Kyle Shanahan / Kirk Cousins
Dalvin Cook is in hot water for headlines, Dakota Dozier is hospitalized because of the coronavirus, and Michael Pierce probably won’t play in Week 10.
All in a day’s headlines for the 2021 Minnesota Vikings, stranded with a 3-5 record while holstering a talented roster.
Because of the upside-down win-loss record, there is a palpable feeling that Mike Zimmer is in his final weeks or months as head coach. The team could totally change its fortune, bash the Los Angeles Chargers, and then stomp the Green Bay Packers at home in Week 11. But come on. Do we really think that’s on the docket? Probably not – for a bevy of reasons.
Resultingly, the team’s fans are beginning to surrender all playoff hopes for 2021. Brainstorming options for the head coach in life-after-Zimmer have begun. It’s a foreign topic because Zimmer has manned the head coaching gig in Minnesota for 7.5 years – the fourth-longest tenure for a head coach in the league. Only Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, and Pete Carroll have coached their current teams longer than Zimmer.
In all likelihood, the Vikings will find a way to make this season just interesting enough for Zimmer to make it through Week 18. But Black Monday won’t be as kind, perhaps resulting in Zimmer’s termination.
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If that occurs – and the San Francisco 49ers continue to struggle – the Vikings and 49ers may be without head coaches. The skipper in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan, is universally revered by national media, so his job may indeed be safe. Hell, he just drafted Trey Lance from North Dakota State as the golden boy.
Yet, here’s the deal. Shanahan has been the leader in San Francisco since 2017. In just one season, the 49ers won more than six games. The year was 2019, and the 49ers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. These are his win-loss records since 2017:
That isn’t good for anybody as consistency is nonexistent. Well, an argument can be made Shanahan teams are consistently not very good.
Regardless, Vikings fans don’t care. If Shanahan is canned by John Lynch, onlookers of the team prefer a Shanahan return to Minnesota – the place of his birth:
This poll was unscientific, and 1,067 people replied.
Almost 60% would like to audition a Shanahan-Cousins reunion. Shanahan was Cousins’ offensive coordinator for two years in Washington when Cousins was the QB2. The two men have been associated from afar ever since.
Slightly over one-third of responding fans want nothing to with Shanahan – likely because of his sneaky losing record. His .444 win percentage is the exact same ratio as his predecessor, Chip Kelly, who also won .444 of all football games.
For now, Shanahan to Minnesota is an infancy idea because the young coach would have to be fired first. There are some rumblings in the San Francisco media market it could actually happen. We shall see.
On the whole, though, fans would not object to another Shanahan-Cousins marriage — this time for the Vikings.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).