Minnesota Vikings: Back to the Pre Bye Week Offense?

With the resignation of Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner, what will the offense look like from here on out?

As we have seen the last two weeks, the Minnesota Vikings offense looks stagnant. Sam Bradford is back to taking five and seven step drops, and the offensive line can not handle that type of scheme. With backups playing in the trenches, they need a quick, short passing game to even have a chance to succeed.

What happened to the Vikings offense we saw Bradford leading before the bye week?

The story is, when Bradford arrived in Minnesota, he had very little time to prepare to play and learn the offense. With Pat Shurmur, Bradford’s old offensive coordinator, coordinating a plan to ease Bradford into Turner’s offense.

The first week we saw the Vikings offense look stagnant and without a score, but able to pull out a win in Tennessee due to their defense scoring twice. You could tell that Shaun Hill was running the normal Turner offense in that game.

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With Bradford learning what he could on the fly, Shurmur coordinated a grouping of plays that he knew that Bradford could easily execute while he was cramming the Turner offense. These plays consisted of short passing, and quick throws.

The offensive line was almost the same during those weeks, and Bradford was standing upright during those wins. That was due to the scheme, and getting the ball out quickly.

Going into the bye week, the Vikings figured that Bradford had enough time to have learned Turner’s offense.

That is what we have seen the last two weeks. The old school, deep drop style scheme, that with this offense line, has been horrible.

My thoughts on the Turner resignation, is that is was not so much of a resignation at all. I am guessing that Zimmer told Turner that he was going to give Shurmur more imput on the offensive play calling, if not the play calling duties in full.

Turner was obviously not ok with that and resigned.

Now looking forward, Shurmur’s offense is a much better fit with the personnel this team has right now.

Turner will be calling plays from the sideline, as he easily could have been during weeks 2 through 5.

Players like Jerrick McKinnon, Cordarrelle Patterson, Stefon Diggs, and others will benefit from this sort of West Coast style offense. All of these players are amazing with the ball in their hands and making something happen after the catch.

Another player that could benefit from this scheme, Laquon Treadwell. With a short passing game, a possession receiver like Treadwell would thrive. With the down play of Charles Johnson, and being that he was always Turner’s man crush, we could see his snaps go to the eager rookie wide out.

This season the Vikings rank in the bottom of the league in pace per drive. Offenses headed by Shurmur had been first in that statistic the last three seasons.

Next: Vikings vs. Lions Madden Prediction

This move looked to be for the best for the Minnesota Vikings. Turner was set in his ways, and with the injuries and hurdles this team has had to jump over, there needs to be changes made to keep this team heading in the right direction.