Both the Cardinals and Lions came out of Monday morning with coaching vacancies, and the architect of the Vikings’ offense is on the teams’ list.
The Vikings have a first-round bye, and that’s opened the door for the Cardinals and Lions to submit requests to interview Pat Shurmur for their HC positions, Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com report (Twitter links).
Shurmur’s work in helping the Vikings be an upper-echelon offense despite the keys being in journeyman Case Keenum‘s hands this season undoubtedly made the second-year Minnesota OC an attractive HC candidate.
The 52-year-old Shurmur has two years of head-coaching experience as well, leading the Browns from 2011-12. He’s been an OC with the Rams and Eagles as well and is only in his first season as the Vikings’ full-time offensive leader. Norv Turner‘s departure midway through last season resulted in Shurmur becoming the Vikes’ interim OC. Minnesota took the interim tag off that label after 2016, and the Keenum-piloted Vikings are one of the favorites to win Super Bowl LII.