Random question regarding Darrell Bevell / Minnesota

Wikipedia says that Bevell was the OC at Minnesota in 2010 before coming here in 2011. Was he slated to remain the OC in Minnesota in 2011 had Pete not called him, or was he a "free agent" during that offseason? I thought the NFL had rules discouraging teams from seeking assistant coaches for "lateral" hires, so I was curious about this.

Totally unrelated note, but during this little adventure I found out that Darrell Bevell is Mormon. So is my new QB obsession Brad Sorensen and even Haloti Ngata is Mormon, apparently. Huh. I'm not Mormon myself, but I grew up in Mormonville, so I guess I always find stuff like that interesting. I like how Darrell Bevell is Mormon and Steve Sarkisian is actually Catholic, when everyone probably assumes the opposite.

This is totally irrelevant to anyone else, but I think it's pretty cool that Bevell played HS football in the same state I did, and even went to Northern Arizona University (under Brad Childress and Bill Callahan (!)) briefly, which was very nearly the same college I went to out of high school. Flagstaff High School played their home games in the same venue (the Skydome - which is also where the Arizona Cardinals do their training camp) so we both played football games in that same dome within the same decade, which is kind of neat. Small world.

Free agent

Bevell was not retained by for new coach Leslie Frazier's staff with the Vikings. Minnesota hired Bill Musgrave to be its new offensive coordinator.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6042278

Sorenson (and Saints rookie QB Ryan Griffin) were the 2 QB's that really intrigued me pre-draft. I didn't know, of course, how Sorenson would do in the Pro game. But, you could see how he commanded an offense in what there is of his college work on YouTube. He was very impressive in that 1st pre-season game. I wouldn't doubt that JS/PC made note of that.

Thanks for the info.

Sorenson was a Skelton-esque trainwreck in at least one of the games I found on youtube earlier this spring- but seeing him look like a seasoned pro in the preseason has been a lesson in sample sizes. Even if he's just had the hot hand lately, I think he's legit anyway. He showed QB skills that maybe 15-20 NFL QBs have with a great feel for the game. That he's doing this as a 6th round rookie from a nothing school right away is virtually unprecedented. I'm extremely impressed with him.

Sorensen reminds me of Tony Romo when he kicked our butts in a week 1 preseason game many years ago. Romo wasn't a rookie, but he was still very much a nobody at that time. I remember coming away from that game thinking that Romo had to be legit, that he'd be a good NFL starter in the near future. I get that same vibe with Sorenson.

Interesting that NFL.com gives him a comparison to Skelton. http://www.nfl.com/draft/2011/profiles/ ... id=2539312 Did that have anything to do with your initial eval?

I wasn't trying to find a comparison in what I saw in the guy. Did you see who he compared himself to? http://draftseason.com/nfl-draft-player ... interview/

I had just saw his name popping up on several pre-draft watch lists and simply being curious to see what his game was about with what footage I could find. I think I went into watching those clips having read the hype and the stats. So, maybe my opinion of him was optimistically inflated and hopeful to find a diamond in the rough the Hawks might take a chance on in later rounds to develop as a backup.

I'm guessing on players. I just simply watching them play FOOTBALL. You probably look and analyze in much greater detail than I do. I'm pretty much just doing an eye test. Through decades of watching football, talent evaluation isn't simply an exact science. I can appreciate those that put in that work. But, those evaluations can hit and miss. Maybe because I've seen how very important intangibles can be, I'm looking to see if I can spot things that don't necessarily show up in stats and player talent evaluations. A players talent is going to be at least somewhat affected by how others around him are performing. I'm starting to coach one of my boys youth football teams and the things the better players do often go unnoticed. They probably don't get the credit they deserve. Sometimes, great players are limited because of lack of talent around them. But, again, it's a team game. Maybe some of what you saw of Sorenson's college game was limited by the lack of talent around him? Still, flashes of potential can prove to be worth giving a player a chance as it's looking like in this case.

I saw one of your other posts. Sorenson has a 120 QB rating after 2 pre-season games? So, he not only looks the part, but he's doing so in rarely seen fashion statistically as well, huh? It's still early, but the Chargers must feel like they may have found themselves a possible eventual replacement for Rivers. Charlie must feel the pressure of that added competition.

kearly":2ttpcv5w said:

Wikipedia says that Bevell was the OC at Minnesota in 2010 before coming here in 2011. Was he slated to remain the OC in Minnesota in 2011 had Pete not called him, or was he a "free agent" during that offseason? I thought the NFL had rules discouraging teams from seeking assistant coaches for "lateral" hires, so I was curious about this.

Click to expand...

Yeah but the rule is that the NFL considers coaches to be either a Head Coach or an Assistant Coach, a team can't block a team from interviewing an assistant for a Head Coach position, but considers any other move "lateral", and requires the team to give permission (so an assistant D-Line coach interviewing for a Defensive Coordinator position would still be considered a "lateral move" under NFL rules).

In practice, teams don't usually block lateral moves (unless they're a 49ers DB coach or something), so even if Bevell had been under contract we could have still interviewed him - as long as the Vikings gave permission.


It's irrelevant anyway since he was a "free agent"

What a trip. I lived in Flagstaff for about three years. 1998-2001.