The Hammer falls on Vikings coaching staff..

[Down to Earth]

01/09 11:45 Vikings: Cottrell and other assistants fired

THE NEWS

Brad Childress made his first moves as Vikings head coach on Monday when he fired several assistants who were held over from the Mike Tice regime. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Childress fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, wide receivers coach Wes Chandler, running backs coach Dean Dalton, quarterbacks coach Rich Olson, special teams coach Rusty Tillman, and four other assistants.

Our View

The leading candidate for the offensive coordinator role is Packers quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell, who played for Childress at the University of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Childress is said to be eyeing Buccaneers defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin for the vacant defensive coordinator position. Eagles linebackers coach Steve Spagnuolo has also been mentioned as a candidate for that position.

[Law Firm]

Ideally, I would like coordinators with some experience. But in this case, I think the guys mentioned will be just fine. I think the DB coach from Tampa is a fairly young guy who will probably work well with the players. I really like the idea of possibly implementing Tampa's cover 2 to our defense. On the offensive side, whoever we get won't really matter too much since I think Childress will be very hands on with the offense. It is very important that Childress builds a cohesive unit that will work well together.

[Tonka Boy]

I don't know enough about Childress to give an opinion, but I'm sure going to miss Ted Cottrell. I think the Vikes finally started getting some stability out of their defense for the first time in a decade. We'll see what happens...

[Bobby Bass]

9 coaches were let go, by phone.