Zimmer “Non-Committal” as to whether he’ll call Defensive Plays in 2020
Joe Johnson
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As the last two articles on the site reported and then discussed, respectively, the Vikings named their 2020 coaching staff earlier this week. Managing editor of this site, Sean Borman, broke the news to the VikingsTerritory faithful early yesterday, whereas I, the owner of this site and purplePTSD.com/purpleTERRITORYRadio.com/More debt than the USSR in the late 1980’s, opined on it.
Because of that, I thought it only fair that I should follow up on my article with Zimmer’s thoughts on the coaching moves, as well as some potentially big news about his power in 2020.
First, let’s see what Zimmer had to say about each new coach when he spoke with KFAN’s Paul Allen today:
On Gary Kubiak helming the offense in 2020, per Vikings.com:
“I love everything about it, I obviously approached him first, and he wanted to take a couple days to think about it. I know he liked the role he was in a year ago, but once I gave him two days, I called him and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it and go to work.’
He’s excited about it and has a lot of ideas about moving forward. He’s been great … a great addition here. He’s an unbelievable person, a great teacher and a super coach.”
As he said before the announcement of Kubiak as the fifth Vikings offensive coordinator this team has had in five years, continuity was the most important variable that Zimmer was looking for (for obvious reasons).
Why?
“It should help in all the areas. We’ve had so many changes with terminology with the offensive players over the last few years, so the terminology for the run game will end up staying the same.
The pass game may change a little bit, but for the most part, it’s all going to be the same, I think. From the quarterback to the receivers to the offensive line to the tight ends, I think all those should be beneficial.”
On Andre Patterson and his son Adam Zimmer “helming” the defense:
“Well, one of the things I had them do right away was sit down and outline how they see it going … who does what on each day? How they go through it? They gave me a very detailed plan for the offseason, a very detailed plan as we start going through the season.
Yesterday I was walking around the office and I was looking for the defensive coaches because I wanted to get together with them and talk about a couple of things I think we need to look at … and I can’t find them anywhere.
I’m walking all around the building and go in the defensive room and they’re in there working on run-game cutups. It was just nice that they weren’t waiting for me to do everything.”
Now for the potentially big news. Zimmer, who has called the defensive plays each game since he took the gig back in 2014, was asked if he would continue to do so in 2020 (and perhaps beyond), or if he would have his son or Andr… Let’s face it, it’d be his son, calling the plays.
Zimmer responded:
“I don’t know that. I don’t know that yet. I’m going to give these guys an opportunity to see how they do it.
They’ve been with me for a number of years now, so they know how I like the game called, It would take some things off of my plate, which would be good, but in the end I’m going to do what I believe is best for the Minnesota Vikings.”
I have thoughts on this, as well, but I’ll leave this story as is and follow-up with a … Follow-up or Part 2 to the piece I linked above.
What are your thoughts on the coaching changes the Vikings made this off-season?
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