The Vikings Are Banking on One Thing as the Culprit for Recent Mediocrity

The Vikings Are Banking on One Thing as the Culprit for Recent Mediocrity
Kirk Cousins and Mike ZImmer

Based on the lack of trades, overall inactivity of player movement, and extension of existing personnel, the Minnesota Vikings are banking on one thing as the culprit for recent mediocrity.

Mike Zimmer.

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

If the new leadership combination of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell arrived on the scene and began uprooting players, the diagnosis would be different.

But it is not.

The Vikings haven’t traded anybody in an offseason where some fans believed the organization would undergo a full structural rebuild. The Vikings did the opposite, recommitting to the existing nucleus of stars while vocally maintaining the expectation for the playoffs in 2022.

Because Adofo-Mensah relented taking a cleaver to the roster — and based on the mentality the team wants to win next season — without declaration, the organization is essentially blaming Zimmer for the woes of 2020 and 2021.

In those two seasons, the Vikings tallied a 15-18 (.455) record, the 20th-best in the NFL. Before that, from 2014 to 2019 on Zimmer’s watch, Minnesota won 59.9% of all games, the seventh-best leaguewide.

So, Zimmer’s Vikings went from seventh-best to 13th-worst in two years. The Vikings ownership and new general management are banking on Kevin O’Connell’s wherewithal to emulate the 2014-2019 track record. Otherwise, a fire sale of players would’ve been on the docket.

To an extent, the motto checks out. The Vikings collapsed at crucial moments of games in 2021 — mainly on defense — surrendering the most points in the final two minutes of halves in NFL history. The first-half tendency was so nauseating it caused revisionist history like this:

And that stat, from the week before the final game, would’ve resulted in a 13-4 record if the stars aligned differently.

Ergo, if the Vikings could find a coach who didn’t author end-of-half collapses, perhaps the enterprise isn’t too far from Super Bowl contendership. The head coach is primarily accountable for such failures, so he got the ax, and the new guy took over.

Plain and simple — Zimmer’s downfall has to be the explanation for the Vikings recent stay-put philosophy. Someone in the organization — or multiple folks — did an autopsy of the 2021 campaign and determined the cause of death was Mike Zimmer.

Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer

This verdict crystallized when Kirk Cousins was extended for an extra year at a handsome $35 million price tag. Had Cousins been traded to the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, or elsewhere, the white flag would be visible, signaling a shift in a different direction.

Of course, that did not occur, and the Vikings will enter the 2022 regular season with the simple assumption Zimmer was public enemy #1 for mediocrity.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. His YouTube Channel, VikesNow, debuts in March 2022. 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).

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