Lions express interest in Shurmur
Vikes’ OC among head coach options
Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur offers the Detroit Lions a lot of qualities the club has not seen from candidates thus far in the team’s search for a new head coach.
The 52-year-old Shurmur was the fifth candidate to wrap up his interview with Lions general manager Bob Quinn late on Thursday, but he is the first candidate to interview that has heading coaching experience at the NFL level.
On top of that, Shurmur has a history in Michigan. He’s a Dearborn native and played collegiately at Michigan State University, which is where he started his coaching career in 1988 as a graduate assistant.
He moved to the NFL as a tight end coach with Philadelphia in 1999 and first became an offensive co-ordinator with the St. Louis Rams in 2009.
He spent two seasons as head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2011 and 2012 and was interim head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles for the final game of the 2015 season.
Detroit defensive co-ordinator Teryl Austin and offensive co-ordinator Jim Bob Cooter have also interviewed for the job along with and Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrable and Green Bay Packers assistant head coach and linebackers head coach Winston Moss.
But while Shurmur has head coaching experience over the other four candidates, he’s also the only one of the five to have overcome injury problems with the team he coached for last season and have success.
Minnesota lost quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to injury and saw Sam Bradford go down in the opener, but turned Case Keenum into a productive enough quarterback to earn the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed.
On top of that, the Vikings cut ties with running back Adrian Peterson and lost rookie sensation Dalvin Cook early in the season to injury against the Lions, but Minnesota still finished seventh in the league in rushing.
While he would be an interesting fit for a Detroit team that has invested heavily on offence, the Lions are not the lone suitor for Shurmur. He also interviewed with Arizona on Thursday was scheduled to meet with Chicago on Friday and is expected to interview for the New York Giants job on Saturday.
The Lions have also expressed interest in interviewing Carolina Panthers defensive co-ordinator Steve Wilks and New England Patriots defensive co-ordinator Matt Patricia in the coming days.