Should the Chicago Bears hire Leslie Frazier as head coach?

The potential new Chicago Bears coach has had previous head coaching experience.

Running the Vikings defense

Frazier took his Super Bowl ring and joined Brad Childress’ staff in Minnesota the next season. He served as Childress’ defensive coordinator for three-and-half seasons

Frazier’s defenses were great against the run as they never finished out of the league’s top-10. The pass defense had mixed results. It was the worst in 2007 but did well enough in 2009 to help get Brett Favre and the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.

That 2009 defense was top 10 in the league in points allowed and total yards. The Vikings won two NFC North titles and went 33-25 with Frazier controlling the defense. Eight defensive players made the Pro Bowl and two were named first-team All-Pro.

Head coaching run

In 2010, Minnesota got off to a 3-7 start and Childress was fired as a result. Frazier was tapped as the interim head coach to lead the Vikings through the final six games.

He went 3-3 and got to serve as Favre’s last head coach. The work he did was enough to warrant removing the interim tag.

Also, this is the part where most Bears fans start to sour on Frazier as his three years as Vikings head coach was not outstanding.

In terms of coaching staffs, he built this staff in his first year as head coach and it remained mostly the same during his tenure. That staff featured Chicago Bears legend Mike Singletary and current Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski

Frazier also tapped Dennis Polian to be his assistant who happens to be Bill Polian’s son. Winning consistently, failure in developing a quarterback, and poor defensive play plagued Frazier’s tenure.

In his first full season, the Vikings finished 3-13. The Vikings tried to see if quarterback Donovan McNabb had any of his dynamic play left in him and he did not. Frazier then turned to rookie Christian Ponder for the rest of the season. Ponder threw for 1853 yards, 13 touchdowns along with 13 interceptions. He was woefully completing just 54% of his passes.

A big reason Minnesota only won only three games was the defense ranked 31st in points allowed. It also did not help that star running back Adrian Peterson was lost for the season after Week 12 with a knee injury.

The Vikings made the playoffs in 2012 thanks in a large part to Peterson’s MVP season. The Vikings got 2097 rushing yards from Peterson but the passing offense was one of the worst in the league. Ponder started all 16 games as he threw for 2935 yards, 18 touchdowns, and was picked off 12 times.

Ironically, the Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers on the last day of the season to sneak into the playoffs and knocked out the Chicago Bears from playoff contention. The Vikings had to turn around and face the Packers again in the playoffs at Lambeau Field but Ponder was unable to play in the game. With Joe Webb at quarterback, the Vikings could not muster much offense and lost 24-10.

Frazier’s final season as head coach is when the wheels came off for Minnesota. The Vikings went 5-10-1, allowed the most points in the league, and featured one of the worst defenses in the league. Ponder failed to develop into the franchise quarterback and Matt Cassel could not duplicate his success in New England. Frazier was fired after the season ended.

Ponder’s final stats under Frazier were 6,436 passing yards, 38 touchdown passes, and 34 interceptions. Frazier started seven different quarterbacks in his three-plus seasons as head coach.

While he switched defensive coordinators after the 2011 season, he stuck with Bill Musgrave as his offensive coordinator through his entire time as head coach. Plus, the roster started to age, especially on defense, and Frazier was never able to elevate the team to better play with the exception of the 2012 season.