It's Funny, Really, But I'm Done with Zimmer

Eight years of Zimmer & the team hasn't sniffed a SB appearance.  He's overstayed his welcome

The reasons why I have swung my opinion on Zimmer, who I have been a supporter of:

- His old school commitment to continue playing older veterans over rookies has hurt the team.  This isn't 1990 anymore and with the salary cap teams have to count on rookies to play.  Before Sunday's game the Vikings draft class had the lowest number of snaps for any rookie class in the league with 9. 

- Despite an immense amount of draft capital spent on his bread and butter (cornerbacks) since he's become head coach, we are starting two veteran free agent signees on one year deals. That is completely inexcusable.  Breeland is the lowest rated cornerback in the league. Strange and pathetic as this may sound...cornerback might be our number one need heading into the offseason.  To me this is one of the biggest indictments on Zimmer.

- Defense should be upgraded this season and it continues to flounder. It seems like he is trying to reinvent the wheel going with some different 3-4 looks and his patented double A gap blitz is almost non existent. I cant figure out how we have added so much beef on the interior of the defensive line in front of Kendricks and we still get no push, penetration, or disruption of any sort. Outside of Hunter, our best player has been Everson Griffen...another late veteran free agent signing. The lack of young player development is hugely concerning.

His comments about not being concerned about the run defense and not concerned about the offense being too conservative really bothered me. Zimmer is not going to adapt. He wants to continue to be a DC and not a coach. He wants to make excuses and doesn't want to take any responsibility for anything. I just can't with his antiquated offensive philosophy. The defense is ranked 15. The fact that the OL is still an issue after all these years is absolutely ridiculous. That embarrassing game yesterday was pathetic. It didn't feel good at all. Not enough playoff appearances. 1 sniff at the NFCCG. His record is not showing results. Winning against shitty teams and shitting the bed against the good teams is not going to cut it. It's time to move on.

@"supafreak84" said: The reasons why I have swung my opinion on Zimmer, who I have been a supporter of:

- His old school commitment to continue playing older veterans over rookies has hurt the team.  This isn't 1990 anymore and with the salary cap teams have to count on rookies to play.  Before Sunday's game the Vikings draft class had the lowest number of snaps for any rookie class in the league with 9. 

- Despite an immense amount of draft capital spent on his bread and butter (cornerbacks) since he's become head coach, we are starting two veteran free agent signees on one year deals. That is completely inexcusable.  Breeland is the lowest rated cornerback in the league. Strange and pathetic as this may sound...cornerback might be our number one need heading into the offseason.  To me this is one of the biggest indictments on Zimmer.

- Defense should be upgraded this season and it continues to flounder. It seems like he is trying to reinvent the wheel going with some different 3-4 looks and his patented double A gap blitz is almost non existent. I cant figure out how we have added so much beef on the interior of the defensive line in front of Kendricks and we still get no push, penetration, or disruption of any sort. Outside of Hunter, our best player has been Everson Griffen...another late veteran free agent signing. The lack of young player development is hugely concerning.

Loved Zimmer for 7 seasons.  Furious with how this roster looks especially on defense which is supposed to be his expertise.

We drafted 4 CBs in Round 1, none left on our roster.  As you said, both starters and nickle CB Mac Alexander are ALL on 1 year deals.  

And I agree, going into 2022 our biggest need AGAIN is CB.  That is 100% Zimmer and Rick.   7 years to fix it, 4 Round 1 picks and we are starting over from scratch.

WTF???

@"Knucklehead" said: Eight years of Zimmer & the team hasn't sniffed a SB appearance.  He's overstayed his welcome

For me, I can’t take the not playing the best player at the position. He did it to Anthony Harris for years and is doing it again to the far superior cornerback Dantzler. If you’re not playing the best guys, you’re in the wrong business, because winning should be your business. It’s like drafting a kicker and then releasing him when he struggles as a new NFL player. We’ve done a maddening carousel of kickers while that draft pick has gone on and become a very good pro. 
The fact the guy went until now before sitting down with his QB is insane to me. The fact that he is so strict on following the coaches plan and play calls is mind blowing as well. A guy like Cousins can make calls based on the defense he’s seeing all day long on his own, but Zimmer is too set in his ways. In many ways I like the guy, I just think he’s better suited to be a DC and not a head coach. He’s simply not flexible enough for the job.

I was fine with Zimmer until the end of 2018. Remember the Chicago game in week 17? That was it for me.

This is how I feel;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlp0bzdAnqQ&t=2s

I used to love and priase Zimmer, as he always had a top notch defense. Problem is, when the defense failed last year, his ignoring the offensive line, developing a young QB and his kicker attitude has sunk this team.

Kirk has put up good stats, but are we hanging with him after next year. I doubt it. The successor should already be on the roster, but we will be behind on the most important position on a football team again. 

If we lose tomorrow, time to blow the coaching and GM staff up.....2-4 with the upcoming schedule is daunting at best.

I loved Diggs, but was so disappointed when he forced his way off this team. It happened with Percy too. If we don't move on from Zimmer, Jefferson could be next.

