Vikings Co-Defensive Coordinator Andre Patterson was honored this past weekend by John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, California.
Patterson was inducted into the JFK High School Hall of Fame Saturday evening for his accomplishments during a longtime football career as a player and coach.
Patterson graduated in 1978 from Ells High School, which later closed to merge with the newly built John F. Kennedy High School. He played football at Ells, at Contra Costa College and then at the University of Montana in 1981 before suffering a career-ending knee injury.
Patterson did not stray far from the game he loved, however. He began his coaching career in 1982 at Montana as a graduate assistant before serving as an assistant coach for Renton High School (1983-86) and the head coach at Saint Monica Catholic High School in 1987. When Patterson served as the defensive line coach at Weber State in 1988, he overlapped there with Mike Zimmer, whom he would go on to coach with at several stops.
In 1997, Patterson accepted his first NFL coaching job as the Patriots defensive line coach; he assumed the same position for the Vikings from 1998-99, during which he coached the likes of future Hall of Famers John Randle and Chris Doleman.
Patterson returned to Minnesota in 2014 under Zimmer and once again served as the Vikings defensive line coach, a position he has held since. He was promoted to co-defensive coordinator – along with linebackers coach Adam Zimmer – in January.
Harris tabbed as most underrated safety headed for free agency
Free agency is set to open with the new league year on March 18, which means plenty of questions remain for rosters around the NFL.
For ESPN, Sam Monson of analytics site Pro Football Focus looked at each position and highlighted "the most overrated and underrated players heading into 2020 free agency." At safety, Monson named Minnesota's Anthony Harris as the most underrated and San Francisco's Jimmie Ward as the most overrated.
According to Monson, Ward is overrated because his 2019 season was "an outlier" compared to the rest of his career thus far. Monson wrote the following of Harris:
[But] while Harris' 2019 was [also] by far the best season of his career, he has consistently graded well any time he has seen the field for the Vikings. He was finally rewarded with a chance to start all season last year, and he finished with the best PFF coverage grade (91.6) among all safeties. He tallied six interceptions and five pass breakups in the regular season before picking off Drew Brees in the postseason.
Harris was the lone current Viking on Monson's list.
Rudolph takes the Polar Plunge
Kyle Rudolph and his family have enjoyed some time away from the Minnesota winter this offseason, but the Vikings tight end embraced the cold for a good cause over the weekend.
Rudolph once again participated in Polar Plunge Minnesota, where he jumped into frigid water at Riley Lake Park to raise awareness and funds for the Special Olympics. Vikings Chief Operating Officer Andrew Miller also represented the Vikings in the Plunge.
Rudolph and Miller were joined by team representatives from the Twins, Wild, Timberwolves, United and Lynx, including five-time WNBA champion Rebekkah Brunson, who recently joined the Lynx as an assistant coach.
