Vikings' search has league puzzled

In the nine days since the Vikings began searching for a new defensive coordinator, no confirmed candidate has emerged. A few rumors have circulated and a couple of guesses have found their way into print.

The truth? Few people in the NFL know what the Vikings have done, are doing or will do to replace Mike Tomlin, who accepted Pittsburgh's head coach position Jan. 21. The dearth of information is partially because of the continuing lockdown at Winter Park -- where no decision-maker has spoken publicly since Jan. 5 -- but it also suggests three possible scenarios making the rounds among league officials.

In no particular order:

• The first choice of coach Brad Childress -- and possibly the second and third -- opted for another position.

Last year, there were strong indications that Childress wanted to hire Philadelphia linebackers coach Steve Spagnuolo as defensive coordinator if he could not lure Tomlin. According to reports out of Philadelphia, coach Andy Reid blocked Spagnuolo from any possible interviews because he considered him the likely successor to coordinator Jim Johnson -- who, at the time, was a candidate for the St. Louis Rams' head coaching job.

Johnson remained with the Eagles, leaving Spagnuolo free to seek a coordinator's job elsewhere this winter. He accepted the New York Giants' offer Jan. 22 -- significantly, the same day that Pittsburgh made Tomlin's hiring official. Did the Vikings make a run at Spagnuolo before he took the Giants' job? His level of contact with Childress during that day's window is unclear.

Childress spent most of last week at the Senior Bowl festivities in Mobile, Ala., which doubles as a coaching job fair. During that period, Reid promoted assistant Sean McDermott, another Eagles coach with connections to Childress, to Spagnuolo's old job.

One possibility who remains unemployed is former Atlanta and Green Bay coordinator Ed Donatell, who was not retained on the staff of new Falcons coach Bobby Petrino. Donatell is qualified for the job, but he almost certainly would have accepted it by now if he wanted it.

• Unable to make a quick hire, the Vikings are waiting to interview an assistant from this year's Super Bowl teams, Chicago and Indianapolis. Both teams play a version of the Tampa-2 defense Tomlin employed last season in Minnesota, minimizing the level of disruption that goes along with changing coordinators.

Does either team have a coordinator-ready assistant? The Bears might: linebackers coach Bob Babich, the former head coach at North Dakota State (1997-2002) who also doubles as Chicago's assistant head coach. Babich has worked for Bears coach Lovie Smith, a Tampa-2 proponent, since 2003 when they were assistant coaches in St. Louis.

Had Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera gotten a head coaching job, Babich was considered his likely replacement.

Under the league's tampering rules, the Vikings are strictly prohibited from approaching a candidate such as Babich until after the Super Bowl.

• The Vikings already have settled on a candidate but have not announced it for competitive or other reasons. Such could be the case with Babich, or even Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, a close friend of Childress who might not want to disrupt the Cornhuskers' recruiting period. As of last week, however, there was no indication the Vikings had even informally approached Cosgrove, whom Childress tried to hire last year as linebackers coach.

In either case, it's clear neither of the team's internal candidates was Childress' top choice. Otherwise, defensive line coach Karl Dunbar or linebackers coach Fred Pagac would have been hired by now. It seems highly unlikely -- but wouldn't be unprecedented -- that Childress would hire one of them and not announce it immediately.

Of course, that's just a guess.

Kevin Seifert • kseifert@startribune.com