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Norv Turner resigns in Minnesota
- Thread starter WvuIN02
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Zaphod
Hall of Fame
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- Jul 5, 2013
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- 2,217
Whoah, only the 49ers and the purple hoard are ranked below us.
I really hope I didn't jinx anything.
I like what Boras is trying to do as well, but what's another assistant?
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- Peter
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/11/03/...-vikings-nfl-playoff-contender-weakness-notes
On Norv’s Exit
by Albert Breer
Photo: Bryan Singer/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images
Looking for a flash point in trying to ascertain where things went south between Norv Turner and Mike Zimmer in Minnesota?
Call off the search. The answers are right in front of you: Teddy Bridgewater. Adrian Peterson. Matt Kalil. Andre Smith.
When the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford in the days after the lightning strike of a practice injury to Bridgewater, an implicit but loud message was sent down from the front office. This roster is ready to win now, and we’re not in the business of throwing away a championship-window year. In the days to follow, GM Rick Spielman conceded as much.
“(The players) know what a bad taste last year left, and they know how hard we worked all offseason, and through camp, to take the next step,” Spielman told me in early September. “By doing this, it shows the players, Yes, we lost our young QB, who showed so much improvement, and took strides in his third year, but we’re not gonna throw the season away.”
I applauded Spielman at the time for the aggression. And I’m not backing off that. After all, he couldn’t control what happened next. Bridgewater’s absence was compounded by major injuries to the tailback/face of the franchise and the bookends of an already leaky offensive line.
In so many ways, having a quarterback with mobility and this era’s preeminent bell cow mitigated the issues up front. So those naturally resurfaced, then metastasized with Kalil and Smith gone.
All the while, the pressure to win had been ratcheted up and, as far as I can tell, the struggle to find answers created an organic tension that was enough to force change. So Turner’s out. Pat Shurmur is in. And my sense is this isn’t about one man being wrong or the other being right, but both Zimmer and Turner recognizing what had to be done.
“To be honest, there were just different opinions on what we need to do, and where the focus is,” Turner told me during the lunchtime hour Wednesday. “I have a lot of respect for Zim, he’s a heck of a coach. It just wasn’t going to work.”
Turner’s recognition of that, as he describes it, was what gave him peace when he went to meet with the Vikings’ boss.
Around the same time I was on the phone with Turner, Zimmer explained that sitdown like this: “We talked for a long time about a lot of things and I told him my feelings for him and how much that I respect him and the things that he’s done and things he’s continued to do and how hard he’s tried to get it going. He was pretty set in his ideas and his reasons and I hope that we’ll always continue to be friends.”
What’s next? As I understand it, the disagreements weren’t global, but more over details in how to run the offense. The focus now will be to create an environment that suits Bradford.
That, above all else, needs to be about protecting him. Bridgewater isn’t Steve Young, but he was athletic enough to help the Vikings hide problems that prompted the signings of Smith and Alex Boone. Bradford isn’t that guy. He has showed what he can be if his jersey is kept clean, which has become an infinitely more challenging task over the past few weeks.
So I’d expect more resources—in scheme and bodies—will now be committed to helping Bradford stay upright. Absent Peterson, Bradford now serves as the offense’s centerpiece.
As for Turner, it has been a difficult few days contemplating all of this. He’s been a coordinator or head coach in the NFL for the last 26 years running. The Vikings quarterbacks coach, Scott Turner, is also his son.
While we talked, Norv Turner emphasized that he’d made no decision about whether or not this would be his final season. He says the plan all along was to assess that at the end of the year. At 64, Turner says he’s still not closing the book on his coaching career.
“We’ve been through an awful lot with this team, particularly on offense,” Turner told me. “We had a lot of challenges. And for a period of time, we were able to hide some problems we had, but it catches up to you. And then we just had a difference of opinion—or what I felt was a difference of opinion—on what we needed to do to give our guys the best chance to fix it.
“Mike’s as good a coach as I’ve been around. We were just at a point where I felt like me leaving gave him a chance to get done what he wants to get done.”
So now Turner is done, and now it’s Shurmur’s challenge to find a better way to fix a hobbled offense. In my mind, that’s the result of a veteran coach recognizing a problem and doing what he believed was the right thing. And not a whole lot else.
VIKINGS OFFENSIVE LINE
AFC executive: “They’re running out of bodies. At some point, you have to run the ball and protect the quarterback, so you can make those plays they need. When they start playing teams that are a reflection of them defensively, can they hold on?”
On Norv’s Exit
by Albert Breer
Photo: Bryan Singer/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images
Looking for a flash point in trying to ascertain where things went south between Norv Turner and Mike Zimmer in Minnesota?
Call off the search. The answers are right in front of you: Teddy Bridgewater. Adrian Peterson. Matt Kalil. Andre Smith.
When the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford in the days after the lightning strike of a practice injury to Bridgewater, an implicit but loud message was sent down from the front office. This roster is ready to win now, and we’re not in the business of throwing away a championship-window year. In the days to follow, GM Rick Spielman conceded as much.
“(The players) know what a bad taste last year left, and they know how hard we worked all offseason, and through camp, to take the next step,” Spielman told me in early September. “By doing this, it shows the players, Yes, we lost our young QB, who showed so much improvement, and took strides in his third year, but we’re not gonna throw the season away.”
I applauded Spielman at the time for the aggression. And I’m not backing off that. After all, he couldn’t control what happened next. Bridgewater’s absence was compounded by major injuries to the tailback/face of the franchise and the bookends of an already leaky offensive line.
