Interim Vikings OC Talks Adapting With Bradford

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A week and a half before the start of the season, the Vikings offense was to be led by the combination of Norv Turner and Teddy Bridgewater.

How quickly things can change.

Now it's Pat Shurmur and Sam Bradford running the show.

But the Vikings new interim offensive coordinator said Thursday not to expect much to be different than his predecessor, despite the two running rather different systems throughout their careers.

"I don't think you totally change what we're doing offensively," Shurmur said. "There's certain things that may look different – you'll have to tell me after the game – but I think what we need to do, we need to coach better, we need to play better."

When Shurmur says not much will change with the Vikings offense, that's because it largely already had. The team had been incorporating and adopting a lot of Shurmur's West Coast flavored ideology into the offense – largely because that's what Bradford knew and was comfortable with from his previous time together with Shurmur.

"Yeah, I think this year's offense – you would have to tell me – would maybe look a little bit different than a year ago," Shurmur acknowledged. "But every offense changes and morphs as the years go on."

That ability -- or call it willingness -- to adapt, Shurmur says, is a staple of his philosophy.

"I think as you go along, you learn," Shurmur said. "Sometimes you have a favorite play, or you have a concept that you think should work, but you don't have the players to execute it. So I think it's very important to first look and see, who are your players? Who are the guys that you're working with? And what are the things that they do best?"

And nobody on this staff knows Bradford better than him.

"Yeah I think it helps," Shurmur said. "Any time you have a relationship with someone, you can communicate smoother and quicker."

But will the offense be better? It's on Shurmur to make that happen.