What he said

Today (June 22), the National Football Post's Mike Lombardi used his daily column on the site to provide an unflattering appraisal of Vikings head coach Brad Childress.

Granted, this is just one guy's opinion, and the opinion of a guy who hasn't had a job in the NFL in a while. Still, when a guy with Lombardi's managerial experience is so down on your team's head coach, it's hard to feel good about where your team is headed – especially when you see how that head coach has handled the quarterback situation this offseason.

To rewind, that handling has included the following: passing on trading for Jay Cutler; then trading for Sage Rosenfels; then attempting to woo Brett Favre out of retirement; then not keeping Rosenfels and last year's starter, Tarvaris Jackson, abreast of the seriousness of your wooing until it was so obvious you could ignore the fact no longer.

Anyway, I've written about this before, but Lombardi's post just fuels my suspicion (which is growing into a belief) that when the Vikings succeed, they succeed in spite of Chilly, not because of him.

And it's not that I don't recognize some of the good things Childress has done. For example, despite an often bland public persona, he has been able to attract top free agents to come play for him (although whether they are attracted more by Zygi Wilf's money or Chilly's coaching talents, is open to a lot of debate). And the Vikings draft record since Childress became head coach in 2006 seems better than it did under Mike Tice (although, again, that's open for debate. The lauded 2006 draft, which produced five starters, could be down to three if Jackson and Ryan Cook lose their starting jobs this season. Furthermore, Cedric Griffin's hold on a starting job isn't that secure either, contract extension or no contract extension).

The problem for me as a Vikings fan is there are still too many things that continue to bug me about Childress' coaching and lead me to believe last year's 10-6 record could be a high-water mark during his tenure.

What are those things? Well, how about his inability to assess quarterback talent (you can't tell me Jeff Garcia was not a better option than Brooks Bollinger, Kelly Holcomb and Gus Frerotte the past two seasons)? Or what about his ongoing struggles with in-game decisions (like his perplexing challenges)? The Vikes are also frequently outfoxed by other coaching staffs in making half-time adjustments; they can't seem to dominate an entire football game and there has been an utter failure to develop a competent NFL passing game with, arguably, the best running back duo in professional football.

And now Lombardi thinks Childress may be losing the locker room as he and Favre perform this wobbly, awkward dance that looks like it will lead to Favre unretiring and wearing purple and gold.

If it was a lot of other coaches, I could get behind the idea. But with Childress and his track record, I see this ending badly – for Favre, for Viking fans and for Childress.