Vikings owners Zygi Wilf and his brother, Mark, talked with a group of Twin Cities reporters Monday evening after Leslie Frazier was introduced as the permanent coach.
It was the first time this season that the Wilfs had sat down for an extended interview. One thing Zygi Wilf made clear was despite the fact the Vikings stand to have 18 free agents and finished in last place this season, he doesn't see his team as being in rebuilding mode.
"I don't look at this as a rebuilding situation," Zygi Wilf said. "Again, in the last two years, we've been the division champions with a great roster, great personnel, great leaders, and we're very fortunate to be able to make a coaching change, and Leslie, of course, stated that, to make the coaching change, we have such great leaders in our locker room. We're going to have to make certain changes because of what's been happening with free agency and all of that. But I know that with Rick and coach and Rob and ourselves that we'll have a better football club going into next year."
Wilf was referring to vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman and vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski. As I wrote for the Tuesday paper, there were some who thought ownership might give Spielman the general manager's title or restructure the front office a bit. But, according to the Wilfs, that isn't going to happen.
The only thing that will change is Frazier won't have as much power as Brad Childress did and the assumption is Frazier will be far easier to get along with for other members of the front office. The Wilfs have complete faith that Spielman and Frazier will be able to work through whatever differences they might have, whether it be on the pro personnel side or the college draft.
Is this realistic? That's probably a fair question. Frazier said all the right things about his relationship with Spielman today but the real test will come when the two are looking at potential cuts in training camp or have a difference of opinion about which direction to go in during the draft.
It was interesting in the course of the discussion that I don't think the Wilfs mentioned Childress' name once, even though they made it clear a few times that they thought communication would be much better with Frazier in place full-time as the head coach.
Mark Wilf, the Vikings president, was asked about the perception of Childress as a dominant coach. "We're here about looking forward," he said. "Today's a new day for a new season. We feel very comfortable and confident in the people we have -- Coach Frazier, Rick, Rob and our football people -- to work together to come to those decisions properly."
