Vikings' new DB coach suspended weeks before season even starts

The Vikings hired Gerald Alexander back in February to run their defensive backs room after Daronte Jones bounced to Washington to become the Commanders' defensive coordinator. It was supposed to be a clean, low-drama hire to keep continuity in a secondary that's had to answer for a lot the last few years. Instead, camp opened with the team announcing a 3-week unpaid suspension for its new position coach.

Adam Schefter broke the news that Alexander's suspension stems directly from a drunken driving arrest, with ESPN's Kevin Seifert filling in the reporting on the ground in Minnesota.

The details, per multiple reports, are ugly. Police in Edina were called at 4:01 a.m. on April 26 after Alexander's car was found stopped in the middle of an intersection with him unresponsive behind the wheel. An officer had to open the door to wake him up, his speech was slurred, and his balance was bad enough that cops cut the one-leg field sobriety test short to keep him from getting hurt. A preliminary breath test came back at.169 — more than double the legal limit.

Alexander pleaded guilty to third-degree DWI on July 16 after refusing a breath test at the scene of the stop, and he'll do community service, pay a $500 fine, and serve 2 years of probation as part of the deal. The suspension runs from July 24 through August 13, meaning he'll miss the bulk of Minnesota's training camp reps right as the roster is settling its secondary depth chart before preseason games start mattering.

It's a rough look for a coaching staff trying to build stability behind Brian Flores' defense, and it's an even worse one for Alexander personally just months into the job. The Vikings called it disappointing, which is about as diplomatic as it gets, but 3 weeks without pay for a first-year assistant is a real hit — both financially and to whatever trust he was building with a DB room he barely had time to meet.