The Vikings Assistant HC and The Diversity Coaching Summit
Vikings Assistant HC Mike Pettine has been around the NFL for a little while.
Many will connect him to the Green Bay Packers since he very recently was working as their defensive coordinator (2018-20). Prior to that job, though, Pettine was the head coach in Cleveland (2014-15), the defensive coordinator in Buffalo (2013), and the defensive coordinator in New York for the Jets (2009-12).
Right now, he’s the Vikings’ assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach. His recent time in front of the Minnesota media involved plenty of discussion about the team’s Diversity Coaching Summit. Toward the end, Pettine spoke a bit about his development as a coach and then what he sees in Dallas Turner.
Vikings Assistant HC and The Minnesota Media
Pettine begins his presser by chatting about “our 3rd annual Diversity Coaching Summit.”
He goes on to describe how the franchise’s main leaders have been supporting the project while expressing optimism about how things have developed: “It’s accomplished everything that we wanted it to. We had access to ten diverse coaches coming in here, that they can kind of show their stuff.”
“In the coaching world,” Pettine explains, “a lot of the hiring process is familiarity.”
He clarifies that the process has been leading to opportunity: “We’ve got a pretty good list, a short list of people we would hire. Coaches have been recommended to other teams and have been hired. So it’s just something that [we’re] really proud of.”
Like a true coach, Pettine has been embracing improvement across his several years of doing this. “We feel like we worked out some of the bugs after Year 1,” Pettine notes. Pettine’s desire is to “pay it forward” as he works toward giving “young coaches” a chance at “entry-level type jobs.”
Toward the end, Pettine reflects on his own development as a coach. Apparently, Rex Ryan was a mentor.
“My early days,” Pettine says, “I was with the Ravens.” He got “thrown in that [d-line] room with” Rex Ryan. Pettine later describes the defensive coach as one of his “mentors.” Keep in mind that Pettine’s time as the DC with the Jets coincided with Ryan being the head coach.
The presser concludes with some discussion of Dallas Turner, the pass rusher who got scooped up at No. 17.
The Vikings’ assistant head coach noted the team’s desire for “versatile athletes.” Part of the thinking is that Brian Flores loves to move players around in an effort to undermine what an offense is trying to accomplish: “The ability to create confusion for offenses to me is critical.”
“We felt like Dallas was the premier rusher in the draft, we also felt the bonus was his versatility,” Pettine explains. “We’re always looking for versatile, explosive athletes and he checks all three of those boxes.”
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.
