MVP: Chad Greenway Discusses Front Office Changes, What Comes Next | Episode 128

is you know really the dcat for me? Feelman, I've been I was with my entire career and is a massively important figure in my life. I immediately think about those guys and just reached out them via text and just thank them for everything. Called him, I loved him and wished him nothing but the best. You're listening to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast and this is episode one hundred and twenty eight. I'm Tanta Meverett inside TCO Studios or

radio room. I've got Gabe Henderson and producer Jay Nelson alongside me today and we have a lot to discuss. After an eventful week at Twin Cities ORTHOPEDICX Performance Center, plus we have a very special guest on the podcast today, former Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway. But before we get to our interview with Chad, the Vikings finished the season eight

and nine with no postseason birth. As a result, ownership made the tough decision on Monday to part ways with both general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer. Vikings owner Mark Wealth spoke on Monday, said letting them go was hard after Spielman had been with the organization for sixteen years and Zimmer for eight, but that is what had to be done, according to Wealth, to take

this franchise to the next level. So, Gabe, Jay, I'm going to give you the floor right here, and I'll start with you, Gabe in your eyes, why do you think ownership made this decision? First and foremost, it's always funny when people say Gabe and Jay, because I have one older brother and his name is Jay. Oh wow. I had no idea. So when I say Jay, I was just like, it's talking about my brothers. Calling in later, you didn't know that's I'm going You've been Yeah, yes,

you're a big brother tv in. But um to your point of ownership making this decision. Um, I do believe it was a tough decision, but I remember to talking to Mark Wilf earlier this week, and the organization just needed to go in a new way. And I wouldn't say overstaying you're welcome is the case. But having a job or head coaching job in the NFL for eight years, um, things can get old, and things can go one way

and then go the other way. You kind of it's kind of like leaving milk out out for a while. You can, but at the same time, sometimes that milk will spoil. The expiration date the expiration date, and sometimes the expert date. Expiration date is longer on certain certain cartons. In the other end, Uh, this was a long expiration

date for Mike Zimmer. He served his time. He put a lot of milk in the bowls of cereal and a lot of people ate that bowl and was able to get full in the process, but still the milk went sour after a while, and that to mention that Mike Zimmer didn't feed a lot of people. But still in the same breath, it was one of those things where you say, okay, Mike, like we appreciate what you did. He laid a foundation and there were expilment on the

other end. He's been in part of this process since two thousand and six, and that for me personally, was the biggest surprise. I think a lot of people were surprised by that move, but I think Mark Wolfe he looks at it as Okay, well, we're not fully rebuild him, but we want to get the right leaders here in place to continue to build this, build the foundation moving forward. I did love when he talked about the rebuild and

how they envisioned this team is still a contender. You think of the fourteen one score games this season and you think maybe the decisions would be differently if the game outcomes had just swung a few more in the

right direction. But you know, it was interesting with it being my first season here and kind of looking into the career of Mike Zimmer, I didn't really realize heading into this job that he really, if you want to include this past season, had only been to the playoffs three of eight seasons, and I think when you look at the actual numbers itself, that to me speaks volumes because I think as an organization and ownership, you want

better results than that. As a fan base. As an organization, as you know anyone working within this organization, the goal every season should be to be in postseason contention. And I think the fact that the last four seasons you've only been in the playoffs at once, and you know we made the run the way we did and lost in San Francisco in the divisional round, I think, ultimately that's on my end what I think it comes down

to why ownership made this decision. Coaches come in, there's there's a pop of excitement, there's a pop of promise and hope for what their intentions are and what people feel this should be. And I think the first half of Zimmer's career here there was a ton of promise and hope. There was playoff appearances, kind of the ups and downs, winning division crowns at Green Bay, things like that, rallying together and feeling like there's a clear vision of

what we're going to be for the future. I think given the way that the last half of his career as a head coach here has gone, I think the ownership kind of potentially looked at this and just said, listen, if we're going to do one, let's just get a fresh start across the board, because Rick has had his chance over the last sixteen years to help mold this

football team where they needed to be. If the head coach was working with the players and talent that have been here, if they looked at it and said, if we're gonna get one brand new perspective, then let's do it both positions in order to see what we can get for the future. Because they looked at the results and said, it's just not good enough at this point. Like anywhere, whenever you have success early, it's hard for

fans to wane back from that. So the fact that we made the playoffs in twenty fifteen, granted we didn't win that playoff game, the bar was already set high of like, okay, well this guy he missed the playoffs his first season, and Mike zimmer okay, twenty fifteen, Oh, we actually can do it. We didn't make it in twenty sixteen, but twenty seventeen we go on that long run.

