Former Vikings QB Kellen Mond Reveals New Mike Zimmer Details
In the 2021 Draft, the Minnesota Vikings selected Kellen Mond as one of four 3rd-round picks. It turned out to be the last Draft GM Rick Spielman and HC Mike Zimmer made the calls. Well, it also turned out that Zimmer and Spielman weren’t best buddies at that time.
Mond, who gained some experience in the UFL last spring, has opened up about his short stint with the Vikings. He used the platform LinkedIn to share his thoughts.
The quarterback wrote, “When I was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings, my head coach walked out of the draft room. We never spoke. Not once. It all started years before between the General Manager and him. The GM wanted Kirk Cousins at quarterback. The head coach didn’t. Kirk signed anyway, and the relationship went sour. When the GM and Offensive Coordinator wanted to draft me, the head coach was against it.. again. I got the call. He walked out.”
That regime went through several quarterbacks in their tenure. They surely both wanted Teddy Bridgewater, who they drafted together in Zimmer’s first year, to work out. Unfortunately, his nasty knee injury derailed his career. Sam Bradford’s knee cut his career short. Case Keenum was deemed a one-year wonder, and he was let go after the magical 2017 campaign.
Kirk Cousins joined the club. He was expensive, sure, but he was also a lot better than Keenum. There’s a reason why Cousins went to multiple Pro Bowls and Keenum was mostly a backup after departing.
In 2021, Spielman thought he found a successor in the third round in the former Texas A&M QB. It doesn’t help, however, if the head coach is not supporting the pick. Mond’s Vikings career lasted about 16 months.
He got COVID in training camp, leading to Jake Browning’s big day when all the other signal-callers were out. Mond subsequently suffered from weight loss and couldn’t get his body right for a while.
Sean Mannion was named QB2 behind starter Kirk Cousins. The only game action Mond got in his debut season was in the crucial Week 17 game at Green Bay when Cousins landed on the COVID list and Mannion suffered a minor injury during the game that cost him one series. Mond completed two of three passes for five yards, and the most notable pass was the incompletion because it was a dropped pick-six.
After the game, Zimmer’s famous quote, “I see him every day,” took place when he was asked why Mond wouldn’t get some run in the season finale. Zimmer was fired a week later. Unfortunately, Kevin O’Connell also didn’t like what he saw and released him after his preseason action with him.
More than four years after Zimmer’s exit, Mond added, “While I played for the Vikings, I never saw the General Manager and Head Coach speak. Imagine the two most important people in any organization never talking. What happens to that business? It crumbles. And that’s exactly what happened.”
The toxic climate in the building was likely a driving force in the additions of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell, who have been preaching the collaboration buzzword ever since.
Mond continued, “The morning after our last game, we were told both the GM and head coach were fired. They cleaned house. The GM addressed the team and thanked us for our hard work, effort and dedication. The head coach was nowhere to be found. His reasoning for not addressing the team and players: ‘They got me fired.'”
Zimmer has since worked as the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. Mond, meanwhile, has bounced around in the NFL without ever seeing game reps. His 2025 stop in the UFL was an up-and-down season. He was named the starter, benched, returned to the lineup and then played a little better. So far, he has not signed with an NFL team since the New Orleans Saints waived him in May of 2024.
Mond finalized his post: “That response told me everything I needed to know. And taught me an unforgettable leadership lesson: Every time you show up to work, you control the energy in the building. The way you act. The way you speak. Your body language. If you forget that enough times, don’t be surprised when you have a disconnect with others in your organization. Leadership is an atmosphere you create, not a title you hold.”
Mond’s comments won’t rewrite the history of the Zimmer era in Minnesota, but they do sharpen the picture of how fractured things had become behind the scenes. If communication truly broke down at the top, it helps explain why the organization pivoted so aggressively toward collaboration and alignment when it hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell.
For Mond, the Vikings chapter will likely always be defined by missed opportunity rather than on-field results. For the franchise, it’s another reminder that talent alone doesn’t sustain success without proper leadership.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.