The Minnesota Vikings made it official on Thursday, as former Indianapolis Colts defensive backs coach Alan Williams accepted the offer to become the squad's new defensive coordinator.
In the blog post I've linked to above, writer Jeremy Fowler points out the Colts pass defence wasn't bad from 2007-2011. But the defensive statistics of Football Outsiders tells a different story. Except for 2007, Indy was league average of worse in its performance covering wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. In short, Williams is no miracle worker.
Of course, I wouldn't expect him to be. And if he's going to be successful in 2012 as a defensive coordinator, the Vikings are going to have to stop getting abused by opposing quarterbacks and the people they throw passes to.
Minnesota has a massive amount of work to do to upgrade its secondary. Cedric Griffin is probably gone. Chris Cook will either be in jail or serving some kind of suspension when the 2012 seasons starts. And did anyone mention Antoine Winfield will be 35? Let's not forget starting safety Husain Abdullah is mulling retirement due to concussion concerns.
The starting safeties right now are Jamarca Sanford and Mistral Raymond. Without some large improvements here, Williams' first year as a coordinator in the NFL is going to be a difficult one. He better hope general manager Rick Spielman hits some home runs in free agency and the draft on the defensive side of the ball.
Other links
* ESPN's Kevin Seifert analyzes the changes the Vikings made (and didn't make) to their defensive coaching staff.
* You can't make this stuff up. The Colts are interested in interviewing ex-Vikings head coach Brad Childress for their vacant job.
* Thinking about some college prospects who might be future Vikings? The National Football Post's Wes Bunting takes a look at 10 senior college players on the offensive side of the ball in this post. The guy that intrigues me from this list is Baylor wide receiver Kendall Wright. He registered some mad numbers this season. But he isn't very big (5'10, 190) and that will hurt his draft stock. Perhaps he's too similar a player to Percy Harvin for the Vikings to be interested, but the team needs help at wide receiver and Wright caught over 100 balls in 2011. If he's still around by the second round when the Vikings make their pick, will they take him?
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Hey Viking fans!
Feel free to comment here on what you think of the coaching changes made the team. The offseason has begun in earnest.
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