As NFL Draft approaches, we chat with Childress

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 4/24/2008

 

 At this time last year, the Vikings went into the 2007 Draft after finishing 6-10 in year one of the Brad Childress era and took Oklahoma star running back Adrian Peterson. Last year, the Vikings finished 8-8, missing the playoffs for the second straight year under Childress. That makes him the third Vikings head coach since Jerry Burns to miss the playoffs two years in row.

 This weekend the Vikings, like 31 other teams, will try to get better through the draft. I had the opportunity to sit down with the Vikings head coach and talk football as he prepares for what is a make-or-break season.

 Fitz: Talk about what you’ve done to this point coming off an 8-8 season highlighted by winning five in row and missing the playoffs.

 Childress: Close, but no cigar. The big thing is to get into that dance at the end of the year, and once you get in, as the New York Giants showed, you have a chance to get on a run and do some damage. Obviously, that is where we will be setting the bar next year.

 Fitz: Tarvaris Jackson, your third-year quarterback, you believe is the leader of your football team. How would you grade what he did and how he led your team in 2007?

 Childress: Everybody has an opinion, and that’s what makes athletics great. I think Tarvaris has continued to mature as a quarterback. It takes a little bit of time to develop a quarterback in the NFL. It does not matter if it’s the guy that won the Super Bowl, Eli Manning — as recently as when we played them, they wanted his head on a plate.

 I think Tarvaris is continuing to grow as a football player and is going to be a good football player. We just need to continue to surround him with better talent.

 Fitz: You have seven Pro Bowl players on this team. Adrian Peterson had an incredible season — rushing champ in the NFC, single-game rushing record of 296 yards — and the ability you had to draft a player like that.

 Childress: It all starts with the lines. You don’t do anything without the lines offensively and defensively, and then to add a guy with his type of skill, vision, speed, explosion, and the person that he is with the work ethic — we could not jump up and take his name fast enough. Collarbone or no collarbone, he had it.

 Did we know he would set the single-game record? I would be lying to tell you that, [but] we knew he had all those components.

Fitz: Your two teams have been very similar, dominant against the run and a power offensive running game. Having said that, how close are you to bringing this team along to where you want it?

 Childress: One of the old staples in football is, run the ball and stop the run and you have a chance to have a good team. But, you have to be able to take that further in the National Football League. It’s a great place to start; we don’t ever want to give that up — the number-one rushing defense, the number-one rushing offense — because it speaks to physical football.

 However, in this game today you can’t be one dimensional. Obviously, our biggest growth needs to come in being able to throw the football better and more efficiently with more big plays and being able to eliminate people just going one dimensional on us and throwing the football. That unpredictability has to step up for us a little bit more.

 Fitz: As you get ready for the draft this weekend, talk about what you’ve done already in unrestricted free agency improving your team.

 Childress: We’ve added some free agents: Madieu Williams at the safety position, wide receiver Bernard Berrian, running back Maurice Hicks, fullback Thomas Tapeh, defensive back Benny Sapp, linebacker Derrick Pope. We prefer to supplement with free agents and really let our life blood be the draft.

 The Vikings are certainly better on paper right now. If they can add another two or three players in this weekend’s draft — and they have nine picks — maybe, just maybe, they can wrestle the NFC North away from the Packers now that Brett Favre has retired.

 At the end of our talk, Childress made a point of telling me how excited he was when he was first told by Media Relations Director Bob Hagen that Larry Fitzgerald was coming in for a visit. Then, when he found out it was Larry Sr., not Larry Jr., he was less excited. 

 Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, and biweekly he commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). He welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-re corder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.