In so many ways, having a quarterback with mobility and this era’s preeminent bell cow mitigated the issues up front. So those naturally resurfaced, then metastasized with Kalil and Smith gone.
All the while, the pressure to win had been ratcheted up and, as far as I can tell, the struggle to find answers created an organic tension that was enough to force change. So Turner’s out. Pat Shurmur is in. And my sense is this isn’t about one man being wrong or the other being right, but both Zimmer and Turner recognizing what had to be done.
“To be honest, there were just different opinions on what we need to do, and where the focus is,” Turner told me during the lunchtime hour Wednesday. “I have a lot of respect for Zim, he’s a heck of a coach. It just wasn’t going to work.”
Turner’s recognition of that, as he describes it, was what gave him peace when he went to meet with the Vikings’ boss.
Around the same time I was on the phone with Turner, Zimmer explained that sitdown like this: “We talked for a long time about a lot of things and I told him my feelings for him and how much that I respect him and the things that he’s done and things he’s continued to do and how hard he’s tried to get it going. He was pretty set in his ideas and his reasons and I hope that we’ll always continue to be friends.”
What’s next? As I understand it, the disagreements weren’t global, but more over details in how to run the offense. The focus now will be to create an environment that suits Bradford.
That, above all else, needs to be about protecting him. Bridgewater isn’t Steve Young, but he was athletic enough to help the Vikings hide problems that prompted the signings of Smith and Alex Boone. Bradford isn’t that guy. He has showed what he can be if his jersey is kept clean, which has become an infinitely more challenging task over the past few weeks.
So I’d expect more resources—in scheme and bodies—will now be committed to helping Bradford stay upright. Absent Peterson, Bradford now serves as the offense’s centerpiece.
As for Turner, it has been a difficult few days contemplating all of this. He’s been a coordinator or head coach in the NFL for the last 26 years running. The Vikings quarterbacks coach, Scott Turner, is also his son.
While we talked, Norv Turner emphasized that he’d made no decision about whether or not this would be his final season. He says the plan all along was to assess that at the end of the year. At 64, Turner says he’s still not closing the book on his coaching career.
“We’ve been through an awful lot with this team, particularly on offense,” Turner told me. “We had a lot of challenges. And for a period of time, we were able to hide some problems we had, but it catches up to you. And then we just had a difference of opinion—or what I felt was a difference of opinion—on what we needed to do to give our guys the best chance to fix it.
“Mike’s as good a coach as I’ve been around. We were just at a point where I felt like me leaving gave him a chance to get done what he wants to get done.”
So now Turner is done, and now it’s Shurmur’s challenge to find a better way to fix a hobbled offense. In my mind, that’s the result of a veteran coach recognizing a problem and doing what he believed was the right thing. And not a whole lot else.
VIKINGS OFFENSIVE LINE
AFC executive: “They’re running out of bodies. At some point, you have to run the ball and protect the quarterback, so you can make those plays they need. When they start playing teams that are a reflection of them defensively, can they hold on?”
Psycho_X
Legend
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- Jan 14, 2013
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- 11,267
You're preaching to the choir here, I've liked nothing that Fisher has done since he's been here in regards to the OC and his offensive philosophy. But you can't just bring in a completely new offensive system in the middle of a season. Especially if Goff ever has any hope of playing. Throwing two completely different offensive schemes within 6 months at a rookie who never had to learn one before is asking for a disaster beyond just wins and losses.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with what we got this season.
LosAngelesRams
Hall of Fame
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Yea he was also saying his wife played a part in it, she was encouraging him to do it so he could be home or closer to home (I guess they have a house down there?)
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They both run the same O scheme and I believe they even worked together in Washington, before Martz was hired as the Rams OC, and also in LA under Robinson. Both like to exploit the Ds weakness whether its the pass or the run, if you have trouble stopping it they will do it all day long. Norv may use the run game a little more than Martz, but they both came from the same branch of the Coryell coaching tree.
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It wouldnt be an entirely new scheme, just a new teacher. I believe the Rams run a hybrid west coast/ Coryell O scheme so there would be quite a bit of carry over. Actually Coryells system is the original west coast O, but Walsh tweaked it a bit and it was Walsh's O that most west coast O run today. But both force the D to cover sideline to sideline with Norv/Martz stretching the field verticaly more than Walsh's version.
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This is an interesting comment by Norv on whether or not or where he will coach again. Rams or Chargers?
************************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/11/06/norv-turner-unsure-if-hell-coach-again/
“I haven’t made a decision,” Turner said, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. “[My wife] Nancy and I say, ‘Let’s get to January and see where we are.’ That’s been the case the last two to three years. But this has been a challenge for my wife. Cleveland, then Minnesota … and we have a house five minutes from the ocean [Del Mar (San Diego County)] … At 64 years old, if you continue, it would need to be a right place and with the right people.”
************************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/11/06/norv-turner-unsure-if-hell-coach-again/
“I haven’t made a decision,” Turner said, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. “[My wife] Nancy and I say, ‘Let’s get to January and see where we are.’ That’s been the case the last two to three years. But this has been a challenge for my wife. Cleveland, then Minnesota … and we have a house five minutes from the ocean [Del Mar (San Diego County)] … At 64 years old, if you continue, it would need to be a right place and with the right people.”
Amitar
Pro Bowler
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- Amitar
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By yards they are 31st in the league, and by points dead last
Which is actually worse than last season if you can believe that