So the expectation started to rise. And that's not to say that Mike zimmerdon then live up to the expectations, but once you have two seasons in a role where you kind of don't live up to those expectations. I think that that plays into the fact of, all right, well, we may have to look in a different direction. Yeah, you are the third winning as coach of franchise history, but we got to continue to have that sustained success. And we appreciate you getting this there because we've tasted

the success, so now we want more of it. And I think at this point, if you look at both Zimmer and Spielman, if you would have asked them at the beginning of the season, what's your goals and what are your expectations, it'd be to win and be in

the playoffs and be a postseason contender. And I think as as frustrating as this season was with the roller coaster with a lack of results the way you wanted, in the fact that you ended at eight to nine, I think that must have been part of the decision, just to say, you know, things have not worked out the way we've expected and what ownership's expectations are being championship contenders. They've said that from the moment that they

walked in the door. Yeah, And I think that along with the fact that neither you know, the benchmarks were not hit for the season. That had to be part of the reason they were willing to part with people that have contributed this organization in many ways besides football for the last you know, almost over a decade at this point with Rick, and you think about what was

on the line in the last three games. Yes, you had the opportunity to maybe save a couple of jobs, to maybe make it to the postseason and not make this season an eight and nine no playoff team. I mean, they had it was right there for the taking, and you saw the type of team efforts that came off. And I know, these guys play really hard, and they try hard, and they and they try to put themselves

in those positions. But those last two games were just so tough, or three games rather, were just so tough to just sit back and know what was out there for the taking, and it wasn't taken advantage of. And it was a little bit of bad luck too, especially at that Green Bay Packers game and then a few games earlier in the year where we had a few players down. But every team in the league's dealing with

the same stuff. Legua Zeolo with the same stuff, and I know ownership they talked about what Mark Wolfe talked about that earlier this week. Is they have provided the ample resources for these head coaches and for Rick Spilming, and they're going to continue to do so. And I think it showed this year with all these guys that signed one year contracts from P two to well just in general, all the free agents that we brought in.

So I do believe they're going to be very gracious when providing resources, in which he said earlier this week, Mark Wolfe, So it's just a fact of when we provide these resources, we need you guys to hold them to your end of the deal and provide us wins if you go through and look at what the expectations are. I think from ownership is the fact that we should be a successful team and we should be able to compete six of our nine losses or the playoff teams.

And I think if you expect to be in that echelon of teams that can compete that way, you can't have that kind of a record when it comes to playing at that caliber. I just it's extremely difficult, given relationships that my self and other people in this organization have had with both of these people over the years,

to see them go. But if ownership is as strong as they are to say these are expectations, then I think fans should be somewhat excited given what the goals are, that they're willing to make a drastic change like this in order to try to achieve their goals. Yeah. I think the last thing it was that stood out to me about Mark Wolfe's interview is that he said they're looking for strong leaders, communicatings or communicators and collaborators who

are aligned with building a positive, winning culture. So you look at that and you say, Okay, well, these guys have a vision of who they want and I think they'll take as much time as necessary to do so. Yeah.

I think that was a three words that we heard not only from Mark wolf but in the exit interviews from Adam Feeling, Eric Kendricks, Brian O'Neill, everyone talking about needing more collaborative environment, a leader who's strong in their convictions, and in a lot of ways, it sounded like the players also as upset as they are about not having the consistency and the continuity of the head coach and GM they sounded like, you know, this is part of

the league. They're willing to deal with this, and they hope that strong leadership, collaboration and communicators exactly, I think is what they're hoping and looking for. I wanted to point this out as one final point as to why I kind of think things developed the way they did this week is going back to when Mike Zimmer was hired.

