Rick Spielman deserves praise for patient approach

Rick Spielman has been with the Vikings for ten years, and things are better now than when he arrived.

In ten years on the job with the Minnesota Vikings, Rick Spielman has seen some pretty wacky stuff go down.

In just the first months of his tenure, Spielman watched owner Zygi Wilf fire his boss Fran Foley, who had himself only been on the job for a few months. Spielman then had to sit back while head coach Brad Childress took advantage of the Foley mess to grab personnel control for himself.

Spielman was there when the Vikings, in pure win-now mode, signed Brett Favre and made a run to the NFC title game. Favre probably should not have been brought back for 2010, but Zygi Wilf and Brad Childress decided to roll the dice one more time, giving Favre $20 million for one season.

That 2010 season would see the end of Favre’s career, the end of Brad Childress in Minnesota and the beginning of Rick Spielman as the true guiding personnel voice for the Vikings.

In 2012 the Vikings made it official, changing Spielman’s title to general manager. From then on the Vikings have implemented the Spielman Plan: a patient approach that emphasizes drafting well, developing young talent and spending money keeping your own players instead of signing expensive free agents from elsewhere.

There have been a few deviations along the way – notably the Greg Jennings signing – but by-and-large Spielman has stuck to his guns philosophically. As a result, the Vikings now find themselves stocked with young talent and poised to become a perennial playoff team.

The plan is a long way from coming to fruition, and Spielman really shouldn’t be given too much credit until a team he builds actually makes a serious run at a Super Bowl, but I’m willing to tip my cap to Rick nevertheless. The Vikings are in a better place today than they were ten years ago when he came aboard.

Ten years ago the Vikings were a mess at the top, as evidenced by the Fran Foley fiasco. The Childress era was marked by a fair amount of success on the field but no long-term plan. When Spielman took over, he immediately put together a legitimate long-term strategy.

Have there been stumbles along the way? Of course there have. Drafting Christian Ponder #12 overall was a mistake. Trading multiple picks to move up and get Cordarrelle Patterson turned out to be an ill-conceived gamble. The overall handling of the Adrian Peterson mess was rather clumsy and reflected poorly on the Vikings’ owners and front office. The Mike Wallace trade, though relatively low-risk, proved to be a bad decision.

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Despite the hiccups, Spielman has stuck to his guns and now he has put together a real roster and is supported by Mike Zimmer and his highly respected coaching staff. We sometimes make fun of Spielman for endlessly repeating his mantra of patience, but you have to hand it to the guy, he mostly practices what he preaches. And so far his practices are paying off.