right guy outside, now you get some of those doubles off of (Harvin) and you also make that safety get out of the box. “Man, our offense could be so much more explosive. It’ll open up the middle of the field for John, it’ll open up the middle of the field for Kyle, create some mismatches for some key guys. So, hopefully, through the draft, we’ll find that guy.” |
….. Really? What the hell? This makes total and complete sense, and now I’m not sure if I can casually dislike you as I had learned to do all of last season, like I “casually” learned to have eyes for Selena Gomez. She’s 18 now, right? Not like it matters, I’m just asking similar to how I’m asking how a Vikings coach even saying this stuff right now. And there’s even more after the jump.
When discussing issues along the offensive line, and specifically with Charlie Johnson and the overall left tackle position, Frazier had this to say:
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Are you hell-bent on addressing left tackle in the draft, or is there any thought of keeping Charlie out there? “He showed when he was in Indy that he could play some guard and be effective in doing it, but I’m not certain that that’s his natural position. But we’d like to have some competition at the left tackle position and just try to upgrade our offensive line as a whole. That’s one of the reasons that we made the changes that we made so far. So, we want to upgrade certain positions and we want to have some competition at left tackle.” The question about Charlie at guard seems to be his lower-body strength. Would you prefer just to leave him at left tackle even if he’s not the starter? “Not necessarily leave him at left tackle. I want us to get some competition there and maybe even be able to take a look at him at left guard. He’s done it. He’s done it well in Indy, and we think he can do it at our place as well. “So, if that’s going to make us better by getting a better left tackle than Charlie was at left tackle and be able to move him to guard, then that’s the way you do it. But you want to get your best five out there. If you aren’t able to get the left tackle, then Charlie will be in the rotation at left tackle and be in the competition at left tackle.” |
REALLY?! Like, I get it! This makes sense! So why are these things not being done, and where was this type of common sense last year?!
Honest to go, it’s really befuddling. It makes you wonder how much control Big Leslie really has with this team if he’s casually talking this much logic about our football team, but then runs such a shit show during game day. Can we blame Bill Musgrave for everything yet? What about Mike Singletary? He seems like a good scapegoat. My real fear though is that Frazier just doesn’t have the power to call some of these shots. Instead, we’re left with Rick FUCKING Spielman to address personnel decisions, draft players, and drive this franchise off a cliff, Thelma and Louise style. Classic Spielman! Dick.
Anyway, spend the rest of your Friday avoiding work and reading the whole transcript on ESPN 1500. The rest of the conversation covers some other interesting topics that probably won’t come to fruition either, like Purple Jesus’ status, Christian Ponder’s development, how the team will address the safety position, and defensive line notes. Sadly, no word on if Everson Griffen is a real magical beast or not yet. Now THAT would be some crack reporting!
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