Vikings part ways with O-coordinator
The Vikings, still seeking to salvage a season that started with Super Bowl designs, made a last-ditch move to capture a midDecember spark by firing offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.
Coach Mike Zimmer made what he called an “extremely difficult decision” Tuesday morning, following a 21-7 loss to the Seahawks on Monday night in Seattle.
DeFilippo’s first season on the job ended after just 13 games, amid a sharp decline in production by the offense over the last six weeks.
“I went round and round and round and round about it because I feel like, ‘I hired him. It’s my job to try to help him to continue to get better,’ ” Zimmer said. “I obviously didn’t do a good enough job there. I’ve always felt like if you hire a guy, you should stick with him and try to help him and help him mature as a coach.”
The Vikings (6-6-1) have been held to under 300 total yards in four of their last five games. They’ve scored an average of 12.8 points in those four games. Thanks to the struggles of several of their NFC competitors, though, they’re still in control of the second wild-card spot with three games to go.
“I don’t want the season to be wasted. Now, maybe it will. Maybe it won’t,” Zimmer said. “But these three games, to me, are very, very critical.”
Quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski was made interim offensive coordinator, taking over the play-calling duty. Stefanski has been an assistant with the Vikings since 2006, surviving two head coaching changes. Having coached quarterbacks, running backs and tight ends under Zimmer, Stefanski has a firm grasp of the scheme and the personnel.
“We’ve got a lot of smart guys in that room, and I’ll try to help him best I can,” Zimmer said.
The city of Oakland filed a federal antitrust lawsuit trying to recover damages for the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas in 2020.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the Raiders, the NFL and the other 31 clubs seeks lost revenue, money Oakland taxpayers invested in the Raiders and other costs. The suit doesn’t ask the court to prevent the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas but asks for damages that will help pay off the approximately $80 million in debt remaining from renovations on the Coliseum.
The city says the defendants violated federal antitrust laws and the league violated its own relocation policies when the teams voted in March 2017 to approve the Raiders’ decision to move to Las Vegas.
Chargers RB Melvin Gordon practiced on a limited basis for the first time since spraining the MCL in his right knee Nov. 26, but he will be a game-time decision for the team’s AFC West showdown against the Chiefs on Thursday night in Kansas City, Mo . ... The Lions placed DE Ezekiel Ansah on IR with a shoulder injury, ending his season and potentially his time with the franchise that drafted him in the first round in 2013.