Murphy takes over nothing special

A year ago my guess is a lot of Viking fans couldn't have told you the name of the team's special teams coordinator.

But as the 2008 season dragged on and as the Vikings gave up punt return touchdowns, and couldn't down punts inside the 20 without mucking it up by mistakenly stepping into the end zone, and couldn't establish decent kick-off or punt return games, Paul Ferraro no longer was a name they did not know.

But Ferraro's gone now and his replacement has been named.

According to Football Outsiders stats, the Vikings had the worst special teams in the NFL this season. But in 2007 they were actually ranked ninth in the league. In 2006 they were ranked 27th in the league.

FO has found that special teams performance varies widely from year-to-year in the NFL. So expect the Vikings to do much better in this area in 2009. However, the stats tell us in two of Ferraro's three seasons as special teams coordinator, the units he was responsible for were very, very bad. It was time for a change here.

And since change has occurred, it's up to Brian Murphy to make it change for the better. If Heath Farwell recovers fully from his knee injury and is resigned, that will help. But Murphy also has to find someone to return kicks (Darius Reynaud should be given a legitimate shot to unseat Maurice Hicks), someone to return punts and he must find a way to make Chris Kluwe a better directional punter. He'll also need to find a few more players who can get downfield and tackle in coverage.

The Vikings played a lot of close games in 2008. They played a lot of close games in 2007. And, for the most part, they played a lot of close games in 2006.

There's no reason to think that will change in '09 – especially if the Vikes can't improve the quarterback position. So if the team is going to keep playing close games, it can't afford to give up field position through poor punt and kick-off coverage or give up touchdowns on punt returns every other week. It's Brian Murphy's job to fix what Paul Ferraro couldn't.

Good luck with that, Brian.