Brad Childress & The Great Quarterback Fiasco



Originally uploade
by vitaminkg21

Okay, now it’s time to talk about and his responsibility for this alleged football team. There are a lot of things that Childress has messed up as head coach of the , but none is more glaring than the handling of the quarterback position.

One of the first issues Childress had to deal with upon becoming coach was ‘s whining about more money. You can hardly blame a post-T.O. Childress
for having no stomach for dealing with a another malcontent player, but
in retrospect you’ve got to wonder if the coach’s personality
exacerbated the situation with Pep.

Childress deserves full credit for everything after Culpepper, though.

After making a huge reach for Jackson, the Vikings sign to a two year contract to run the team and mentor Jackson. They make a trade with the Jets for . Apparently, not satisfied with Bollinger during training camp, they bring in , of all people, to compete for a job.

Childress knew McMahon from  the , so how did he not know that
the guy was useless? McMahon is eventually cast away and the team
settles on Johnson, Bollinger and Jackson as their quarterbacks.

Johnson becomes estranged with Childress because the head coach
won’t allow the veteran quarterback to audible based on the look of a
defense. Johnson is eventually benched in favor of Jackson, who get
injured, who is replaced by Bollinger, who gets injured, and is
replaced in favor of Jackson.

After the 2006, the Vikings jettison Johnson and proclaim Jackson the starter for 2007.

This season we’ve seen Jackson, Bollinger, and now behind center and none of them have really worked. Childress was very
excited about getting in the 2007 draft, but then let him
slip to Chiefs instead of ensuring him a roster spot. ? Have I left anyone out?!?

, not only is Childress’ ability to judge quarterback talent suspect, he has been completely irresponsible in not having a contingency plan in case Jackson didn’t work out.

Why didn’t the Vikings make a run at during the off season? Imagine what the team could have done with a good quarterback.

Culpepper Traded To Dolphins

that the "are expected to trade their frustrated and injured Pro Bowl quarterback
to the Miami Dolphins today for a second-round draft pick in next
month’s NFL draft."

So goes to Miami for a mere second-round draft pick. is apparently going to come true. Adding insult to injury, the Fins pick after us in the second round, so we’re not even moving up in the draft: We have the 16th pick in the second round and the have the 19th.

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The Culpepper Clash

Always tease, tease, tease…? Darling, you gotta let me know.

So, what to make of the conflicting signals being sent out from all sides of the situation?  First there’s Culpepper making waves about wanting more cash and not meeting face to face with . Then there are stories that the powers that be a Winter Park are offended at Culpepper’s attempts to negotiate for more money.

It starts to look like we’ve got a malcontent quarterback on our hands who’s forcing a trade which naturally elicits trade rumors that no one really quashes.

told me that he thought the were trying to prove to Culpepper that he’s overvalued himself by shopping the quarterback around and demonstrating that teams don’t think he’s worth a second-round pick. It’s a great argument that makes a lot of sense.

But then today there are reports of all these : ; the team sends head trainer Eric Sugarman to Orlando and he comes back ; and Culpepper himself says that owner .

Today’s news makes me think the Vikings are serious about trading Pepp and are either not getting the kinds of offers they think Culpepper is worth or realize they need to assuage concerns other teams have over the quarterback’s injuries and availability for next season.

My preference is for the Vikings to keep Culpepper, expect that he won’t play in 2006, give him that year to fully recover from his injuries and learn the in-depth, and find out if he’s going to work as a quarterback in that system.

If not, they can trade Culpepper then and get true value for him because even if he doesn’t eventually work out for us, he is an amazing athlete.

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Daunte Culpepper Or Brad Johnson?

It has had to have been a strange few days for new head coach .

On January 9, Strib columnist saying: "I spoke to Daunte Saturday morning. I had a nice conversation with him. I will have a chance to sit down face-to-face with him here later in the week."

On the same day, Pioneer Press writer seemingly trying to put Culpepper at ease: "Daunte Culpepper right now is the franchise quarterback. That’s how they signed him. He’s the guy."

A handful of days later, with in town, , over the phone.  How very odd.

