EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings are two weeks into their search for a new general manager and head coach.
And with 16 completed interviews — with eight candidates for each position — progress has been made.
Vikings Owner/President Mark Wilf on Monday provided an update on both search processes in an interview with Vikings Entertainment Network's Gabe Henderson.
"We're having good progress, just completed our first round of interviews with all the candidates for both the head coach and the GM positions," Wilf said. "We're narrowing the candidates for both down now, and we're going to be starting the next set of interviews this week and we're really excited about the candidates.
"A lot of depth, a lot of knowledge," Wilf added. "I feel confident we're going to have good leadership coming out of this process."
The eight GM candidates whose interviews have been confirmed can be found here, and the eight head coach candidates whose interviews have been confirmed can be found here.
Wilf offered some insight as to what Minnesota's internal search committee is looking for when they sit down with a candidate.
"Like I said when we started the process, we want strong communicators, teachers, collaborators," Wilf said. "People that will set a good culture, good football minds, good people. Those are the kind of characteristics we kind of tick through as we walk through the interviews.
"I've been super impressed. And everyone who has been part of these interviews has been impressed with the candidates thus far," Wilf added.
This is a bit of uncharted territory for the Wilfs and the Vikings. Rick Spielman was the Vikings GM for 10 seasons (and had been with the organization since 2006), while Mike Zimmer was the head coach for the past eight seasons.
"Well, certainly it has been a while for us [since we've] been in this process, and like I said, we're grateful for where our previous leadership has gotten us," Wilf said. "And sure, the game evolves – a lot of new thinking, new ideas, in terms of how to approach building a roster, how you relate to players and coach a team.
"And again, I do believe, we're looking for strong leadership and people that can bring great people with them and build great teams around them – whether it's coaches, scouts or the players they bring in," Wilf added. "So first and foremost, we want the kind of individuals that will lead our organization, lead our football club and be the kind of role models that all of us can get behind and work with."
Wilf also praised the internal search committee for its hard work.
"We have a lot of smart people involved – people with football backgrounds, people with business backgrounds – all kinds of ways to look at this," Wilf said. "And we really feel good about the input we've had from everyone within our organization and among our ownership to discuss this and make sure we get this right.
"We're looking forward to the next round of interviews," Wilf added. "We're going to be doing GM interviews here in person at TCO Performance Center this week, and as we get through the GM process and head coaching process, like I said, I feel real good about the pool of candidates we've interviewed thus far. Someone really strong will be coming out of [each] process, I'm sure."