He was hired to bring in to revamp this defense, to make it that strong Vikings defense that you know the franchise has been known for for so long, and you hit twenty seventeen, where their first in total defense and their tops in the league in several categories. You think of twenty twenty one, it is statistically the worst season that Mike Zimmer's defense has had while in Minnesota, and the decline of the defense doesn't really help the

offense as well. I mean, Kirk Cousins commit comes in twenty seventeen after the run, they want him continue that. But while they had that strong defense, they thought they needed a quarterbacks. They bring the quarterback in and the defense is declined since then. So it's kind of been just a recipe for where we are right now, eight nine and no playoffs. It's a bad mix in just that the offensive side when you would have your three and outs, puts the defense in a bad position to

run at that point, and vice versa. If offensively things aren't necessarily clicking the way they need to and you need the defense just to make a stop. I mean, how many games, at the end of a game or at the end of a half, we're looking at the defense just to make a stop and to stop them from putting points on the board. And given all the one score games that we lost, I just think it was a bad formula all season long, between the defensive drop and the offense unable to sustain drives in the

way that they needed. I just think it was not beneficial on either sides for both of those groups. Yeah, I think that you hit it right on that ghost hand in hand, like, yeah, you look at some of the defense the stats and say, well, they didn't stop the run or they didn't do this. Well, you have two drives where a team has seventy rushing yards and they ended up with one hundred and twenty. Maybe those two drives where they give up seventy rushing yards the

offense went three and out. So there's so many things as far as momentum that we weren't able to take advantage of this year. Only two games stand out to me this year that we were actually able to control the momentum the first half of the Steller's game and then the second half of this Bears game this past week. And you look at that and say, well, if you put those two games together, you got a complete season,

but you got a Super Bowl winners the case. But still like that's that's one of those things where you just say, well, we want a coach or a GM or somebody that that's in leadership to come in and it's an expert in helping sustain some of that momentum. That's what in my opinion, I feel like that's when coaching comes in. When you make a big play and then you strategize something to continue to build on that momentum. And we weren't able to do that. Yeah, we did

have a lot of lash blaze. You look at the sack totals or our third down totals on defense say like, man like, we were really good, but still those momentum driven moments where you look at the coaches and say, okay, this is where you guys stepped in maybe add some

extra boost here or blitz Here's that's where you say. Okay, I see what Mark Wolf and those guys were saying, and obviously Mark Will felt as strongly enough to your point, Gabe to go ahead and make the call on moving forward without Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer and not many people have the unique perspective in this situation, as our podcast guests this week, former Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, who

spent his entire eleven year career here in Minnesota. The Vikings drafted him in the first round of the twenty sixteen draft when Spielman was the newly promoted director of player Personnel. Plus he spent his final three seasons as a Viking with head coach Mike Zimmer. So we are so excited to hear from him. Here is Chad Greenway. Vikings fans, you know him and you love him. It's Vikings legendary linebacker Chad Greenway. Chad, happy birthday is in order.

Thanks for being here on your special day. Yeah, thanks for having me. I figured, I figured, why not if nothing else going on? The kids are at school, it's sunny out, it's almost forty degrees, you might as well jump on the podcast. So it is great up vodka in the giftback tonight. Oh, it's always in the bag. Yeah, So I as I coach you guys off air, obviously, I'm coaching my girls team tonight, my daughter's team, and then after that I have a board meeting after host.

But it's virtual. So what happens off screen in a virtual meeting happens off screen, and there may be some cock jilks. I'm a fan. I've got my great duck sitting on my bar cart right now. So looks rather nice there, very nice. Well, it's funny though. You mentioned you're mentioning sunny and forty and every I tweeted out the other day about it's hitting thirty and people are saying, oh, so warm today. I'm like, this is this isn't warm? I have to know, are you a short sky when

it hits forty? Oh honey, you're so new to this? When when when it goes negative ten on? Yeah, with the wind at negative twenty five and you just get that thirty at thirty feels like you're feeling today. Thirty feels like fifty, right, thirty feels like fifty feels amazing outside you could throw a little hoodie on. You might have a light jacket on top of that. But for the most part, you are living the dream. You get to actually enjoy the outdoors instead of the negative ten

and you can't that I am, um. You know, I grew up in South Dakota. I'm very used to the cold, extreme cold, extreme wind. So you know, this is just part of it. Um. You know, I don't know why I live here. I love we love it here. We love the school, we loves raising the families. There's so many There's so much more to life than the weather, um, And it's all about finding ways to enjoy it and uh,

you know, and live your best life in it. And about ten degrees chat, I think you'll start to see people popping the tops down on their convertibles and driving their Harley's out. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Yeah. I didn't know if it was thirty seven or seventy three today. And then I looked at the car washers on my drive to work and I was like, why

is every single car washing Minnesota flour right now? That's a great as a great indication of where people the car wash line the cars are coming out of the garage, out of hibernation in order to try to try to wake up this gracious you guys are killing me. I will never be a shorts person in forty degrees, just never, never make shorts and tall Thanksgiving and then whenever it's reasonable to come out of hibernation. So I'll think about it. We're not too far off. I'll think about it. We'll see.