[UPDATE 1/18/06: The Pioneer Press that Culepper was in town to meet with his doctors, not Childress. Still…]

All the while, in the background were the rumors that wanted to be traded, or, at the very least, start for the the Vikings next  year. The rumors became fact  when that though he didn’t ask for a trade, he does want to be a starting quarterback.

The Vikings have had a quarterback controversy since the final game of the season ended with their win against the . Johnson’s insistence now that he start just moved up the time table of the eruption of the controversy from when it would have otherwise occurred: The point next season when Daunte is healthy enough to play again.

Perhaps that explains Culpepper’s odd behavior in not meeting face-to-face with his new head coach; perhaps he saw the inevitability of Johnson beginning the season as the Vikings’ number one signal caller and he wanted to play a Whose The Boss? card.

I don’t know that another quarterback in the NFL has ever returned from the type of : He injured three of the four major ligaments in his knee: The  ACL, PCL, and MCL. That’s going to take a while to recover from. From what I understand, it would be a miracle if Culpepper were to be ready to play by the time training camp rolls around.

Couple that with the fact that Daunte would need to learn an entirely new offense, and it’s reasonable to think that he couldn’t possibly be ready to start the season opener.

And all that, of course, makes Johnson’s boat-rocking all the more aggravating. He signed a three-year contract. He’s locked in. And he should just keep his mouth shut because he already is the de facto starting quarterback. If he plays well enough, who knows? By the time Culpepper’s ready to play, Childress may not want to change quarterbacks.

Who Is Best Suited To The West Coast Scheme?

For a West Coast offense you need a quarterback who is accurate and can throw with touch so the ball is catchable. He has to have an excellent sense of anticipation in order to effectively execute the timing routes upon which the West Coast offense it built.

Another skill you want in a West Coast quarterback is the ability to throw all types of passes, from screens and timing passes, to Short, middle, and deep routes.

But since the West Coast offense is predicated upon the idea of obviating the running game with a short passing game, throwing the deep ball is not nearly as important as it is in other schemes. The idea in the West Coast is that when you start killing a team with a short passing game, they’ll inch up to defend it to the point that the middle and deep routes open up.

When that happens, you don’t need to be able to throw that deep in order to get the ball behind the defense. Your deep routes are explosive because the receiver catches and then runs for a lot of yards.

Brad Johnson

Right off the bat, it would seem that Brad Johnson is currently better suited to running the West Coast offense. He is very adept at getting the ball out of his hands to his receivers quickly and he can put some touch on the ball. While his arm strength is nowhere near that of Daunte’s, he’s got enough of a long ball to work well in the West Coast offense.

Perhaps the biggest thing Johnson has over Culpepper right now is his experience. He’s played in three different offensive schemes in Minnesota, Washington and Tampa Bay and, with the Bucs under Jon Gruden, he ran an extraordinarily complex system. That bodes well for Brad quickly picking up Childress’ version of the West Coast. Check out the following video clips to understand Johnson’s understanding of the game:

Oh, yeah; and, uh, Johnson has won a Super Bowl.

Daunte Culpepper

Assuming Culpepper can come back from is injury, no one seriously thinks he is not the long-term answer at quarterback. But it is a big assumption he can come back and even if he does, it’s an even bigger assumption that he will return as the same player he was before he was injured.

One of the things that made Daunte such a dangerous weapon on the field was his mobility; not just the ability for him to tuck the ball in and run downfield or beat defensive ends to the edge, but his ability to make a quick move in the backfield to make a rusher miss. He’s also got a cannon for an arm, he’s a very accurate passer, and he’s a load to bring down.

But Daunte has played in one system his entire NFL career and for most of that time he was afforded the ability to freelance on the field. When both he and Randy Moss were on the field together, if a play broke down, both were such superior athletes that they had the ability to make something out of nothing. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

The West Coast offense, however, is built on precision and timing. There’s very little freelancing involved. So that part of Daunte’s game would not be utilized.

In addition to his injury, he’s also got to learn a new offense. It’s not that he’s not capable of overcoming his injury and learning the West Coast offense, it’s a question of whether he can do it in time to be of much help to the Viking next season.

Yet when you take a look at the following video highlights of Daunte Culpepper, any Vikings fan can only fervently hope that he comes back as good as new and thrives in the West Coast system. Because, damn, that guy can play: