All Things 2021 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

I would still put the likelihood of Zim getting fired at less than 50%. And depending on what he did with the OC position, I honestly don't know that I would be that disappointed if Zim stayed. But he has to make a major change at OC if he stays, if not major staff changes.
I’ll put it at 90% at least. I like Zim and I think he is the best coach the Vikings have had since Denny Green. There is no denying he helped elevate the Vikings when he took over and made the defense respectable again. However, I don’t see how you can watch the past two seasons and not realize it is time for a change at the HC position if you want to contend and be better than mediocre. It was a pretty well established rumor that Zimmer had a playoff mandate this season. The Vikings have been eliminated. I think Zimmer’s firing is a foregone conclusion. The bigger question will be the future of Spielman and/or Cousins.
 

How are people not aware Mond was out there due to an injury on Mannion that he was being treated for. They said it on the telecast.

Mannion returned after they fixed him up.

Mond didn't play because he sucks and our QB coach can't get him ready.
 

How are people not aware Mond was out there due to an injury on Mannion that he was being treated for. They said it on the telecast.

Mannion returned after they fixed him up.

Mond didn't play because he sucks and our QB coach can't get him ready.
Correct. More failure by Zimmer. Garbage QB coach. Garbage coordinators hired due to nepotism.

If you the NFL wants more minority coordinators and coaches, maybe end nepotism. Unqualified white people are getting jobs because their white daddies had jobs.
 

It is so obvious that the issue isn't Cousins. Both the O line and the D line stink. The D line when healthy is good enough. The O line has been bad for most of Zimmer's years here. If you are a run the ball coach like Zimmer with a pocket passing QB, how do is it that they never fix this recurring issue?

I'd fire Zimmer. He seems like a prickly character who I am not sure inspires the players much. What he said about Mond was disgusting.
 

Just sitting here waiting for Spielman and Zimmer to get fired.

The Bears are gonna light the Viking up at home.

Regardless of the outcome the Vikings are going to add another 240 days to being a sub-500 team.

You know it is bad when your flagship radio station avoids talking about them.
 


Well, I said 8-9 is best case scenario. That's still possible.

I predicted 6-11, so they're right where I thought they could be as a team while slightly outperforming my prediction.

Still bad enough to clean house.
 

It is so obvious that the issue isn't Cousins. Both the O line and the D line stink. The D line when healthy is good enough. The O line has been bad for most of Zimmer's years here. If you are a run the ball coach like Zimmer with a pocket passing QB, how do is it that they never fix this recurring issue?
I said it before, I think a lot of people are drastically underestimating the impact of not having Hunter on the field the last two years. An elite player at a premium position. There's a reason players like him are about to go 1-2 in the NFL Draft next spring. Gladney going bonkers was not helpful either, nor was losing Barr and/or Kendricks for good chunks of time.

I'm pretty much fine either way, whatever they do. I just think the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Zim is about as high as the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Cousins from out of nowhere; about 20-25%
 

Zimmer was asking to be fired this week by the way he responded to the questions about Mond. It was a FU to the organization and the fans. It's a bit of a logistical challenge for the Wilfs because they are also going to have to fire Spielman. However, Zim should still go today on principle. One of the assistant coaches can coach next week and Mond can start. If he's terrible, so what.
 

Just sitting here waiting for Spielman and Zimmer to get fired.

The Bears are gonna light the Viking up at home.

Regardless of the outcome the Vikings are going to add another 240 days to being a sub-500 team.

You know it is bad when your flagship radio station avoids talking about them.
Have u seen the bears play? They quit weeks ago.
 



I said it before, I think a lot of people are drastically underestimating the impact of not having Hunter on the field the last two years. An elite player at a premium position. There's a reason players like him are about to go 1-2 in the NFL Draft next spring. Gladney going bonkers was not helpful either, nor was losing Barr and/or Kendricks for good chunks of time.