I do like the sun being out today, that's for sure. It's nice to see the sun out after such a tumultuous week over here in the Minnesota Vikings. You know, Chad, I'm sure you know the news by now that Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer have been relieved of their duties here as head coach and GM. And I know that you have long relationships with Spielman as well as Zimmer playing under them. What was your initial reaction of the news when you heard about their departures. Yeah, I mean,

you know, the initial news is I guess I'm nut shocked. Obviously, you've been the NFL for a long time and around the business, and yeah that you're ever shocked by decision

from and the organization. You start to do the mass and you realize that, you know, Zam has been here for eight and Spielman's been here for what's sixteen yea, And you realize that in respect, the will giving them enough time to really implement their plan, get the right people around them, the personnel, the coaching staff, everything in place to be successful, and if the will feel like it's time to move on as owners, you know, you feel like, okay, we gave this the best shot. You

kind of respect that decision. It wasn't like a you know, maybe like the Dolphins, where it's a two or three year dealing done and you don't get really a chance to really see what that coaches all about him the long term. So I respect that, but the initial reactions obviously just you know, it sucks. I mean, there's no other way around it. If we love you know, I loved him, love I love him. When he came in.

I played for him for three years. M Spielman. I've been I was with my entire career and is essentially a massively important figure in my life, just because he has been so good to my family and my career and everything that we stand for, and he's been a massive part of that. So I immediately think about those guys and just reached out to be a text and just thank them for everything, told him I loved him

and wish him nothing but the best. And um, you know, the next part you feel is is all the all the waves from that massive splash continue to affect others. Right There's there's assistant coaches and gas and guys that don't have massive buyouts that now have to find new jobs and new teams and new opportunities and you have, you know, in some cases wives and girlfriends and kids and school decisions and all sorts of just stuff, right, just life stuff to hit you right away, you know.

And and it's tough, and um, you know, they know what they're getting into. And a lot of people will will claim that everybody's making all this money that it becomes easier, Um, but not everybody is. You know. It's a it's a massive, massive thing and somebody's life to lose a job like this, especially in such a public arena. Um, So I just wish those guys nothing but the best. They're incredible people, incredible coaches and leaders, you know, and you don't you don't stand as long as they have

in the NFL without being that. So I wish them nothing but the best. Yeah, that's one thing that I would say a lot of fans forget, or a lot of people involved with this outside of the building forget, is that these these guys are Humanum where there's the coaches, g am front office, all these guys, like you said, a families and and more importantly, this is what they love to do. This is how they make a living

for their family also. So just with that said, I remember talking to to Zimmer earlier before the season started and I asked him. I was like, well, I told him. I was like, Zim, I heard you got a little bit softer ever since you got two grandkids. And the first thing you said it was like yeah, I am, but still not to my players. So as a former Zimmer player, how would you describe Do you have a story about you guys this time together or maybe even

Rick Spielman. Yeah, I describe him as accountable, you know. Accountability would be the number one word I would kind of define with that, and he led that way with his with his own approach. I mean, if he made a mistake, he would own it, you know, if he if he made a bad call, he would own it, and he would own it in front of everybody. He was always the most prepared. You could tell he put the work in the time in US as a head coach and as a you know, really is a DC

for me. You know, I came in, I had played, I'd played for eight years of the organization under one defense. Zimmer comes in and kind of implement this wholesale change and mentality and approach, and I kind of had to reinvent myself in year nine into a different type of player and really take new coaching and news type of coaching. You know. Adam Adam became my linebacker coach who was a few years younger than me. Um So, you know, really had to navigate some things when they came in.

And it was interesting because at that same time, I got asked take a pay cut that same year, and um so it was a lot going on in my head, you know, as a leader and a team captain and

all these things. And the new coach comes in and the GM aster a pay cut, you have all these kind of negatives, and it remotivated me and re engaged me into my career and I decided to stay and finish a Viking, and that all worked out, and I learned to respect Zim's approach, and you know, to the point where I think his approach not only can can win in this league, but is the necessary way to handle things and people and these kids come out of college now, is on true accountability and um and he

did in a couple of ways. I mean the one that the best example is my first training camp UM with him. We're on a man Cato and you know, if you weren't familiar, you guys probably be familiar with me and kay to layout, but just you know, three grass fields right side by side by side. There's a stadium kind of on the end. So he's standing by the stadium and I won the far grass field. You're talking like two and a half three fields away, and

we're going through defensive walkthrough. Is the morning walked through like ten am. And we're out there going through the stuff we had installed the night before in that morning, and all we hear is just them like with this little little limp walking across the field, you know, and just screaming like nobody knew he was. It was too far away even understand. And like we we go through a couple more plays, and he finally gets over there and he set up he wanted to play, set up

that he was yelling at and I was playing. I was playing. I was on the field that time. And it turns out he was screaming at me. And what he laid out was like my alignment was like six inches off, like too far to the inside. And again, I'm thirty years old, I've in my ninth year. You know, at that point, I have like nine hundred career tackles or more like, you know, I knew what I was doing, but he had to make a point, and it was right.

