StumpHunter wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:35 pmI assume the mountain of evidence is him getting beat in the playoffs by superior teams in Seattle and Philly, never winning in the playoffs as a DC (lol), and the fact he has never won the SB despite having a 2nd year QB, one of the biggest QB busts ever, a 2 million dollar backup, and a QB who turns into a 2 million dollar backup in big spots. To say nothing of the mediocre to downright terrible offensive lines he has been forced to play every Sunday.
You're assuming a lot.
The mountain of evidence is his entire tenure as Vikings head coach and his history as an NFL coordinator. It's not simply that he's only been on the winning end of one playoff game as a coordinator or HC (as a DC with other teams, he was obviously limited by only being in charge of one unit). It's how his defenses have performed overall in those games. There have been some solid performances but his reputation rests primarily on his ability to coach defense and his defenses have often disappointed in the postseason. They certainly haven't dominated like units that could carry a team all the way and that's been what the Vikes and fans have been banking on with this guy from the start, right? His scheme seems very vulnerable to a well-coached offense, especially an offense with a good running game and the commitment to use it.
It goes well beyond that though. His record and his team's performances in big games and against quality competition has been pretty disappointing. Like Childress, when faced with a comparably talented opponent, Zimmer has often been out-coached. We just saw an example of that against GB and their HC is a rookie. We've seen far too many games where his Zimmer's Vikings team has shown up flat or been blown out. he's nota good game-planner or a particularly good in-game manager.
Regarding the offensive lines: he's had plenty to do with the overall quality of that unit.
There have been coaches who have been put in worse spots than him no doubt, but he has never coached the best team in football in any single year as a coach. The closest was 2017, where he made Case Keenum look like a legit starter.
Ah, yes, I forgot about Zimmer's reputation as a quarterback guru.
Losing his starting QB two years in a row early in the season and making it to the NFCCG in one of those years. How many coaches have accomplished that I wonder?
It's an accomplishment and I'm not going to take it away from him (although teams have
won championships with backup QBs so I wouldn't make too much of it). The point isn't that he's a bad coach. It's that he's not good enough and that's been clear since at least his second season. Look what happened when they got to that championship. They were crushed by a team that did NOT have vastly superior talent and Zimmer was badly out-coached in that game. His highly-ranked defense was torched.
It's not as if I've made an outrageous claim here. What about Zimmer's career (especially as Vikings head coach) suggests he
doesn't have a ceiling? I'm not saying anything is impossible. If you built the equivalent of the '95 Cowboys roster Zimmer would probably have a good chance to pull a Barry Switzer and win a title but what's the likelihood that Zimmer and Spielman will ever do that? How many years should the Vikings tread water hoping it will happen?
Edit:
I'll just add this: The Vikings were 2-4 against the NFC North this season. Zimmer's overall record against the division is 18-17-1, barely above .500. In the last two years, late in the season, with either a playoff spot or a chance to win the division on the line, Zimmer's team has lost, at
home, to division rivals.
I realize that sort of thing will happen to any coach from time to time (NE just lost to Miami with something on the line) but it's obviously not good and both of those losses were against first year head coaches, neither of whom Zimmer has a win against yet.
