ENGLEWOOD Elgton Jenkins Jersey , Colo. (AP) — Thursday by interviewing Zac Taylor, the Rams‘ 35-year-old quarterbacks coach who’s long on football pedigree but short on experience.Elway and player personnel director Matt Russell flew to Los Angeles to interview Taylor near the Rams’ headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, a day after meeting with former Colts coach Chuck Pagano in Denver.Elway also plans to speak with Bears assistant Vic Fangio, Patriots assistant Brian Flores and Steelers assistant Mike Munchak.With the Rams off this weekend, Taylor also is expected to meet with the Arizona Cardinals about their head coaching vacancy.Elway is searching for his fourth head coach in six seasons after firing Vance Joseph on Monday withtwo-year record of 11-21.“This is no fun going through this. It’s not something I want to do, but then again, I understand what my job is,” Elway said. “My job is to give us, the Denver Broncos, the best chance to win.”That could be by hiring Taylor, a high-risk/high-reward outlier on Elway’s short list of candidates .Taylor has never been a coordinator much less a head coach. But the son-in-law of former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman has a strong track record working with quarterbacks and has earned praise in his two years on Sean McVay’s staff.He also has football in his blood: Taylor was the 2006 Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year at Nebraska; his father, Sherwood Jace Sternberger Jersey , was a defensive back and captain at the University of Oklahoma; and his younger brother, Press, 30, is the QBs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.While Elway’s other candidates either have deep defensive roots or lots of experience, Taylor is the only one who boasts strong credentials in the run-pass option craze that has filtered from colleges to the pro ranks in recent seasons.And Elway concurred with cornerback Chris Harris Jr.’s assessment this week that the Broncos have fallen behind by not adapting on offense or defense in the three years since they won their last Super Bowl title.“Yeah, no doubt, especially if you look at where the rules are going,” Elway said. “The rules are getting shifted to the offensive side, too. We’ve relied on our defense for a long time. I think that we’re still going to rely on the defense, but we definitely have to get better on the offensive side.”Taylor tutored the Rams’ receivers in 2017 and was Jared Goff’s position coach this season, when the 2016 top overall draft pick threw for 32 touchdowns and 4,688 yards while leading the Rams to a 13-3 record and the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed.After college, Taylor served as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach on Sherman’s coaching staff from 2008-11 at Texas A&M Dexter Williams Jersey , where he worked alongside current Broncos offensive assistant Klint Kubiak.Taylor jumped to the NFL in 2012 as a member of Joe Philbon’s Miami Dolphins staff and tutored Ryan Tannehill during the quarterback’s most productive seasons from 2013-15.He served as the Dolphins’ interim offensive coordinator for the final five games in 2015, then returned to the college ranks for a year as offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati. DETROIT (AP) — A season of ups and downs for the Minnesota Vikings comes down to this: beat Detroit and Chicago and they’re in the playoffs.First up are the banged-up Lions, who have already been eliminated from postseason contention, but with so much at stake, the Vikings can’t afford to look too far ahead.“We know what we’ve got to do at this point. We know how we’ve got to play,” running back Dalvin Cook said. “There’s little time for error right now. We just have to go out there and play clean football and win football games.”Article continues below ...Minnesota won just one of its first four games this season, and the Vikings haven’t come close to matching last year’s 13-3 record. There will be no division title — Chicago already clinched that — but if the season ended now, the Vikings would be in the playoffs, so they still have all sorts of opportunities ahead of them.First, they’ll try to take care of business in Detroit.While Minnesota (7-6-1) has been underwhelming this season, the Lions (5-9) never really looked like contenders. They dropped their first two games, traded receiver Golden Tate and have now lost a handful of key players to injuries. Rookie running back Kerryon Johnson, defensive end Ziggy Ansah and wide receiver Marvin Jones are all on injured reserve.Detroit hasn’t scored more than 22 points in any of its last eight games.“Obviously the playoffs are Rock Ya-Sin Jersey , that’s the goal and that’s what you’re shooting for every single week,” said Matt Patricia, the Lions’ first-year coach. “The thing that’s different, I think, is that every week you don’t walk into the room and talk about playoffs. You just kind of walk in and talk about the game that week. … The fact is, we still have to go play a really good Minnesota team this weekend that’s coming off a huge win.”The Vikings beat Miami 41-17 last weekend.A few more things to watch when the Lions host the Vikings:STACKS OF SACKSThe Vikings set a franchise record with 10 sacks in a win over the Lions earlier this season , and they’re coming off a nine-sack performance against Miami. They lead the league with 47 sacks.“You know that they’re going to come out there, they’re game-planning against what we’ve done the first time,” said defensive end Danielle Hunter, who’s tied for second in the NFL with a career-high 14½ sacks. “We’d expect to see more max protection, them running the ball and all that. Stuff like that.”Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has been sacked five times or more in 16 games of his 10-year career, and seven of those were against the Vikings.STREAKStafford missed 19 games in his first two seasons while plagued by injuries. He’s started every game since, a streak of 126 http://www.clevelandbrownsteamonline.com/anthony-zettel-jersey , not including the playoffs.“It means a lot. Well documented, first two years, (I) missed a bunch and I wanted to prove to my teammates, this organization, myself, everybody, that I could be out there for extended periods of time,” Stafford said.Stafford has been limited in practice recently because of back issues, but he pushed back against the idea he should sit now, with the playoffs out of reach.“I spend all offseason and all season working hard to play in games with these teammates and for this organization,” he said. “(I) take no games for granted and go out there and play whenever I feel like I can.”READY TO RETURNThe first of five career punt returns for touchdowns for the Vikings by Marcus Sherels came on Sept. 30, 2012, at Detroit. Last week against the Dolphins http://www.detroitlionsteamonline.com/jahlani-tavai-jersey , Sherels had a 70-yard return and totaled 116 yards on five returns.“We kind of challenged him a little bit this last week at being more aggressive,” coach Mike Zimmer said.Detroit has activated returner Jamal Agnew off IR. He was an All-Pro last season.ANOTHER OPTIONWith opponents frequently sending double teams at Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, the Vikings have needed other pass catchers to step up for quarterback Kirk Cousins.Aldrick Robinson, who was signed as a free agent two weeks into the season, has shown some potential. His 40-yard touchdown reception against the Dolphins gave him five scores in 10 games. He’s reached the end zone on nearly 30 percent of his 17 receptions.MARK OF FAILUREFrom 2001-12, the Lions had double-digit losses 10 times in 12 seasons. It hasn’t happened since that 2012 season, but Detroit needs to win its final two games to avoid it this year.