He was right. But the point is that you have to be exact in this business, and six inches matters, and um and your alignment matters, and all these details matter, and you have to study and know and understand. And if you don't know, if if you don't know, everybody's positioned right knowing your own, but also and everybody else's that you can't hold each other accountable in that way.

And then you go on to watch tape as a team or a defensive unit, and you would be held accountable on the video, on the video, and and I just all those things lead together and his points were all active because this business no different than this team this year or every every year, is everything's so tight and the margin of error is so slim that you have to be exact and you have to be perfect, and you're never gonna be perfect. You have to try.

But he also just you know, he led that way by with his with how he handled his own business too. I mean, he'd be so hard on himself for missing something or not seeing something, and um, you know, in my estimation, he always put it on himself when he needed to. Chad. You mentioned that Zimmer's approach is a winnable approach. So what do you think happened the last couple of seasons where it just felt like the team

wasn't achieving to what their expectations were. I'm not there right, having been around the team in two years because of COVID and other reasons, and you don't really know and understand less you're there right. So it's hard for us to really say, even for you guys in the building, to really to really pinpoint it right. You can you can point to personnel or guys not making plays, or coaches not getting guys ready, or coaches having wrong and

there's all sorts of things you can kind of point to. UM. I always thought that Zim's approached on being defensive first and calling the plays as a head coach maybe held back, held himself back from being the type of head coach he could have been rather than D you know, just like a DC mentality. Um. But the point is that that was his baby, right, and that's what he wanted. That's where he really really cared about. So and he's an excellent DC. But I think it's always a combination

of things in the NFL. You can never just point to one thing. Players have to play. We know that defense can win, right and but but it comes down to every NFL season comes down to games that you win or lose by five points or less. And we've just been losing too many games at the end right opportunities, you know, kirks and the offense drives you down, and you get chance for a kick, you miss kirk and offense drives you down. You fumble the ball, you loose,

you lose the ball, you loose. You know, there's so many things. You know, you score too early, defense can't hold, they score, you loose. There's just so many ways to lose in this business. It's insane and all these players you're playing are so good, so it's hard to pinpoint you answer your question directly, but it's always a combo

of things. And I think that the games you point to that are an indictment on the coaching staff would be an away game at Detroit that you lose that you have to win, not just not necessarily being prepared. And I always thought this year, and not to be negative, but I felt like this year we played more not to lose than to win, and that approach just comes

back to by you in this league. Yeah, you didn't make a good point though, with defenses being so reactionary, how you hear Eric Kendricks just just pretty much anybody in the defense is side of the ball saying the defense is always a half a step behind because you're always reacting to what offense is doing. They kind of got the heads the heads up, or they end they know what they're going to do before you know what

they're going to do. So you kind of look at that in the same approach when it comes to this new GM and coaching higher like the ownership knows what they're going to do. We have to react to that. So when you were a player and you had to react to I guess what ownership's thought process on bringing in a new coach. What was the thought process for you? And what should the thought process? What do you think the thought process is for some of these players that

are about to go through it. You look at it both decisions. Right. With Spielman coming in, it was interesting because in OH six I actually got drafted by fran Foley who was hired. He brought it to Steve Hutchinston van Leeber had my draft class, and then he literally gets let go, like the Tuesday after the draft. They found the discrepancy in his resume, they let him go. Rip comes in under the kind of the triangle of power and becomes sort of the pseudogm and decision makers.