I actually think Zimmer isn't all that bad. But he and Spielman decided to adopt a philosophy on offense, that hasn't , and may never pan out.
They decided to run the wide zone running offense. So they acquired undersized linemen, like Elflien, Bradbury, and a few inept guards, they felt would be able to pull and get to the second level to block linebackers and safeties.
So that works well, sometimes, when you have a running back like Cook.

But when that doesn't work, where does that leave you?

If you are behind, you end up with Linemen that are a liability in passing situations.

It's a philosophical difference I have with Zimmer and Spielman that bothers me.
 
The hell with the wide zone offense. Get offensive linemen that can pass block well, and shore up your defense, and you will get back to the top tier of competitive teams.

Zimmer must go and for maybe for the first time I am joining the Spielman must go too camp. Sick of the whole situation.

the thing that bugs me about Zimmer was last season 2020 our defense was horrible due to injuries and covid.  Not his fault but what happened last season was the nearly complete lack of developing and coaching up the players behind his starters that were injured or out. To me a genius coach finds the diamonds in the rough behind his injured players and at least can develop a few guys to be pleasant surprises.

 Danztler was the only one that came close to being that diamond in the rough and this year Zimmer has treated him like he is a lump of coal.  He doesn’t develop players and his defenses are only good when he has probowlers at every level of the defense like in 2017.  Well no kidding that roster would be good with any competant coach.  Show me your genuis when things go wrong not when nearly every player is a stud.

@"PSBLAKE" said: the thing that bugs me about Zimmer was last season 2020 our defense was horrible due to injuries and covid.  Not his fault but what happened last season was the nearly complete lack of developing and coaching up the players behind his starters that were injured or out. To me a genius coach finds the diamonds in the rough behind his injured players and at least can develop a few guys to be pleasant surprises.

 Danztler was the only one that came close to being that diamond in the rough and this year Zimmer has treated him like he is a lump of coal.  He doesn’t develop players and his defenses are only good when he has probowlers at every level of the defense like in 2017.  Well no kidding that roster would be good with any competant coach.  Show me your genuis when things go wrong not when nearly every player is a stud.

But when 7 of your starting 11 are out, you can't mitigate that. That's a whole different team. 

I have my problems with Zimmer, but what happened last year ain't one of them. 

Last year was intended to be a soft reboot.  We could no longer afford a lot of our good
players and a lot of players were at their end of their contracts here.  We had to let them go, and replace them with
younger players.  The cap was $192M and
$30M of that was dead money tied up in older contracts for players no longer on
the team.  I didn’t include the $7M in
dead money for Yannick.  Last year was
going to be pretty rough even without injuries or Covid.  We had a full refresh in our DBs.  We only had 2 defenders on our DLine worthy
of starting.  We were light on FAs and veterans,
because we were resetting our cap.

Then you have the injuries. 
Pierce and Hunter going out before the season started.  There was no real way any coach could field a
functioning defense with no starting caliber DL and rookie CBs.

One thing to note is how many players came to play for
Zimmer on one year contracts trying to position themselves for a big new
contract in 2022.

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"PSBLAKE" said: the thing that bugs me about Zimmer was last season 2020 our defense was horrible due to injuries and covid.  Not his fault but what happened last season was the nearly complete lack of developing and coaching up the players behind his starters that were injured or out. To me a genius coach finds the diamonds in the rough behind his injured players and at least can develop a few guys to be pleasant surprises.

 Danztler was the only one that came close to being that diamond in the rough and this year Zimmer has treated him like he is a lump of coal.  He doesn’t develop players and his defenses are only good when he has probowlers at every level of the defense like in 2017.  Well no kidding that roster would be good with any competant coach.  Show me your genuis when things go wrong not when nearly every player is a stud.

Yabbut depth is meant to get you through a handful of injuries here and there. You have two, maybe three players out, the backups go in, you make a few adjustments to mitigate the downgrade in experience and/or talent, and it doesn't hurt you too bad. 

But when 7 of your starting 11 are out, you can't mitigate that. That's a whole different team. 

I have my problems with Zimmer, but what happened last year ain't one of them. 

Going to be very interesting to see what happens the back 1/2 of a very tough schedule. 

Make or break for Zimmer. I do think (in most scenarios) if they dont make the playoffs? He's probably done here. 

Making post-season is key. 1 and done in the playoffs? I dont think its a slam dunk the Wilfs turn the page. 

@"purplefaithful" said: Going to be very interesting to see what happens the back 1/2 of a very tough schedule. 

Make or break for Zimmer. I do think (in most scenarios) if they dont make the playoffs? He's probably done here. 

Making post-season is key. 1 and done in the playoffs? I dont think its a slam dunk the Wilfs turn the page. 

@"pattersaur" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: Going to be very interesting to see what happens the back 1/2 of a very tough schedule. 

Make or break for Zimmer. I do think (in most scenarios) if they dont make the playoffs? He's probably done here. 

Making post-season is key. 1 and done in the playoffs? I dont think its a slam dunk the Wilfs turn the page. 

I agree with all this. The bottom line is this is a results business. And lately Mike doesn't have the results. We'll see if he can find a horseshoe the rest of the way.