There have been no announcements, but Judd Zulgad of the Star Tribune reports Minnesota has a new special teams coordinator.
Brian Murphy, who spent the past three seasons as the Vikings' assistant special teams coach, has been promoted to replace the departed Paul Ferraro. Murphy spent 14 seasons as a college coach, the last six at Wisconsin. He did not cross paths with Minnesota coach Brad Childress at Wisconsin but was recommended by former Badgers coach Barry Alvarez.
Ferraro left the team last month to join St. Louis as its linebackers coach. The Vikings gave up an NFL-record seven touchdowns on special teams last season. It was the only significant change to the Vikings' coaching staff this offseason.
Continuing around the NFC North on this chilly Tuesday morning:
- Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy has finalized his coaching staff, according to Greg A. Bedard of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The final move: Scott McCurley was promoted to defensive quality control coach.
- Tampa Bay hired former Packers assistant Robert Nunn as defensive line coach, according to Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune gleans a few lessons from Super Bowl XLIII.
- Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times wonders if the Bears would be interested in defensive end Simeon Rice, a former pupil of current defensive line coach Rod Marinelli in Tampa Bay. Rice, who did not play in 2008, said recently he wants to play in 2009.
- Offensive lineman Ruben Brown, who played for the Bears from 2004-07, announced his retirement Monday, according to my colleague Tim Graham of ESPN.com.
- Detroit could do a lot worse than follow Arizona's blueprint for success, writes Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the Detroit Free Press.
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Kevin Seifert
Seifert joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Minnesota Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for eight years. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and daughter.