Is Anthony Lynn a good fit to be next Vikings offensive coordinator?
If Gary Kubiak retires, Anthony Lynn is gaining some steam as a candidate to be the next Vikings offensive coordinator
After one season as Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, Gary Kubiak is weighing retirement. If he decides to call it quits, head coach Mike Zimmer will have his sixth offensive coordinator entering his eighth season as head coach and his sixth in as many years.
The crutch internal candidate is Klint Kubiak, Gary’s son and the Vikings’ quarterbacks coach. But there’s an interesting external candidate being put out there.
Lynn was fired earlier this week after four seasons as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers (33-31 record). Prior to that was offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills for most of the 2016 season, with one game as interim head coach after Rex Ryan was fired. That is his only stint as an offensive coordinator, with a long run as a running backs coach for multiple teams going back to 2003. He overlapped with Zimmer on the Dallas Cowboys’ staff in 2005 and 2006.
During that 2016 season, the Bills had the second most rushing attempts in the league. In his four seasons as head coach, the Chargers were top-10 in pass attempts three times. But it’s safe to assume Zimmer’s preference to run the ball would be adhered to by Lynn if he were calling plays. Lynn’s profession of wanting “smart, physical football” when he became Bills’ offensive coordinator says just that.
The Vikings are stuck in a certain cycle for as long as Zimmer is the head coach, which means an offensive coordinator with old-school tilt and a lack of modern imagination is a natural fit. It is not fair to simply lump Lynn into that category. But if he were hired to replace a retiring Kubiak, one way or another he probably won’t be Vikings’ offensive coordinator very long anyway.