Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 7:34 am
Maelstrom88 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 11, 2022 11:38 pm
Smith and Hicks have made the front 7 much better. KOC has the team playing loose. They have each other's back and know it's OK to make a mistake. It's clear Zim couldn't relate to the young guys and sucked the fun out. I think I was wrong about wanting Harbaugh over KOC. Harbaugh is too much like Zim. Kirk needed someone like KOC.
Was going to say the same about Smith and Hicks. Smith was an absolute force up front with Danielle. I love how those two literally just rush from anywhere. And yeah I think Hicks was a very underrated signing. He was all over the field and is just a tackling machine. I thought Phillips was very stout in the middle too.
It's absolutely crazy the difference you see in this team already simply due to the new culture. Not only did the new regime bring this with them, they also brought in guys like Phillips, Hicks and Smith who are HUGE culture guys themselves. Bringing in impact players with the right mindset. Cant ask for much better than that.
This just goes to show how much Zimmer had this team in the tank. The more stories you hear, the worse it sounds. For those that didnt listen to the Purple Daily podcast last week, Alex Boone was on and told some Zim stories. It was pretty bad. I mean outside of Deion Sanders, the next closest "Zim guy" was probably Terrance Newman and he even came out shredding him.
I've always said this team has the talent. It showed Sunday. They just needed the right leadership in place and the sky is the limit. Granted it's only 1 week, but starting off the year absolutely dominating Rodgers and the Packers in all phases is exactly what every Vikings fan dreamed to happen
The articles they were quoting were written by a guy named Tyler Dunne, who actually was a Packers beat writer for some time. This dude is as good as they come in the journalism world. He's got plenty of unnamed sources in the series, but the fact that he got Terence Newman to go on the record ABOUT HIS GUY tells you a lot.
The basic gist was that nobody — players, coaches, secretaries, you name it — enjoyed going to work under Zimmer the past two years. The hot seat affected Mike Zimmer perhaps more than any coach in recent memory. At one point, when the media criticized him, he went on a tirade, basically screaming, "F--k it! I guess they can just fire me. I'll collect a big check and go home to my ranch." Another coach (unnamed, but an offensive coordinator, and the math points directly to John DeFilippo) said the Vikings would be great "now that Satan has left the building."
Interestingly, another said that Zimmer "hated Cousins." That was a quote. So you can imagine — couple Zimmer's paranoia about being fired with his hatred for Cousins — when Cousins yelled, "I just saved your f--king job!" at Zimmer at the end of the Lions win, it's not a stretch to think that Zimmer really WAS going after Cousins to fight him.
All that aside, Kevin O'Connell, according to the articles, is all about PLAYER OWNERSHIP. He wants the players to buy in and own the team, and he's doing everything he can to make that happen. In short, that's empowerment. An expert on leadership that I admire greatly once said, "The best type of leader is an EMPOWERING LEADER. An empowering leader CREATES OTHER LEADERS." I believe that's what O'Connell is trying to do. He WANTS guys like Za'Darius Smith and Kirk Cousins leading the troops. You saw it yesterday with Cousins, who sought out the Wilfs after the game and got permission to give both KAM and KOC a game ball in the locker room. Watch the video ... it choked me up. Mike Zimmer would NEVER empower Cousins like that. O'Connell is doing it, and I'm excited to see the fruit once it's all said and done.
Don't know how this is all going to end up, but I sense this ... we're in for a season unlike any we've had in the past several years. We may not win it all, but it's gonna be fun. God knows I'm ready for some fun with Vikings football.