Minnesota Vikings expect Sparano and Shurmur to improve offense
By Adam Carlson
New Minnesota Vikings coaches Tony Sparano and Pat Shurmur should help make the team’s offense with Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson less predictable.
To say that the Minnesota Vikings struggled offensively during the 2015 NFL season would be an understatement. The team was ranked #29 in yards from scrimmage, #31 in passing yards per game, and #31 in passing touchdowns, showing that there is a lot of need for improvement.
In an attempt to make things better, the Vikings brought in two great offensive minds in Tony Sparano and Pat Shurmur to help figure out a way to enhance the scoring threat. These two men have a combined 32 years of NFL experience and should be able to provide some ideas on how to improve things.
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In a recent article on the 1500ESPN website, head coach Mike Zimmer spoke about wanting more diversity from the offense, in both formation and play calling, to help keep defenses guessing when they play the Minnesota Vikings.
"“There are times you want to get in the gun on first and second down, but you gotta be able to run the ball out of it,” Zimmer said. “You can’t just throw the ball when you’re in the gun. Then when you get under center, it’s the same thing. You can’t just hand the ball off, you have to have some solid play-action passes and you have to have some movement passes and you have to have some dropbacks. I think we need to package things a little bit more so that everything is together.”"
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Veteran running back Adrian Peterson led the NFL in rushing yards for the 2015 season, but still failed to reach 1,500 yards during the year. Meanwhile, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater threw only 14 touchdowns last season and gained just 3,231 passing yards.
Much of the problems came from the Minnesota Vikings being predictable, running when the quarterback was under center and passing out of shotgun. Zimmer wants his team to be able to do either out of any formation.
"“There are things we can do better out of the gun. And I think Adrian can do better out of the gun. And I think there’s things we can do better under center that Teddy can do better. I think it’s that combination,” Zimmer said. “That’s part of the reason I got Tony in here; part of the reason why I got Pat to help, because Pat has had a lot of influence [in the past] with the quarterback in the gun. And Tony has been a lot with the quarterback under center.”"
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It will be interesting to see if the Minnesota Vikings can find a way to improve on the offense from last year and become an even bigger threat when it comes to the NFC North and making some noise in the playoffs. The team is continuing to grow and develop, and Sparano and Shurmur can help the future of the Vikings be bright.