Christopher Gates On London, Those Calling For Zimmer’s Job, & Minnesota’s Most Exciting Player

Image courtesy of Vikings.com

We are setting a steady pace now with our “Three Questions” series and next up is none other than Christopher Gates, someone I have a great deal of respect for as the leading man over at Daily Norseman. He was kind enough to stop by and answer three questions I had waiting for him today.

Before we get to the meat of this one, I wanted you to have a chance to catch up in case you missed any of our previous installments of “Three Questions.”

Matt Falk On The 2017 NFL Draft, Adam Thielen, & Fixing The O-Line
Joe Johnson On Nick Swardson, The Defense, & Roster Upgrades
Nik Edlund On Kalil’s Injury Impact, A Possible Vikings Draft Target, & The Play Of The Year
Matthew Coller On Norv Turner, Cordarrelle Patterson, And Vikings Craziness

Okay, here we go with Christopher Gates…

1. An away game in London is on the 2017 schedule. Fun, annoying, or much ado about nothing?
[pull_quote_center]I think the Vikings are a bunch of big stupid jerkfaces for waiting until the year after I go back to the States from Europe to play a game in London again.

But, in all seriousness, I think it’s kind of a fun thing as long as it doesn’t affect the team too much. The last time the Vikings played in London, they got the week following the game off. I would anticipate that being the case again. I think it’s a good experience for the players, since they’re getting an opportunity to visit a place that some of them might not take advantage of otherwise. It’s a good thing for the fans, too, in my opinion. Just getting an opportunity to see them take the field in a different place adds a little something to a game for a particular week. It’s all the better for the fans that get an opportunity to see them play in a place like London, since they can make a bit of a mini-vacation out of it if they want to. I’m not really sure why people get annoyed by it or anything. For the fans that aren’t actually traveling to the game, I don’t think a whole lot really changes. All in all, I think the positives for a game like this far outweigh the negatives.[/pull_quote_center]
 
2. Personally, I was kind of floored at the number of people calling for Coach Zimmer’s job in Week 16. What is your overall take on Zimmer’s tenure in Minnesota so far?
[pull_quote_center]I think anyone that’s calling for Mike Zimmer’s job at this point qualifies as being certifiably insane. Given the amount of craziness that Zimmer has had to deal with in his first three seasons, the fact that he has a record of 26-22 over that stretch. In two of those three seasons, Adrian Peterson has played one game (2014) and three mostly ineffective games (2016). He’s had to deal with Peterson’s off-field issues, Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury, his own personal health issues, and any number of other things that we probably don’t even know about. I can understand that people were disappointed and frustrated by the turn this season took after the Vikings’ 5-0 start, but firing Mike Zimmer would just be a ludicrous overreaction to the whole situation. Mike Zimmer is one hell of a football coach, and the Minnesota Vikings are pretty lucky to have him. Following the season, Zimmer said that he was going to have to do some soul searching this offseason, and I have no doubt that he’ll do that and come back to help the Vikings to a bounce-back season in 2017. By this time next year, I think that we’ll forget that anyone was calling for his dismissal at all.[/pull_quote_center]
 
3. Which current Vikings player do you find to be the most exciting to watch play and why?
[pull_quote_center]I think the most exciting player the Vikings have is Cordarrelle Patterson. He’s one of the few guys on the roster that’s a threat to score every time he gets his hands on the football, whether it’s on a kickoff return or a reception or a run out of the backfield. He just runs so violently and so physically for someone with his build, and you don’t expect to see him put the shoulder down and attempt to run through people instead of going around them all the time. He spent a couple of years in the doghouse offensively, but it looks like the switch to Pat Shurmur at the offensive coordinator position has given him a bit of a renaissance. Every team needs a player that’s a threat to score anywhere on the field, and Patterson is that guy for Minnesota. I think it’s a bit of an iffy proposition as to whether he comes back or not, since the team didn’t pick up his fifth-year option, but hopefully he’ll be back with Minnesota in 2017.[/pull_quote_center]
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