Mike Zimmer’s Earlier Comments May Help Cost Him His Job
K. Joudry
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Unless you’ve been living under a purple rock, you know that things aren’t looking good for Mike Zimmer’s job status.
The Vikings are a disappointing 3-5, a record that is largely the result of blown leads and boneheaded mistakes. It’s the sort of thing that gets a head coach fired, especially after being in town for more than seven years.
An overlooked component of the will-they-won’t-they fire Zim conversation rests in the coach’s earlier comments about the team. Following the Browns loss, Zimmer outlined his belief in the Vikes: “Like I told the team, I’ve been doing this 27 years, I know good teams and I know bad teams. I know this team has a chance to be pretty darn good. We may not look like it right now because we’re 1-3, but even like Kevin [Stefanski] said to me before the game, ‘you got a really good football team here.’ And they do, too. They were just a little bit better than us today.”
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Let’s assume the Vikings do have a good team. Let’s then partner that belief with the reality that the standings say the Vikings don’t have a good team. Why is there a discrepancy between these two things? Many would say it’s because of the coaching.
Zim’s post-Browns message is consistent with earlier comments. Following the Bengals loss, Zim said, “I think we can be really good.” His hopeful message continues: “I know we didn’t show it really in all three phases the other day, but there’s a lot of things I see that are pretty darn good.” When a team fails to live up to its full potential, fans and writers inevitably start looking at the coaching staff. If this was Zim’s first year in town, perhaps people would be more forgiving. We’re getting close to a full decade, though, so people are looking for results.
We therefore come back to why there is a discrepancy between a roster with so much talent and a record that is so lousy. On defense, the team boasts Dalvin Tomlinson, Everson Griffen, Patrick Peterson, Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, and several other impact players. Previously, Danielle Hunter was creating havoc off the edge. I get that some of these guys have been hurt, but there’s too much talent to be so underwhelming.
The offense also has no excuses. Just consider the WR trio of Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and K.J. Osborn. Opposing DCs must be pretty intimated by this group, especially when Kirk is on. Too often, though, Minnesota shrinks into a dink-and-dunk offense, one that wilts for large portions of the game. It has been a consistent issue throughout the year. One game is forgivable; nearly every week is less forgivable.
At some point, the team’s leadership will need to really consider Mike Zimmer’s comments in relation to his job status. The roster is very talented. Not without flaw, but talented nonetheless. At 3-5, there’s really no debating that the team has under performed. If the trend continues, the Vikings will be searching for a new coaching staff for 2022.