So you have that whole play right where now you have guys with a new GM coming in that maybe that GM just surely doesn't like doesn't like him as the players and like his style is like his play now, so you you're maybe future as a Viking could be up in up up in the air end, you don't know. And then you have the coaching piece, right, So now those two need to align. And obviously you're hiring GM first, and then the GM is gonna be processed part of

the process behind the coach. So if you're a game and style of play isn't getting them align with the new staff right, it's it's probably a real problem for you. And there's probably guys in the roster right now they're thinking, I cannot wait to get a new coach in here because maybe it'll maybe it'll amplify my ability to play under this new new team. So my thought was always this, It's like I got to bring my best every day,

no matter what. It's the league, I mean, every practice game, somebody can take your somebody can take your snaps, somebodyn take your job, and there try to pay somebody to do it cheaper, right, And you have to have that approach every day. So my biggest thing was always be around the building. You know, off seasons, I rarely left for a couple of vacations here or there. I was always around. I always worked out there. I wanted people to see me. I wanted to I wanted to have

conversations with the coach. I want to have conversation with my position coaching GM, we get to know them, understand them. And in my contract negotiations with Rick and Rob, it was it was about what else do I bring to this team besides just my ability to play. You have to be good football players the NFL, but what else do you bring? Community support, leadership, captain mentality. I mean you can talk to you can talk to the team, you can talk to the coaches, you can you can

go to events and be in the community. And it's just there's so many ways to lead and be an example in pro football than just being a good football player. So um, I think if take all those things into account when you look at who's coming in, and I would research as a player, like what are these gms and coaches standford, Where have they been where they had success and try to mirror, you know, what they're asking

me to do. Interesting as you say for a player to be available, because it's usually coaches saying that they should be available. So that's that's interesting. You say that when a new coach comes more players should try to make themselves more available. Oh my god, I thought it was just obvious. I mean it, you know, I blew my l out No. Six, So I lost my first year, So coming back in No. Seven, like I knew, as

an opportunity to be a starter. I want to make sure everybody understood that I was in it to win it and being a part of this organization. And and you do that by saying, yeah, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to you know, Saint John's my favorite vacation spot for two weeks after the season, and but then I'm gonna be back and I'm gonna I'm gonna work

out anyways. I might as well workout a facility where people care about my success, right and no, my body needs and no knows my ailments and my my issues. And yeah, the weather is not as great as southern California. But at the same time, it's about building your career and building it the right way and you know, elongating your career in a lot of cases as well. So I found this to be very valuable. No, that's my experience. That's great insight. I think that's that's much appreciated. It

really didn't think about that before, but it's a great point. Um. I know that there are six head coaching jobs open chat. There's Vikings, Bears, Jaguars, Broncos, Giants, and Dolphins. Then you have three general manager positions Vikings, Bears, and Giants. So where do you think this Vikings vacancy ranks in the league? Is far? Are as most appealing job out there? Yeah, I've been thinking about that questions I've been asked to

a couple of times already. I think it's a hard question to answer because you don't know what they're looking for. Right is does that you know, look at Anthony Barr for example? Right, is Anthony Barr gonna be a part of our team moving forward? I assure as that cope is. But if he's not, with the salary catpechers and others, things like the defense may look a lot different with the different personnel that's not going to be available to it. So I think you look at the Viking's job and say, wow,

we got a lot of ability here. Right. You look at our roster, a lot of big names that have a lot of ability. There's some years left in those legs. Right, you got candidates, you got Bar, you got Harry m you have a lot of great defensers, you have some young defenders. Dancer played really well at the end of the year as a young corner. So you have some really nice pieces. Um, you know, obviously a lot of

a lot of holes. You got to you gotta be able to rush the pastor a heck of a lot better than we have been u the last few seasons. So you look at the defense and say, okay, there's some there's some pieces there. And then offensively, obviously have one of the best young receivers in the league in the history of the league. Yet you have Steeling who's aging, but good Thorne had a nice season. O line has got a lot of nice pieces, but has them building

to do. Get one of the best running backs of football and a quarterback that can do that can make every throw and it's smart. So offensively, I like the pieces. I think it's a job that people are gonna want and are gonna want to seek out. The question you have to ask yourself is because we are one of the teams that fired both, will we get access to hire the other coaches? Because how many coaches are gonna be gone while wilst are doing it, while we are

still doing a GM search. I think it's an interesting, you know, just a timing topic really to me, Like I love Flores, I think what he's done in Miami and his background is obvious that he's one of the if not the best candidates out there. But are you gonna get him? Is he gonna be around in ten days when we finally get the GM hired and get around to do a coaching search. Is that GM get out aligned with the same mentality the ownership has on how we move forward? Right? So it's just a lot

