Report: Vikings may need a new defensive coordinator in 2020

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards is currently in the final year of his contract and he may be on his way out according to a recent report.

When Mike Zimmer took over as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 2014, he decided to bring in George Edwards to be his defensive coordinator. Since then, Edwards has maintained the same role with the Vikings during Zimmer’s entire tenure.

According to a recent report, however, Minnesota’s current defensive coordinator may be on his way out after this season.

Edwards’ contract with the Vikings is up at the end of the year and there’s a chance that he won’t be returning to the team in 2020 according to Sirius XM’s Alex Marvez on Wednesday.

Even though his official title with Minnesota is the team’s defensive coordinator, exactly what Edwards does for the Vikings has always been a question for some since Zimmer is the guy who calls the plays for the defense during each game.

Given that he isn’t in charge of the defensive play-calling, it’s hard to even determine how big of an impact Edwards’ possible departure may have.

During Zimmer’s tenure, some have called for Edwards to be given an opportunity to call the plays for the defense and the head coach has said in the past that he’s considered it. This would allow Zimmer to put more of his focus each week on the entire team rather than having the majority of his time be taken up by figuring out what his defense is doing.

However, Minnesota’s head coach has continued to call the plays for the defense and this may actually be what causes Edwards to explore other opportunities around the NFL.

Like most assistants in the league, Edwards likely wants to be a head coach one day and it’s a little hard to prove his worthiness to lead an entire team when he’s a defensive coordinator that doesn’t even call the plays for his own unit. So he may want to head elsewhere in 2020 to prove that he can do well as a defensive play-caller.

This will be something to pay attention to during the upcoming offseason. But, once again, Edwards’ departure may not even make much of an impact on the Vikings given Zimmer’s duties as the play-caller for the defense.