Pat Shurmur took over as the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator on November 2, 2016, but has big plans for improving the offensive for the 2017 season.
The Minnesota Vikings were an interesting team during the 2017 season. After a red-hot 5 game winning streak to start the season, the team collapsed and missed the playoffs with offensive coordinator Norv Turner resigning during the year.
Taking over for Turner was Pat Shurmur, who earned a longer look as the team’s offensive coordinator by improving the offensive output at the end of the season. However, there is still a lot of work to be done if the Vikings want to compete with the cream of the crop in the NFL.
According to the official Vikings website, Shurmur is ready to tackle the task of making the offense a more reliable and consistent part of the team’s efforts each week.
"“I enjoyed my (first) year, and it’s just a matter now of getting to work and trying to put together an offense and a staff that we feel good about for next season."
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Many of the tough decisions that will need to be made will involve personnel. The team has already released guards Brandon Fusco and Mike Harris, but talent can be found during the NFL Draft and free agency as well as evaluating each player’s potential and performances during the previous year.
"“We understand the process that you go through this time of year. We really sit down and look at what we did a year ago from an offensive standpoint. We look at every play, every situation and look at ways to get better. We have studies we do,” he added. “We’re looking for any small to any large way that we can improve what we do on offense.”"
Not only has the team already shuffled the roster a bit, but there have been coaches changing jobs as well. All these moves are in hopes that new concepts can be introduced or previous ones can be executed better.
"“It’s more than just plays, it’s a mindset and how you operate,” he later added. “I think as we move forward, we’ve added some new coaches that have some new ideas, so what you try to do is incorporate the best of everyone that’s in the room and then move forward so it becomes the 2017 Vikings offense.”"
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After seeing what Pat Shurmur did at the end of the 2017 season, Minnesota Vikings fans should be excited to see what the team’s offense can do going forward and help out a strong defensive unit.