of questions to be answers. So I think it's the roster that that looks really, really good, and I think it's the job that people would love. You just name a few people, a few things that can possibly affect this GM and coaching hire. But as far as just personally, what type of leadership I'm not even saying names, but just leadership in general. Do you hope to get out of this new hire? I am after kind of seeing how Zim went about his business and again loving Zim

went through Leslie Fraser's staff, went through Children's staff. What I think too many coaches get cut up and is what got them there? Right? If I'm the OC at named the place and I got hired as the head coach because I was a good OC, does not mean that you need to be the OC. Just because you're an elite DC does not meeting be coming. You need to be the head coach. You need to be able to handle all things head coach related and you need

to be get focused on that. And I love more of the CEO approach from a head coach and trusting who I hire as the O C and d C. And you see a lot of these guys that get hired in this right or wrong. You know, I'm sure

there's some sort of historical view on that. I'm a complete idiot and my point is dumb, But the reality is that I just think from from a from a team from a team standpoint, the team is better when you have a CEO at the top beating both sides, and you have an OC and DC that trust, are trust in their positions that they can make the Blake calls in game, and the head coach is the head coach. UM. So I think from a leadership style standpoint, that's what I would like to see UM and see where that

takes us. It sounds like you're you're lobbying for a guy like Mike Tomlin. He was here your first year, right and then he was a defensive coordinator. Then I guess he's been a distills. I had a coach since them, right, Yeah. So so Tomlin, you know, he comes from a Tampa two system, comes up here for a year. You know, you sit in the interview room with Tomlin, You're like, you're going to hire it. Like I've never in any fat of the world met a guy that can motivate

somebody better than Mike Tomlin. Just incredible. So I was with him in Fred Puggish's basement. Fred Puckis is my linebacker coach um the day he flew out to go interview for that Steeler's job, and I can promise you he had no idea that he was gonna get hires. He did not think in a million years to Sunday that he wasn't get that job. And sure enough he's got it and still has it and deserves it. Is

one of the best coaches and probably history. But you think about it, he comes from a system that gave the opportunities in Tampa too. He comes up to Minnesota to intlement that system. He goes to Pittsburgh and doesn't run that system. He goes there and is just the head coach and so you think about that. So he

got it. He only got his opportunity because of the system that kind of gave it to him, right, Derek Brooks the whole Tampa defense, and then and then he gets the opportunity to be a head coach and says, well, the DC there, I can't what was the DC's name. He's there forever Lebo Lebo was there, and he's like, well, I'm not smarter than this guy. Like, let let him do his thing. I'll be the head coach. And a way they go and they win for years. So I do like that mentality. So what does a new head

coaching hire? What kind of challenges do they find? And not only connecting with the younger players on a roster, but also veteran players that I've around for a while that kind of know what the mo is to work

in the NFL. Yeah, And I think it's it's actually probably even a hard question for me to answer, because you know, the kids come out of college or just they're different mentality than when I when I came out with and and the guys that were on the team when I came in were even older school mentality than

I had. Right, So it's it's you know, I come from the world of you know, as a farm kids like you get you show up, you bust your ass as hard as you can, and you you grind and you know the best put your best portport every day. And and I don't know that that's necessarily the mentality or maybe it's just overhyped that the kids are changing

coming out of college. But one thing I do is, if I get hired as the head coach, right, I need to hire people around me that can handle a lot of those a lot of those situations, because they're gonna be more hands on than I am. Right, So the people around me have to be able to handle that situation. Um. But at the same time, you have to be able to you know, a lot of a lot of times gets gets knocked for having too much of an old school mentality, right, And that may be

that may or may not be true. Um, But I look at what's what Afference has done down in Iowa City, and he's had to change with the times in a lot of cases right where he's had to become progressive in his mindset because he knows that if he stays grounded in nineteen eighty eight, like he's going to get taken out of a job. He's not. He's not progressive enough.

So I do think you need to find even if it's a coach that's older and has an older school mentality, you have to have somebody who's willing to budge off of that and be a little bit more flexible and learn to understand how kids are just different now than you work thirty years ago. So my takeaway from that is, are you going to put your hat in the ring on this one? According to Twitter, you know you're a very popular choice. Well obvious would be the best choice

to read a job obviously, I don't know. I don't think the girls team will let you will let you take this one. I am a pretty darn successful girls basketball coach and I actually do love it. It's funny because I've honestly never even had I've never dreamt of coaching football. I've never thought about coaching football. I was a basketball player first that was just really good at football. So now I get to do what I love and get to coach my kids, and I do love it.

