I can hear the clock ticking in the background as I contemplate whether this might just be the last coaching candidate I get a chance to write about before the Vikings hire a head coach. Multipule reports are surfacing that the interview portion of the Vikings’ coaching search is mostly complete, so I’m beginning to believe that the Vikings might hire someone this week.
Mike Zimmer impressed GM Rick Spielman so much on his first interview that it’s been reported that the Vikings want to talk to him again, soon.
It is no secret Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf is a long time fan of the New York Giants. Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune goes as far as to say that Zygi loves the Giants. When former Giants’ two time Super Bowl Champion and Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells recommended Mike Zimmer as a head coach, Zygi was obviously listening.
Zimmer started his coaching career in 1979 as a defensive assistant for Missouri, but it was the Dallas Cowboys that brought Zimmer to the NFL as a defensive backs coach in 1994. In 2000, Cowboys head coach Dave Campo promoted Zimmer to the defensive coordinator position which he held until 2006. Zimmer served one year as defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and is currently the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. In 2009, Zimmer guided the Bengals to the 4th ranked defense in the NFL earning him Assistant Coach of the Year honors. Over the past six seasons with the Bengals, Zimmer consistently had his team ranked in the top 10 in most defensive categories.
The Vikings 31st ranked defense can certainly use some of Zimmer’s 34 years of coaching expertise. Zimmer is a coach that will have no problem getting the most out of the Vikings defensive personnel because he has experience coaching both the 4-3 and the 3-4 schemes in his 20 year NFL career. His sustained success and his ability to spot talented players make him one of the top defensive coordinators in the league. Zimmer is a coach that likes to maximize the strengths of his players by rotating them in and out in certain situations.
Even though Zimmer has an in-your-face fierce competitive nature, his players seem to respect him and enjoy playing for him. His fiery attitude on the football field could represent a major cultural change from the soft-spoken approach of Leslie Frazier. And that may not be a bad thing.
The key to Zimmer’s success as a head coach might depend on his choice as offensive coordinator. Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan who is also a former Vikings offensive coordinator is a possible candidate as well as Mike Mularkey who coached on the same staff in Atlanta with Zimmer and Bill Musgrave in 2007.
I will admit I’ve been a little slow to jump on the Zimmer band wagon… but maybe it’s time for me to climb on board and find a seat.
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Offensive Coordinator? Consider that of the four remaining teams in the playoffs, the Vikings ranked in the middle of them offensively this year (yards/game). Of course, with a 30th ranking in defense, that wasn't enough to be significant in the playoff hunt. Yes, we need to upgrade QB somehow, but the fact of the matter is that in most of our games, the offense was there. Notice the scores these past two weeks? Aside from the 45-44 Chiefs-Colts circus, the losing teams were held to an average of 17 points per game, and these are among the better offensive teams in the league. DEFENSE is our main problem, hands down. And the winning teams are again honing in on the running game as being crucial to winning. I'm still not convinced that Musgrave needs to be run out of town.
We get it bud, you think everything was our defenses fault and our Ponder/Cassel/Freeman rotation works so we don't need to think about offense at all or getting a quarterback of the future.
"...Yes, we need to upgrade QB somehow..."
I see no benefit to keeping Bust-grave. We need more dynamic schemes and the ability to adjust intra-game..
But that's my point, CS. The so-called lack of dynamic schemes and in-game adjustments somehow landed us in the thick of play-off offenses, and did so without a QB even close to the eight who played this weekend. I would suggest that Musgrave's offense looks more dynamic than Bevell's scheme in Seattle, and I don't see us any less imaginative than the 49ers, Panthers, Eagles, etc. But those teams did all have much better QB play than us, and that does a lot for scheme. I offer two questions:
1. Was our offense as bad as the fans seem to be declaring?
2. How much of Musgrave's lack of scheme is really lack of QB?
"Cleaning house" needs to be a rational and fact-based decision. I didn't always agree with Musgrave either, but I think he did a much better job than he is generally given credit for. I would be fine with Zimmer, and I would be fine with him keeping Musgrave as OC.
whether we like Musgrave or not, coach, the new HC will undoubtedly pick his own guy anyway....after the usual staff interviews.......if Frazier hadn't stuck with Ponder so long, Musgrave probably could've opened it all up quite a bit more with Cassell earlier in the season......
If Zimmer does end up being the guy, I'll trust his judgement on Musgrave seeing that he put together a defensive scheme that completely shut down our offense this year. If he see's something on film in Musgraves offense that he likes and thinks is workable, than I would be fine with keeping some continuity on what really was our strongest unit this year, but if he thought our offense was a joke with or without a passer, moving on would be just fine by me as well. I would like to see George Stewart, our WR coach, retained to give our young wideouts a familiar face.
what I tired of watching most was AD up the middle on 1st and 2nd and on 3rd and 6, a 4 yd pass....that SUCKED.....and on 3rd or 4th and 1, why ALWAYS the tight formation up the middle run with a underwhelming OL vs a spread out formation and let AD run out of that.......I'm not a football guy, just a physics major, so when we faced 7,8,or 9 in the box against our tight formation , 14 three hundred pound men coming together didn't leave much room for AD or any runner.....last point, coach....something's wrong with the offensive scheme when the best RB in the NFL gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage as much as AD did.....HCs have to work with what ya got, and if our OL was weak, you can't game plan as if we had 5 all pros up front.....I'm on record saying no one will ever beat that single season rushing record, but with a good HC and OC, AD would be the one guy who could still do it!
I agree about running AD out of more spread type formations instead of cramming everyone inside. If we had an oline like the 49ers it would work, but we don't have a physically imposing oline. That is one reason why I would be okay with Linehan, he likes lots of 3 wide sets which might open things up a bit for AD.
Just don't start Ponder. And go back to the throw back uniforms. The current ones are better than the Chili era, but still, the throw backs with the dark purple helmet are the best in NFL. The Vikings are only playing like 3 games in a dome next year. They need to adjust their offense. I'm with Krugjr on running Peterson into the mass. There's no energy in that mass, they need to spread it out and open it up somehow.. Throwing money at Toby would be smart, and playing him more. He impacts the game more than Allen did, and look what they paid him. The reasons trading Harvin and aquiring Patterson was such a genius move for Spielman was of course Harvins attitude, and he will not last. Being so little and taking everyone on like that. Patterson is just as good, or better really, bigger, plays tough as hell and his specialty is avoiding the contact at the last second. He's our future and best player. Next is Peterson and then Toby. and Rudolph. HC needs a real QB and defensive overhaul. If that Zimmer, let's do it. Just no Ponder, please.. And
I hope today is the day. Keeping my fingers crossed for an announcement.
Just read that Mike Zimmer is back in town today for a 2nd interview. Seems to me that they would not fly him back unless they were close to an agreement.
Lions just hired Jim Caldwell. That is actually a good fit I hate to say.
If you look at some other Bengal forums and websites, pretty much 100% of the fans are deeply bummed that they may lose Zimmer. The more I read about the guy, the more I like him. Seems certain that he will drastically improve our Defense.
Freds is in shock! What are you idiots talking about? Freds used to think you morons had some sense about matters of football. Not any more!!
Zimmer is a terrible selection to be a football coach. The guy is WAY too old and too fat. No doubt he was a wonderful athlete back in his day, and in his time he was a good coach, but now? Are you kidding? Zimmer? Zimmer?
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/don_zimmer_autograph.jpg
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Easy on the Colt 45s there Freds! That picture was before he went and had gastro-intestinal bypass like Rex. He never developed a fetish for feet though.