I'm pretty much fine either way, whatever they do. I just think the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Zim is about as high as the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Cousins from out of nowhere; about 20-25%
Finding a coach better than Zim his first few years here? I think that would be a low liklihood. However, Zim is a dinosaur and refuses to adapt to change. He just keeps trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and thanks to Spielman, doesn't have the horses to overcompensate (like say, Tennessee). I liked Zim for the majority of his tenure here. But honestly, the handling of Daniel Carlson was the canary in the coal mine. It just seemed to get worse and worse after that with how he reacted to situations and how he dealt with them.

You are absolutely right about Hunter; when he went down, I believe I said he alone was worth 2-3 wins this season, because without him, their pass rush is non-existent. But there is absolutely no depth. Yes, most of that is on Spielman. However, there is also a lot of blood on Zim's hands by lobbying Spielman to give big contracts to "his guys" that are past their prime, thereby reducing their ability to sign younger guys and better backups. The giving of big money to Barr and Harrison Smith are especially egregious. Kearse is doing fine in Dallas, and he could have been retained at a fraction of what they're paying Harrison Smith. And you know with Zim's claim of being the "DB whisperer", he has had a lot of input on when/who those are drafted. And their secondary is a mess right now. Green Bay lost their best pass rusher early as well, and have seemed to overcome it just fine.
 

They will never do it, but start Mond twice.
Yesterday, Zimmer basically said Mond sucks.

Someone on the FAN heard he still hasn't learned the playbook...
 


I said it before, I think a lot of people are drastically underestimating the impact of not having Hunter on the field the last two years. An elite player at a premium position. There's a reason players like him are about to go 1-2 in the NFL Draft next spring. Gladney going bonkers was not helpful either, nor was losing Barr and/or Kendricks for good chunks of time.

I'm pretty much fine either way, whatever they do. I just think the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Zim is about as high as the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Cousins from out of nowhere; about 20-25%

Yes, the Vikings are setup for years of mediocrity no matter who the coach is.
 




All this lamenting of Cousins and the offense is justified. However, when it was reported that Danielle Hunter was out for the game, I felt like their chances of a victory were strongly diminished.

If he's out for the year (which it sounds like is the case), then go ahead and put a fork into this season as far any playoff push or run. I would have thought that even if they had won last night.

I said it before, I think a lot of people are drastically underestimating the impact of not having Hunter on the field the last two years. An elite player at a premium position. There's a reason players like him are about to go 1-2 in the NFL Draft next spring. Gladney going bonkers was not helpful either, nor was losing Barr and/or Kendricks for good chunks of time.

I'm pretty much fine either way, whatever they do. I just think the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Zim is about as high as the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Cousins from out of nowhere; about 20-25%
Not everyone. My post above was on Nov 1 following the loss to Dallas.
 

It is so obvious that the issue isn't Cousins. Both the O line and the D line stink. The D line when healthy is good enough. The O line has been bad for most of Zimmer's years here. If you are a run the ball coach like Zimmer with a pocket passing QB, how do is it that they never fix this recurring issue?
True. The problem is Cousin's salary cap, which makes it quite difficult to address several of their other roster issues that he is not good enough to overcome.
 

True. The problem is Cousin's salary cap, which makes it quite difficult to address several of their other roster issues that he is not good enough to overcome.
100%. I don't think anyone is saying you can't win with Cousins. You can't win while paying him $35-40 million/year.
 

Just sitting here waiting for Spielman and Zimmer to get fired.

The Bears are gonna light the Viking up at home.
I hope so, but do the Bears have nothing further to gain by losing, in terms of draft position?

There are 9 teams currently with 6 or fewer wins. Then 5 more teams with 7 wins.
 

I just think the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Zim is about as high as the likelihood of bringing in someone better than Cousins from out of nowhere; about 20-25%
We can't find a guy like Matt LaFleur out there somewhere?

I have no idea if they can or can't, just seems like typical Vikings, that GB can just pick up a LaFleur and continue right along doing well.
 

