Guess there was a schism between Zim and Rick

[PurpleCrush]

https://twitter.com/PhilMackey/status/14...2773085184

[Guest]

I guess after this, it's pretty easy to understand the Wilfi emphasis on collaboration and communication.

Go figure.

[Guest]

@PurpleCrush said:
https://twitter.com/PhilMackey/status/14...2773085184

I think a lot of us wondered just how harmonious the relationship was between them. I can saw with almost absolute certainty that Zimmer was unhappy with the way this last draft was handled and why at the end of the season he basically threw Mond (and Spielman) under the bus with his comments.

[Guest]

zim never wanted Cousins. Spielman went after the analytical midwest boy (like himself) to be his legacy. 

it was the beginning of the end

time to rid of Cousins

[Guest]

@Skodin said:
zim never wanted Cousins. Spielman went after the analytical midwest boy (like himself) to be his legacy. 

it was the beginning of the end

time to rid of Cousins

A couple thing's on Cousins. He is under contract for one more season. We can't cut him because the dead money cap hit would be 45 million dollars. We can try trading him, but he'll be 34 years old and what could we get for him in a trade package? If we were able to trade him and his contract, what are we doing for a starting QB for this upcoming season? It's not a pretty free agent market and this is a very weak draft class of QB's. 

[Guest]

Sorry Deion, "QB play" was definitely not the cause of Zimmer's demise.  I am not a big fan of Cousins but the defense had played poorly for 2 straight years.  In the last two years, I actually feel Cousins got some monkeys off his back. 

[Guest]

@supafreak84 said:

@Skodin said:
zim never wanted Cousins. Spielman went after the analytical midwest boy (like himself) to be his legacy. 

it was the beginning of the end

time to rid of Cousins

A couple thing's on Cousins. He is under contract for one more season. We can't cut him because the dead money cap hit would be 45 million dollars. We can try trading him, but he'll be 34 years old and what could we get for him in a trade package? If we were able to trade him and his contract, what are we doing for a starting QB for this upcoming season? It's not a pretty free agent market and this is a very weak draft class of QB's. 

More than what the Eagles got for Wentz, less than the Lions got for Stafford.

The Vikings are 0-2 in trades that were supposed to be the final Super Bowl piece.

[Guest]

Frankly, if they hadn't talked in months, Spielman should be fired for not firing Zimmer earlier.  Can you imagine not talking to your boss for several months?

[Guest]

Zimmer is freaking high if wants to put it on Rick and QB play. His defense is the reason we didn’t win a lot of games this year. The offense had a couple of bad games, but were repeatedly having to make up for scores given up in the last two minutes of the half and last two minutes of the game. 3 of our wins were final drive. We had missed FG and porous defense that lost several more. 
His only legit complaint is Cousins contract. Period. The rest is all on him. Had he dedicated an actual defensive coordinator it may have made a big difference on the season, but he wanted to do it his way and he needs to take accountability for that. He slotted in essentially no D coordinator and a rookie offensive coordinator making the play calls. We all know how that went. By the end of the year the fans in the stadium were booing the play calls as much as the other team. Soft zones on 3rd and 4th down that made for easy pickups - all on him. He did it all freaking year to “not get beat deep”. He started a horrible corner over a far superior player Spielman drafted in the 3rd round the year before. It was just stupid. I bet it made Spielman’s frigging day to be able to dump Breeland. Everyone and their dog watched him cost us games - save for Zimmer. Seriously, never starting Breeland probably would have made a good 3 win swing. Talk about a frustrating season. 
I just lost a ton of respect for Zimmer. What a pathetic excuse. I see why Spielman would have had enough of that nonsense. 

[Guest]

It really seems like Zimmer was determined to be more "Zim" the worse things got, which made things even worse.  Lose games by being conservative?  Be more conservative.  Get called out for starting an obviously bad corner?  Leave him in as he continues to play horribly.  Actually get back into games with the passing game?  Resort to running plays and "prevent" defenses, to fail to close things out.  Oh, and don't forget the always-inevitable draw plays on 3rd-and-long in our territory...!

I've never been so brutally disappointed in a coach.  I was too young to really invest in Grant or Steckel, Denny Green gave it all he had, Tice was just a dumbass in a series of dumb situations, Chilly was...basically unlikeable, and Frazier was kinda impossible to hate even as he defined the lower side of mediocrity.

I had a lot of hope for Zimmer.  I love defensive football a ton, despite my overall lifelong fandom for the Vikings.  All of my jerseys have been defensive player #s, and seeing our defense ratings improve so dramatically from Frazier's disasters was great to see...

...but, he's incompetent with a real QB/offense, he's similarly incapable of modern levels of player communication, and no amount of Cousins hatred or contract whining dismisses our constant OL and recent defensive meltdowns, especially as other teams with big-money QBs seem to be mostly or in the playoffs.

Our ex-coach failed, our ex-GM enabled the failure, but my eternal Purple optimism has me wondering what we'll look like with a better (inevitably) offensive mind involved....?