The Vikings officially hired former Eagles QB coach John DeFilippo to take over as their offensive coordinator on Friday. He replaces former Eagles assistant coach Pat Shurmur, who left Minnesota to become the Giants’ head coach.

Now that DeFilippo is in place for the Vikings, his first job will be to help figure out what to do at quarterback. Minnesota has Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford and Case Keenum, all of whom are free agents and all of whom are in position to start.

DeFilippo is no stranger to transition at quarterback. That’s exactly what he experienced in each of his two seasons with the Eagles.

The new Vikings OC spoke with 1500 ESPN Twin Cities on Friday. He opened up about how he helped Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles go from backup to hero in such a short time period.

“I sat him down and made him list me with our coaching staff, ‘What are your best concepts? What do you see yourself do well? Because … myself, Frank Reich, Doug Pederson, we’re not the ones out there throwing it. He is,” DeFilippo explained on Friday.

Sitting down with Foles and giving him a chance to highlight what he’s most comfortable with is an example of good coaching. So many times in this day and age, you see coaches forcing their system on a player regardless of whether his skill set is a match.

“So we sat down and spent time with Nick formulating game plans on what he felt comfortable doing. For me, that’s coaching,” DeFilippo said. “Why would you ask a player to do something that he’s not comfortable with? That’s good coaching to me. Nick was open and honest about things he was comfortable with.”

Many of the things that Foles was comfortable with were similar to how the offense ran with Carson Wentz under center. That allowed the offense to be relatively similar, even with a new quarterback.

As for Wentz, DeFilippo was instrumental in his improvement in his second season. Once again, a long sitdown with the quarterback was a key role in success on the field.

At the same time, there is no greater teacher than experience. DeFilippo believes getting Wentz out there as a rookie helped mold him into the player that he is today.

“He and I had a very long sitdown at the end of last year on five or six things that we really needed to focus on in the offseason and he really bought into those five or six things,” DeFilippo said. “I know that was a small piece of his success this season. The major piece was just getting him in there and letting him make mistakes and letting him make great plays. You can’t discount us throwing him in there and letting him play.”

Over the offseason, the focus was to improve in specific areas of the game. Wentz and the offense struggled in the red zone as well as on third downs. This year, 64 percent (No. 2 in the NFL) of their red zone trips resulted in a touchdown.

Philadelphia’s offense averaged 6.4 third-down conversions per game, which tied them with the Bills for first in the NFL. These improvements started with a focus on situational football for Wentz and the coaching staff.

“Situational football is a big part of winning games in the NFL. There were times where Carson wasn’t so great in situational football as a rookie. He logs things in the back of his memory. He’s not what I call a ‘repeat offender.’ He’s not going to make the same mistake twice.”

Now DeFilippo will look to find the same success with whoever lines up under center for Minnesota.