The one move that defined the 2018 NFL season for all 32 teams
By Erik Lambert
Minnesota Vikings: Hiring John DeFilippo
After losing Pat Shurmur to the New York Giants head coaching job this offseason, the Vikings were set to change offensive coordinator against for the third time in three years. This time they went with a man with a growing reputation for his quarterback acumen in John DeFilippo. He’d just got done turning Carson Wentz into a Pro Bowler and Nick Foles into a Super Bowl MVP as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach.
He seemed like the logical choice to take over a passing game that was ready to take flight with Kirk Cousins arriving from Washington. Things started out great. Cousins was putting up big numbers and are still on pace to set his career-high in touchdown passes. The problems became clear later on as DeFilippo simply couldn’t find a way to get the running game going.
Naturally, this caused increasing frustration for the defensive-minded head coach Mike Zimmer until things finally reached their breaking point in Seattle and DeFilippo was fired. Now 6-6-1, it may be too little, too later to overcome that misfire.