Finding a coach better than Zim his first few years here? I think that would be a low liklihood. However, Zim is a dinosaur and refuses to adapt to change. He just keeps trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and thanks to Spielman, doesn't have the horses to overcompensate (like say, Tennessee). I liked Zim for the majority of his tenure here. But honestly, the handling of Daniel Carlson was the canary in the coal mine. It just seemed to get worse and worse after that with how he reacted to situations and how he dealt with them.

You are absolutely right about Hunter; when he went down, I believe I said he alone was worth 2-3 wins this season, because without him, their pass rush is non-existent. But there is absolutely no depth. Yes, most of that is on Spielman. However, there is also a lot of blood on Zim's hands by lobbying Spielman to give big contracts to "his guys" that are past their prime, thereby reducing their ability to sign younger guys and better backups. The giving of big money to Barr and Harrison Smith are especially egregious. Kearse is doing fine in Dallas, and he could have been retained at a fraction of what they're paying Harrison Smith. And you know with Zim's claim of being the "DB whisperer", he has had a lot of input on when/who those are drafted. And their secondary is a mess right now. Green Bay lost their best pass rusher early as well, and have seemed to overcome it just fine.
Big contracts to the 2017-18 crew -- Harry, Barr, Kendricks, Hunter --, assuming he can plug anyone into the secondary, and then this year as the last stand at the Alamo with signing all the veteran FA's -- Peterson, Woods, Breeland -- in addition to Gladney being a dumbass. Everson had been a nice spark, and he goes out from mental issues again.

Offense looked amazing earlier in the year, then collapsed. I think Theilen was a big part of that.

Everything just crumbled apart.


It's so over.
 

The Bears are on a 2 game winning streak, so if they are quitting they are not doing that very well.
And hasn't that been because they put Dalton in at QB instead of Fields? (maybe he's hurt, no idea)

With Chicago media basically like "WTF are you guys doing?? Costing us draft position by winning with vets who won't even be here at the expense of reps for the future of the franchise".
 

Put me in the group who thinks Zimmer will get his guys to beat the Bears on Sunday.
 

We can't find a guy like Matt LaFleur out there somewhere?

I have no idea if they can or can't, just seems like typical Vikings, that GB can just pick up a LaFleur and continue right along doing well.
It's not as difficult to keep on winning when you have Rodgers. Having said that, their defense is also championship caliber.

For Zimmer's defense, everything had to go as planned to achieve success. That's rare. Hunter, out. Griffen, out. Barr, out often. Vets in the secondary, some injuries, some illness, some poor play and a malcontent.
 

Put me in the group who thinks Zimmer will get his guys to beat the Bears on Sunday.
I mean, to be honest it will be a lot of guys looking to put good things on tape, for their next team.

So they will be fighting hard to look good, as individuals. Here's to hoping our coaching staff bumbles it up enough that we lose the game.
 

It's not as difficult to keep on winning when you have Rodgers. Having said that, their defense is also championship caliber.

For Zimmer's defense, everything had to go as planned to achieve success. That's rare. Hunter, out. Griffen, out. Barr, out often. Vets in the secondary, some injuries, some illness, some poor play and a malcontent.
Pierce and Tomlinson had injuries at times, too. Gladney. Etc. Like you said.

Our defense was going to be good enough, at best, to give our offense a chance to win games. And they did do that, at times. But it really went into the toilet at the end.
 




re: a Cousins trade.

The only way it works out is for Cousins' new team to get Cousins to agree on a new, restructured contract that reduces the cap hit and spreads out some future payments.

So, that is the biggest issue - finding a team that wants Cousins enough to give up good draft picks - AND has the cap space - AND can get Cousins to agree on a restructured deal.

Of course, this all hinges on the Vikings having a GM in place who has the ability and authority to make the deal. If Spielman is fired or kicked upstairs, the Vikes have to hire a GM - and probably hire a HC - before they can make a decision on Cousins.
 





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