Time to seriously start talking about Zimmer.

[Guest]

I am now in the camp (after years of defending both) that Zimmer and Speilman need to go.

[Guest]

@Mike Olson said:

Spielman goes too imo

In the original piece, Mike, you said this about Zimmer...."the truth is that his teams are just not getting it done despite a very talented roster."

So, Speilman has done his job, building a very talented roster. What more can a GM do? Zim is a yo-yo coach. Wins decently every other year, then fails when us fans get our hopes up. It's frustrating to watch bad starts in our biggest games, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We start so porous, and it takes until halftime to adjust, by then our offense is in a hole.

On the offensive side of the ball, I understand wanting to run the ball more than last year, but do we always have to run right up the gut? Cook has speed, and Rudolph is a good blocker, seems like a run outside once in awhile could be attempted.

[Guest]

@JoDakota said:

@Mike Olson said:

Spielman goes too imo

In the original piece, Mike, you said this about Zimmer...."the truth is that his teams are just not getting it done despite a very talented roster."

So, Speilman has done his job, building a very talented roster. What more can a GM do? Zim is a yo-yo coach. Wins decently every other year, then fails when us fans get our hopes up. It's frustrating to watch bad starts in our biggest games, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We start so porous, and it takes until halftime to adjust, by then our offense is in a hole.

On the offensive side of the ball, I understand wanting to run the ball more than last year, but do we always have to run right up the gut? Cook has speed, and Rudolph is a good blocker, seems like a run outside once in awhile could be attempted.

Here are all of Cook's "inside" runs.

[Guest]

Re Spielman, I think the "talented roster" is overrated because it is shallow. Every year, a player goes down and the excuses start, many of which are some form of, "How can any team compete with two injured linemen or losing our star RB or without a CB etc.?" Even on defense, we have about 8 excellent players, but depth has been questionable. The problem is far worse on offense, where we have maybe 3 excellent players, struggle to find others at key positions, and every year our offensive line unit seems to be 5 average starters backed up by subpar depth.
But I think even if you argue that Spielman has collected great talent in certain areas of the team, an owner can (maybe should) make a change if he has repeatedly failed to fill an area so key that a team can't win a championship: quarterback. The list of fails is too long to let Spielman try again. (And if anyone thinks Bridgewater turning the high-powered Saints offense into a grinding unit proves that Spielman had a winner in Teddy but stolen from us by injury, you're making a faith-based argument.) If you can draft DBs and DEs well but can't get your team a winning QB, you're a college scout, not a GM.
I have other issues about Zimmer but I really think it's a package deal. A lot of player success and failure stories are on the coaching staff as well as Spielman. More, if you dump Spielman, you have to give his replacement the freedom to replace Zimmer - unless you want to limit your GM candidates to those who are willing to retain Zim.

[Guest]

I'm willing to give him this season, but if they keep looking like this, goodbye Zim.  What drives me nuts is how often they look like somebody told them the game started an hour later. 

[Guest]

I have issues with Zimmer seemingly getting out schemed/out coached in big situations too often...

Been a long time since I watched a Viking game and said to myself "that wiley Viking coaching staff really outshined the competition today" 

But wait! There's more:

• Our big knocker players fold too soon or don't show
• We are only going so far with this pass pro and no improvement from Cousins

It's not one or the other.

[Guest]

@purplefaithful said:
I have issues with Zimmer seemingly getting out schemed/out coached in big situations too often...

Been a long time since I watched a Viking game and said to myself "that wiley Viking coaching staff really outshined the competition today" 

But wait! There's more:

• Our big knocker players fold too soon or don't show
• We are only going so far with this pass pro and no improvement from Cousins

It's not one or the other.

I don't disagree. I think firing him would be nuts, but I do hold him, more than anyone else, accountable for the NFCC embarrassment in Philly, two of the three Chicago losses (last one squarely planted on Kiss'n Cousins) and this year's Green Bay loss. 

But that Green Bay loss is a perfect microcosm of Zimmer's defense. Come out unprepared, adjust, dominate the rest of the way, and if you're not too far behind by then, you can perhaps pull out a W. Or not. 

So all of that has to be weighed. I really like always having a good defense. Don't take that for granted. And I like how he can, master-like, identify the problem and fix it (with one or two exceptions). The last three quarters of that Packer game, the Vikings forced Aaron Rodgers into 11 straight possessions of nothing Burgers.

But why he can't come to the game with a better game plan is beyond me. Maybe it's time for young Grasshopper to call Master Po'cells. 

[Guest]

As to Zimmer, I've got a few top level complaints:

• He's a QB killer.  He has consistently destroyed the confidence of every QB he has had in Minnesota by essentially telling them to "not screw up".  The only one who didn't listen was Keenum, who Zimmer berated as "lucky" and let him go.
• Closely linked to the previous point, Zimmer game plans to keep games close.  He admits it.  He thinks if the game is close at the end, we are in good shape.  That is not how winners think.  Step on the throat of an opponent when they are down?  Not Zimmer's philosophy.  Look no further than the NFC Championship game when we went conservative with a lead and needed a miracle to bail us out.  This is also why his defenses do not create turnovers at rates consistent with top-tier defenses.
• He's stubborn and too loyal to players (non-kickers!).  Why did we re-sign Barr to a mega-deal and continue to use him in rather ordinary ways?  The Rudolph extension looks ridiculous at this point.  Blame Spielman here, but I see Zim's fingerprints all over these moves

The early game woes of the defense against the Packers and the Bears is a huge concern, but not something I recall being a consistent problem under Zimmer's tenure.  I'll wait and see on this one.  If he doesn't dial up a game plan to blow up the rookie QB this week, I predict all hell will break loose.

[Guest]

A loss to the Giants this week, and the gates to Viking hell will be wide open!
I don't think you can blame Zimmer and absolve Spielman. Paying Cousins a 3 year guaranteed contract may have negated the building of a pretty good roster otherwise.
The rats will be jumping off the ship if they don't turn things around.
They seem capable and are 2-2, but they need to get this thing going, it could get ugly!

[Guest]

This isn't Rocket Science. The team wilts on the road against good teams. Period.

The Defense bends but doesn't break ala the Patriots. That's all well and good when you have the GOAT playing QB. And Belicheat actually schemes for each opponent's Offense. Something his OC's also do. What a novel concept.

All the Draft Capital and Contracts just to get Bend but don't Break. Something plenty of other Defenses achieve without such a massive investment to that side of the ball.

Meanwhile, Rick can't find a modern QB and even if he did Zimmer wouldn't turn him loose anyway.

How many more Nationally Televised flops do some of you need to see? Rick and Zimmer took this team from the basement to middle-of-the-pack.  And, but for one horseshoe in the ass run that they almost screwed up that still led to yet another ass-whipping in a NFCCG, average is all you're getting.

Isn't one definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results?

We're all insane by dint of being Vikings fans. But it takes a special kind of crazy to think Rick and Zimmer are going to produce anything but continued mediocrity.

Minnesota is literally the equivalent of an NBA team with one super star that gets stuck not being good enough to win it all but not bad enough to get a lottery pick.

Personally, I'd rather root for a team that sucks for a few years while rebuilding than watch the same old same old every year and somehow expecting a different result. At least with a rebuild you're hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This franchise is stuck in the dark right now.