Vikings looking at front office candidates

VIKINGS LOOKING AT FRONT OFFICE CANDIDATES
27 Oct. 2005
PFT


We've learned from a well-connected league insider that the Minnesota Vikings currently are looking at four potential candidates for a front-office job of undefined title and undetermined authority.

Last week, owner Zygi Wilf said that he intends to hire a senior-level personnel executive, who would not necessarily have "final say" authority over the makeup of the roster. Rumors in league circles previously had linked Eagles V.P. of Player Personnel Tom Heckert to the job, but without full authority over personnel Heckert would be unable to extricate himself from his contract in Philly.

The current possibilities that we hear the Vikes are exploring include Patriots director of college scouting Tom Dimitroff, Seahawks director of pro personnel Will Lewis, Broncos director of pro personnel Rick Smith, and Chiefs V.P. of Pro Personnel Bill Kuharich, who at one time served as G.M. of the Saints.

The title of the job could be "General Manager," even if the position does not possess the final authority over the roster. The title also could be something along the lines of "Vice President of Player Personnel."

Currently, V.P. of Football Operations Rob Brzezinski is the chief personnel executive.

If we were calling the shots (and everyone who owns a purple hat with braided gold pig tails should thank the ghost of Leif Erickson that we're not), we'd hire a strong G.M. with final say authority, and we'd let him determine what to do with everyone else -- including coach Meathead. The two most obvious and qualified candidates for such a position are, in our opinion, Heckert and Scott Pioli, V.P. of Player Personnel in New England.

Get the guy from the Patriots.

If you pick a quarterback who can win you 3 superbowls, in the sixth round of the draft, you're a genius. And I think we need more geniuses in the Vikings front office.

I personally think we should promote Rob Brzezinski to have the final say. Look at who this guy brought in or found when they had very little money to pay these guys. also he has done very good in drafts.

"Mr Anderson" wrote:

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Get the guy from the Patriots.

If you pick a quarterback who can win you 3 superbowls, in the sixth round of the draft, you're a genius. And I think we need more geniuses in the Vikings front office.

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Or just really lucky.

Coach 'Meathead', as you called him, chewed out the team at halftime and inspired the Vikes to come back and beat the Packers.

"Eyedea" wrote:

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I personally think we should promote Rob Brzezinski to have the final say. Look at who this guy brought in or found when they had very little money to pay these guys. also he has done very good in drafts.

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You a TRUE Vikings fan now, eyedea??? No more leaning towards the East???

Thats nuts, Pioli got resigned already this year. I can't imagine he is leaving. And the Front office has done a great job finding players. Tice and Brzezinsk can draft really, really well. But, I am sure they are understaffed. Its funny how vague that position is. Maybe its a mailboy job? Janitor? Will be interesting to see I guess.

"OldManVike" wrote:

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Coach 'Meathead', as you called him, chewed out the team at halftime and inspired the Vikes to come back and beat the Packers.

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I'm not sure ol' "meathead" had alot to do with the Vikings coming back. I think the fact that they cut down on the mental mistakes in the second half was a big factor.....that and they were able to run the ball a bit.
These guys shouldn't need to be motivated at this level...they should be able to motivate themselves.

I hope we get a very good person the first time we select one. There is talk at the league level of having something like a "restricted executive" tag each team will be able to assign to a member of their front office in order to protect them from being lured away by other teams. Very much like the system they have with free agent players. If you want to sign another team's taged executive, it will cost draft picks.

I'm not sure, but I think this got started after Rich McKay jumped from the Bucs to the Falcons a couple years ago, during the season if I remember correctly.

the front office is real important in this day in age. we need a better head scouter to help us at drafts. we have drafted very well over the past, so mabye we need someone to help us in free agents more.