The Minnesota Vikings are going to have to find another offensive coordinator after Pat Shurmur left the team for the New York Giants’ head coaching job. It has not necessarily been a well-kept secret that head coach Mike Zimmer is high on Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo for the job.
Though, Philadelphia itself wants to retrain DeFilippo after he helped both Carson Wentz and Nick Foles turn in tremendous seasons en route to earning the franchise’s first Super Bowl title with a win over New England on Sunday.
It now looks like Philadelphia isn’t holding DeFilippo back from a potential promotion. According to Adam Caplan of SiriusXM, the Vikings will interview DeFilippo for their offensive coordinator positionon Thursday. That report differs from an earlier one noting that the Eagles were going to force Minnesota to wait until next week for the interview.
The Eagles are stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Sure they’d have no issue seeing DeFilippo move on to advance his career. Then again, current offensive coordinator Frank Reich is set to interview for the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job Friday after Josh McDaniels backed out last minute.
Vikings officially requested permission to interview Eagles’ QB coach John DeFilippo about their OC job, per source.
Eagles OC Frank Reich interviews for Colts HC on Friday.
Super Bowl brain drain could be underway in Philadelphia.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 7, 2018
If Reich does indeed leave the obvious choice for a replacement would be DeFilippo.
It’s vital that Minnesota is able to bring in a quarterback-friendly offensive coordinator. Sam Bradford, Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater are all likely slated to hit free agency in March. The team has also been linked to Washington’s Kirk Cousins since the end of the season.
Considering what DeFilippo has done throughout his career, he would be a perfect replacement for Shurmur in that role. Time will tell whether it actually comes to fruition.
UPDATE: The Vikings announced they have hired DiFilippo as their next offensive coordinator.