And you know, I retired when Madden was nine. Um, she's fourteen now and coming in JR own as a as a basketball player herself, and you know the timing of my career, and what I appreciate the NFL for more than anything is allowing me to spend time with my kids and raising my kids when it matters the most.

And so I'm enjoying the heck out of that. You're striking me as a guy that runs one three one press and your daughter's youth leak that calls one through one on any half court zone, because that means you can't coach half That means you can't coach man to man defense. So I love it. I love to press and run up and down. Um. I think basketball is more fun when when it's played at the high tempo. So we we will mix it an honest in full court zone and full court man to man. I got

a couple of zone man combos. Um. You know you come from a background like mine with football and you can get real creative and zone defense. Um. But I love the excellosa hoops. Um. And I think what I love more than anything is and especially I've never coached boys, but what I love about girls is they really care about getting better and they care about the coaching and they really want to take it to heart and get

and improve. And I've seen I've coached two separate groups now my eighth grade daughter's group up until last year and then now my fifth grade daughter's group, and it's just so fun to give a kid a task and improve on something, to see him see him take that and get success, and then it gained confidence and independence from that. It's just it's just awesome. So I'm having

a lot of fun doing that, that's for sure. And uh, you know, mostly just also a taxi cab for the kids driving around from event to event and so but it's a lot of fun. Yeah, No, she's and she's very good. You guys, if you ever, you know, want to catch a game, I was sure it would be a good one to catch because Madden is a very talented athlete, that's for sure. I've seen some highlights on Twitter before I think, yes, yes, yeah, she's good. She

plays varsity in Minnesota, which is allowed. You can middle seventies kids can play varsity hoops there, says their second year of varsity. You've got a nice team at Province Academy. We're having a lot of fun chasing her around. So m Yeah, it's fun because all my girls are crazy into sports, um, soccer, hoops, track, and so they keep us busy, very very busy. Well, thank you so much for taking the time, especially on your birthday, Chad, for

joining us here on the Minnesota Vikings podcast. Chad Greenway, thank you once more. Happy birthday, Happy birthday. Thanks Jed. Like I said in the lead in before the interview, such a unique perspective for someone who has been with Rick Spielman and understands Mike Zimmer more than many who can,

you know, be a guest on this podcast. Really, Yeah, he knows this organization almost better than anybody who's been through the highs of the highs and the lows of the lows and understanding both of those guys, and Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer what they meant to this franchise and organization. He's a guy that can talk about that, and it was interesting to hear what he had to say about what he hopes in a new coach or a new GM and how that correlates to what Mike

Tomlin is We're not sure what ownerships. That's a great story. That really was a lot of insight and I wasn't

expecting that one at all. I just knew Mike Tomlin was here his first year, but I didn't know like the in his basement, So that that that's that's interesting because Mike Tomlin, he only had one year as a coordinator previous then he was I think a dbast coach in Tampa Bay won a Super Bowl there like you, he said, with Derek Brooks in that Tampa two defense, and that kind of established him when he got here and then boom, he got that job. And clearly it

is because he just knows how to ace interviews and motivator. Motivator. Good thing we beat the Pitsburg Stellers this year. We can hepfily talk about Mike Tomlin right now, but more importantly chat but he's in the playoffs, So I'm sorry. Chad Greenway, great guy like him. All of us are just waiting to see what this next move is going

to be. We'll continue to put out more episodes this offseason and be sure to be on the lookout this week for more Vikings Entertainment Network content, whether it's online or on the app. Just because the team is not in season right now doesn't mean we will not have more kind for you interviews insights into what is going on behind the scenes here at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center during this time of change. Gabe, I know you

have an exciting interview coming out soon. Yeah. I've had the opportunity to sit down with Vikings owner team president Mark Wolfen talk about just some of those decisions and just his thought process on what the future could look like. I tried to curtail it more so to like what the media we're not talking about. Yea, the Vikings can have exclusive and that will be coming out most likely today or tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that.

That will be a really good interview. He was very energetic and very positive as far as the steps moving forward post Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, Well, that's what we like to hear. Plus, we'll have expert interviews with ESPN's Courtney Cronin and Kevin Seaffert, as well as NFL Networks Tom Pellasero coming out within the week. So be sure to tune in YouTube, Vikings dot com or the app to get the latest Vikings Entertainment Network content. Thank

you so much for listening to the podcast. Right now. We will hopefully have another episode for you very very soon. Alongside producer Jay Nelson and Gabe Henderson, I'm Tatum Everett and for now, skul Vikings