Vikings Lose Assistant Coaches Ryan Ficken, Andrew Janocko, and Phil Rauscher

The process of the Vikings' new coaching staff coming together has begun in earnest. Not in the sense that they've hired any new assistants yet, but with the first step of 2021 assistants finding jobs with other teams and opening up spots that will need to be filled.

On Wednesday, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was hired by his hometown Broncos to be their quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator. One day later — after news emerged Wednesday night that the Vikings will be hiring Rams OC Kevin O'Connell as their next head coach — three more Mike Zimmer assistants landed new jobs.

Special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken is headed to the Chargers and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko is headed to the Bears, each one keeping the same title with their new team. Offensive line coach Phil Rauscher is headed to the Bills.

Update: Rauscher is not headed to the Bills after all, so he could be a candidate to keep his job in Minnesota.

Ficken is an unfortunate loss for the Vikings. He had been with the franchise for the past 15 years in various roles, finally getting his chance to be a coordinator in 2021. Ficken took over a special teams unit that ranked 31st in DVOA in 2020 under then-STC Marwan Maalouf and turned it into the 13th-ranked group in his first season. The Vikings were tied for ninth in PFF special teams grade as a team, had two kickoff returns for touchdowns, and were solid in the kicking, punting, and coverage phases.

Now Ficken will attempt to work a similar turnaround with a Chargers team that finished 32nd in special teams DVOA in 2020 and 28th last season.

The Vikings initially blocked Ficken from leaving, but eventually let him go after the Chargers pursued him hard, according to Tom Pelissero. It's the right move by the front office, even if they might've liked to keep Ficken. There are no guarantees that assistants will still have jobs on O'Connell's staff when he's officially hired after the Super Bowl, so the courteous thing to do is to allow current coaches to seek jobs elsewhere.

Janocko is another notable loss, particularly because he's staying in the division. He's Justin Fields' new QBs coach under Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who he knows from their days at Pitt together when Janocko was a QB and Getsy was a graduate assistant. Janocko coached QBs for the Vikings last year, wide receivers in 2020, and before that spent his first five years in Minnesota as an assistant offensive line coach and offensive quality control coach. The 33-year-old seems like he's on track to become an offensive coordinator someday.

Rauscher seemed to do a good job as the Vikings' O-line coach in 2021. That job was originally going to belong to Rick Dennison for the third year in a row, but Dennison refused to get vaccinated and thus wasn't permitted to be in a hands-on coaching role. So Rauscher was promoted from assistant OL coach and Dennison took an advisory position. The loud, boisterous Rauscher led an offensive line that was fairly average, which is excellent by the Vikings' recent standards. Ezra Cleveland took steps forward in his second year, Christian Darrisaw showed promise as a rookie, and Mason Cole played well once he entered the lineup.

O'Connell presumably already has some assistants lined up for positions on his new staff, although the assembly process won't begin in full until after the Super Bowl. O'Connell may also keep a few current Vikings assistants around. WRs coach Keenan McCardell could be a name to watch in that regard.

Here's what the major positions on the Vikings' coaching staff currently look like:

Head coach: Kevin O'Connell (new)
Offensive coordinator:
Quarterbacks:
Running backs:
Wide receivers: Keenan McCardell
Tight ends: Brian Pariani
Offensive line: Phil Rauscher
Defensive coordinator:
Defensive line: Andre Patterson?
Linebackers:
Defensive backs: Karl Scott
Special teams coordinator:

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