Buccaneers to Interview Former Vikings Coach Childress

TAMPA — The coaching search continues and the next stop for the Buccaneers in the coaching bargain bin is former Eagles coordinator and Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress.

Childress had his best season as a head coach in 2008 when the Vikings went to the NFC Championship game and, to many, should have gone to the Super Bowl had it not been for a Brett Favre throw across his body.

But Childress has been out of work for a season now since being fired midway through the 2010 season and the Bucs are giving him a call about their vacancy.

Let me start by saying this: STOP IT!

The Buccaneers must be satisfying a Rooney Rule type formality where each team must interview an idiot for their position just to say they gave him a shot. Childress has no business being a head coach in the NFL and his time in Minnesota was proof of that.

Now should he be ignored completely? No.

Childress was a failure in Minnesota because he’s a timid guy and never got in the faces of the players who blatantly where ridiculing him in and outside the locker room. He did get tough in his last few weeks but all coaches who are on their way out do. Just look at Raheem Morris kicking Brian Price out of the game.

But Childress did one thing brilliantly in Minnesota that Tampa can bring him on board to do here. Childress was a coaching failure but a player personnel genius.

Childress had the glaring failed Tarvaris Jackson experiment but that is not what should be singled out on his resume for a personnel job. During Childress’ tenure drafting players in Minnesota he plucked Percy Harvin, Chad Greenway, Adrian Peterson, Ray Edwards, Sidney

Rice, John Sulivan and Toby Gerhart.

Bottom line is the guy knows how to pick players that can be impact guys. Greenway is a stud linebacker, Edwards showed his skills on that line, Percy Harvin was worth the risk and Toby Gerhart has turned into a viable No. 1 back.

That being said, he doesn’t always hit them out of the park. Evidence of this was the drafting of Jackson, Chris Cook, Asher Allen and Phil Loadholt.

Childress has had a bad history of drafting secondary and offensive lineman, two things the Buccaneers need badly. That being said, Childress knows how to evaluate players and can aid Mark Dominik in scouting out talent other teams may be second guessing, something Dominik loves to do.

But as far as being a head coach, Childress should be considered a Raheem Morris type hire. He won’t have discipline in the locker room as displayed in how he let Brett Favre own the team the two years he was in Minnesota. He also won’t be a great leader or conjure up a great staff. But he can pick players so if the Bucs go with Childress it better not be in a position that sees his credentials allow him beyond the draft room or the practice field.