The Minnesota Vikings have made another offseason hire, this time signing on strength and conditioning coach Brent Salazar, according to Vikings.com.
Salazar comes to the Vikings from the Kansas City Chiefs, where he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the last nine seasons.
According to the Vikings, Salazar has a degree in exercise physiology from the University of New Mexico, and has also been certified as a strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
The Vikings hired him to fill the hole left by former coach Evan Marcus, who was fired by head coach Mike Zimmer at the season’s end due to a rash of pectoral injuries to Vikings players.
In an interview on Senior Day with ESPN’s Ben Gosseling, Zimmer had stated “we just had too many injuries in the weight room,” but also maintained that he would continue to push the training staff to stick to a lifting regimen that emphasized free weights over weight machines.
“I look for somebody that has a philosophy that I have,” Zimmer said during that interview, “We’re going to have free weights. That’s my philosophy.”
