Todd Bowles, Ray Horton will interview with MN Vikings on Monday and Tuesday
Minnesota Vikings helmets during the second half against the Houston Texans at the Metrodome. The Texans won 27-13.Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Vikings are throwing a wide net in their coaching search and there isn’t the slightest indication of a favorite for the gig at this point in time. It does seem like they are interested in coaches who have recently been defensive coordinators of the Arizona Cardinals, and both current Cardinals DC Todd Bowles and his predecessor in that role, Ray Horton, will interview with the Vikings shortly. The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the Vikings will travel to Arizona on Monday to interview with Bowles, and then they will conduct an interview with Horton on Tuesday.
Both Bowles and Horton are two of the top coaches on the open market, and it seems like Horton is the more attractive option despite Bowles receiving more interest. Really the main reason why Bowles has been approached by more teams is because he has been on the market for longer, as Horton was only recently let go by the Cleveland Browns, who continue to act clueless (I still have no idea why they chose to replace Horton with Jim Schwartz).
It will be interesting to see how those two interviews go, but we don’t have any idea as to how interested the Vikings are in either candidate. They just fired a defensive-based head coach in Leslie Frazier, so I wonder if they are more reluctant to hire that kind of a person as their next head coach. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, since they do have interest in Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and Cincinnati Bengals elite DC Mike Zimmer.