Guess there was a schism between Zim and Rick

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

Go figure.

@"PurpleCrush" said: https://twitter.com/PhilMackey/status/1482395212773085184

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.

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

@"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. 

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. 

@"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. 

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?

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. 

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....?

Never picked Z as a little bitter bitch boy, yet....here we are. 

If they truly didn't talk for months that is comically pathetic. Hard to win games-- or succeed at any job-- in that kind of atmosphere.
A once promising partnership really turned bitter towards the end. Maybe they'll both get other jobs so we can find out who's Simon and who's the Garfunkel.

If this is true then I am glad they are both gone. It is completely and utterly unacceptable to operate a team this way. I would site repeated OL issues and the issues with the defense for the demise. 

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"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.

@"StickyBun" said: Never picked Z as a little bitter bitch boy, yet....here we are. 

Really kind of kills his "hard ass" image.

Zimmer came in and turned a pathetic team into a better team. He hung a banner in fact. He took a team with a backup QB to the NFC championship game. 
Things changed when Spielman brought in the missing piece. 
Quit bagging on Zimmer so much and realize they both failed. And Cousins was the cause; if not directly, then indirectly through salary cap issues. 
If you were the coach, could you have had a successful defense with the defensive players on this or last years roster?
Zimmer is gone. Time to move on.

@"jargomcfargo" said: Zimmer came in and turned a pathetic team into a better team. He hung a banner in fact. He took a team with a backup QB to the NFC championship game.  Things changed when Spielman brought in the missing piece.  Quit bagging on Zimmer so much and realize they both failed. And Cousins was the cause; if not directly, then indirectly through salary cap issues.  If you were the coach, could you have had a successful defense with the defensive players on this or last years roster? Zimmer is gone. Time to move on.

No question. There are many defensive coordinators in the league who could have had this defense playing much better. Just never starting Breeland would have won games. Mike Zimmer is about as responsible for this season result as is possible.  Did injuries hurt? Yes, Mike Hughes struggled with them and left and we used up another fist round pick on a corner who got himself tossed from the league. Had those picks been players on the team we were likely better. The point though is Zimmer was given the players he needed to field a highly competitive team and it was 100% his decision making that effected how that played out.

There are a good many head coaches in the league and likely assistants who would have won a lot of games with these guys this year. 
Blaming it on the QB who puts up the kind of efficiency Cousins does is laughable. It’s nothing more than Zimmer trying to drum up sympathy. Zimmer never had a meeting with his starting QB until the last half of this year and that was at Cousins request. We all know from what Zimmer said about it, that Cousins was lobbying to call the plays himself. It was a no go with Zimmer and we all watched the ridiculous play calling unfold. 
Based on what Kendricks had to say, it didn’t go any better on the other side of the ball when players wanted to express ideas that could improve performance. Zimmer simply wasn’t having it. It’s the coaches way and that’s that. We have all paid the price. 
I read an article or interview today that pointed out Cousins gave Zimmer no vote of confidence in interviews at the end and avoided saying much of anything. The article claimed Cousins was furious at Zimmer for denying JJ the record. All Zimmer had to say about it was he doesn’t care about records only wins. Yeah we got exactly how you felt Zimmer when you purposely made sure he couldn’t get it. 
Oh well, rant over, I’m so freaking happy he’s gone and hopeful we can get a guy in willing to let the team have at least some say or at least be able to voice an idea or opinion. It’s called collaboration and in my opinion it’s vital to success. 
The Wilf’s believe we are not far away and I agree. Get Cousins contract under control and stabilize our cap situation and there’s a good base in place to do some damage.

@"supafreak84" said:

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"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.

I don't know that we could get a first round pick for Cousins. The Eagles got it for Wentz because the Colts were gambling on him reverting back to MVP form and was still only 28. I'm trying to think of teams that it would make sense for to make a move for Cousins...and its slim pickings. Maybe Cleveland reuniting with Stefanski depending on what they decide on Mayfield. Redskins would probably make the most sense

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"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.

I don't know that we could get a first round pick for Cousins. The Eagles got it for Wentz because the Colts were gambling on him reverting back to MVP form and was still only 28. I'm trying to think of teams that it would make sense for to make a move for Cousins...and its slim pickings. Maybe Cleveland reuniting with Stefanski depending on what they decide on Mayfield. Redskins would probably make the most sense

Cousins has APPEARED on the injury report once since 2014. Extremely productive. 33 isn't exactly ancient. Pen him in for 4000 yards and 30+ TDs.

And we can't get a first?

Fuck no.

How can this be?  When I made a similar statement a while back I was told how glowing they spoke of each other and how they were like BFFs.

@"StickyBun" said:

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"JustinTime18™" said:

@"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.

I don't know that we could get a first round pick for Cousins. The Eagles got it for Wentz because the Colts were gambling on him reverting back to MVP form and was still only 28. I'm trying to think of teams that it would make sense for to make a move for Cousins...and its slim pickings. Maybe Cleveland reuniting with Stefanski depending on what they decide on Mayfield. Redskins would probably make the most sense

Cousins has APPEARED on the injury report once since 2014. Extremely productive. 33 isn't exactly ancient. Pen him in for 4000 yards and 30+ TDs.

And we can't get a first?

Fuck no.

I think its possible but not probable. I think interested teams will look at it as a mini fire-sale with Cousins. I still don't see it happening, but crazier things certainly have.