Frazier Makes His Mark On Vikings

Coaching changes happen all the time in the National Football League. This year, there are seven new head coaches foraying into new jobs. Some of them are learning on the job. Leslie Frazier falls into this category, but he also falls into another familiar demographic of first time head coaches. He's cleaning house.

This is a common trend in the NFL. When new regimes start, changes are made. Take a look at the Detroit Lions.

When Jim Schwartz was hired for Detroit, he did everything to change the culture. The Lions were coming off the ugly Matt Millen era. Schwartz did everything down to changing the color of the locker rooms to try and erase Detroit's past. Schwartz also did another thing: He took out the trash to bring in some of his own guys via the draft (Matthew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh) and through free agency (Kyle Van Den Bosch).

The same thing is going on at Winter Park. Much like when Brad Childress was cutting people left and right when he took over in 2006, Frazier is doing the same to send a message.

At the beginning of training camp, a 400 pound Bryant McKinnie showed up out of shape and lethargic. Frazier didn't want that to represent his team, so he cut him. Many Viking fans will point to the job that McKinnie is doing with Baltimore and say that it was a mistake. However, Frazier had to send a message. Even at the expense of starting...ewww...Charlie Johnson...

The message has been delivered loud and clear to some players in the locker room, and the ones who aren't getting it are getting pink slips. Bernard Berrian is the latest casualty of the Frazier era.

Berrian was shockingly overpaid after the 2007 season when the Vikings were desperate for receiving help. While Berrian had a good first season with 964 yards and 7 touchdowns, his production had dropped off since. As Berrian's stats went down, his moodiness went up.

The last straw might have been the Twitter war with State Rep. John Kriesel, who made fun of Berrian's inflated ego. Berrian defended himself saying that he had been open "the past four years" and that Kriesel, a supporter of the Viking stadium bill, should "sit down and shut up."

Two gameday deactivations later, Berrian is looking for work.

It's hard to praise a coach that is 1-6, but Frazier is simply in the first step of rebuilding. No NFL coach will ever tell the media that because there is no time to rebuild in the league. Yet, with a couple of solid drafts and personnel decisions, Frazier could be making the first step for setting the Vikings up with success.