Leslie Frazier to Become Minnesota Vikings’ Head Coach

The only surprising part about this report is the speed with which it was done; Jay Glazer of FOX is reporting that the Minnesota Vikings have officially extended the job offer of head coach to current interim head coach Leslie Frazier, and Frazier has accepted according to Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Frazier has been a guy eye-balled by other teams around the league for a few years now and seemed certain to leave Minnesota one day, but with Brad Childress being shown the door earlier this season the Vikings took the opportunity to keep him around.

The hard part for Frazier starts now. Despite the way it ended, Childress had a lot of success with the Vikings and even more will be expected of Frazier because of the hype. But he will have to do that without a reliable quarterback on his roster and a shaky offensive line and secondary.

The first step will be finding a quarterback, and it’s all going to depend on Frazier’s own philosophy on how to build a team.

Personally, I would go find a veteran quarterback who can manage the game and limit mistakes while stacking up young talent around him. Then, once that talent is in place, they can go out and find their young quarterback.

And that doesn’t even necessarily mean through the draft. They could, if they so choose, decide to go after a guy like Kevin Kolb from the Philadelphia Eagles. He will certainly be on the trade block, the only question is if the Vikings can get him for what they feel is a fair price.

A guy like Kolb would actually satisfy the need for a young talent and a veteran presence, and be a much smaller risk than say a guy like Jake Locker or Ryan Mallett.

It’s going to be a very difficult decision for Frazier, but he’s going to be expected to make those decisions and be correct in those decisions now that he’s the guy calling the shots for the whole team and not just the defense.