Fire Zimmer

zim is a very good coach and i like having him here. in zim’s 5 years only 6 teams have over 45 wins, with the Vikes being one. look at at the BS zim has faced in that time... yeah, we havent won every big game or superbowl, but Zim has had trouble with the crazy amount of OCs and QBs and tony.
however, i realize it there could be questions about keeping him with Zim’s health and age can we continue to build on him? 

Zimmer needs to stay away from the offense.  His meddling with the offense and firing JDF did not do what he hoped it would do.  Instead of being patient and working with his young OC who was in his 2nd season ever calling plays, he rode his ass about running more.
Cook was out for 6 of the first 8 games and they went 4-3-1.  Should have been 5-3.  What was JDF suppose to do?  Run Murray a ton?  Boone and Thomas were preseason HOFers just like Heinicke and Jaymar Johnson.  But they cannot pick up blitzes even if they recognize it which they do not do often enough.
What JDF did do was get the ball to Diggs and Thielen and if I recall correctly, and I think that I do, Thielen was on a historic tear to start the year.  Imagine that.
Zimmer steps in and starts whining about running the ball and lo and behold the offense falls apart.
They ran well in the first Lions game and won in week 9. Then the played the Bears in week 10 and only gained 22 yards on 14 carries.  I mean, how can you keep calling runs when you are having that kind of success?
They beat the Packers the next week and do OK running.  Against the Patriots he did seem to abandon the run a bit and it was working OK.  That is the one game where I can see Zimmer saying to him that he should stick with it a bit more.
The next week vs the Seahawks they tried to run a lot but could not due to the terrible offensive line.
Then, JDF is fired and they play a bad Dolphins run defense and a so so Lions run defense.  I imagine JDF would have had the same success against those teams.
I don't know how it affected the players but something tells me it is not good when their OC is fired after week 14.
The Rams have a good young offensive head coach and a crusty old defensive coordinator.  I think that is where Zimmer belongs.  As the DC.

The team has plateaued. That is obvious.

I guess I can go either way, but Zimmer has forced out/fired two OCs and got nothing to show for it. I think he's really taxing his system from a health standpoint. Will be an interesting offseason.

@"SkolVikings44" said: And for Nagy and McVay, there are tons more young coaches who have bombed out, big time. Gase, McDaniels. The NFL is full of fads. Best to be at the start of a trend then behind it. Offenses will change again, and I'm not sure there is a candidate who would do any better than what we have now. I am serious when I ask, who are potential candidates that would improve our team?

Get Fangio from the Bears

now that it looks like zim is in, i hope he kicks ass and takes this team all the way!

@"SkolVikings44" said: Wow. I hope he does get fired and then people will see how good we had it with him. I think it will be a dark period if he is gone.

Honest question. Who would you hire as coach?

Better question: who would Spielman hire? His last two coaches were bad - though I'm not sure Zimmer's results have actually been significantly better than Childress.

I think Zimmer is a good DC and an average head coach. 5 years and a pathetic misuse of a challenge like yesterday? But until we have a better GM, why fire Zimmer?

@"TBro" said: Regardless of what we think, I believe he gets to play out the last year of his deal along with Spielman. They will be auditioning for a new deal. Cousins is a terrible fit with this OLine so they better figure that out in the offseason or it will be the same broken record next season. 

Lamar Jackson may be the only QB in the NFL that isnt a terrible fit with this line.  He could at least run for his life.

Not even Miller is a good fit for this line. In fact, Cousins is one of the very few QB’s in the NFL capable of having any success with our line. He saw complete breakdown of blocking on nearly halfour passing plays and greater than 50% on third down. Take his numbersinto consideration now that we know how epically poor this line is.

I think the biggest issue with Vikings fans is they overestimate the teams roster every year. Expectations for a Superbowl this year were worthwhile but should have been tempered with remembrance of the championship game. 

The issue I see with Zimmer is he fails to get the team fully prepared. Is he meddling too much with his coaches or players? I don’t know. I only know that I’ve never seen a Vikings team come out so cold in the beginning of so many games.

I wouldn’t fire Zimmer or Spielman.

If they do, I’d be sitting down with Mike McCarthy an hour later. In my opinion he’s by far the best coach available. 

@"Havoc1649" said:

The issue I see with Zimmer is he fails to get the team fully prepared. Is he meddling too much with his coaches or players? I don’t know. I only know that I’ve never seen a Vikings team come out so cold in the beginning of so many games.

Agree

Flat, cold, heartless....you name it this team flat-lined the whole year and that is on the coach.  I was a Zimmer backer up until around mid season and put him on my watch list (Ha)  Guess what, we came out of the bye week poised to seize the division only to be a no-show in every single game that mattered.  Time to move on.

I would want someone with an offensive guru pedigree who can then build up the offense with schemes and utilize the defensive talent we do have here.

Right now a guy like Bruce Arians comes to mind.  I am not a McCarthy fan, I think he benefitted from Rodgers way more then visa versa.  

@"Hidalgo" said: A defense made up mostly of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounders coached by an alleged defensive guru gives up over 5 yards per play to a team missing its #1 and #2 receivers. At one time the bears had a linebacker and a cornerback playing offense today. Zimmers D could stop that?

To me, this is more than just a knee-jerk reaction.  This is a well-reasoned argument.  And even those of us who like Zimmer can't argue with it.  There really is no excuse.  Maybe Zimmer needs to focus on being the HC... or just a DC.  But he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who can do both.

@"Hidalgo" said: A defense made up mostly of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounders coached by an alleged defensive guru gives up over 5 yards per play to a team missing its #1 and #2 receivers. At one time the bears had a linebacker and a cornerback playing offense today. Zimmers D could stop that?

During the second half, several friends said, "Why aren't the Bears just letting the Vikings win, so they can beat them next week in Chicago rather than the Eagles?"
On reflection, I think Chicago may not have been giving it their all, but our defense was so flat it looked like the Bears were full-tilt. Diggs, Thielen - and yes, Cousins - were giving genuine effort, but I think our defensive unit was playing at the level they did against Buffalo.