http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 71501.html
Apparently, Zimmer did an interview with Mike Florio on NBC Radio recently and Sid has some comments from it:
On other matters, one thing Zimmer was clearly proud of from his first season was the play of Teddy Bridgewater, who Zimmer said flourished under difficult circumstances for a rookie quarterback. Zimmer was asked what it would take for Bridgewater to become a franchise QB.
“We just have to win more games,” he said. “We have to get to the point where we win the division. We finished third in the division this year. We have to catch up with Green Bay and Detroit. Those are the guys we’re aiming to overtake. We have to put some more players around him. We put a lot on this young kid throughout the rest of the season. We lost Adrian and Kyle Rudolph and some of the offensive linemen. We put a lot on this kid’s shoulder, and I think he came through with flying colors.
I'm glad Zimmer is emphasizing the need to win more and to close out games. It needs to be a huge point of emphasis. The Vikes have been poor finishers the last two years.Zimmer said that while he wasn’t pleased with the end result of a 7-9 season, he believed there was no question that the team is heading in the right direction.
“I think defensively we improved. I think offensively we found a quarterback that has a chance to be a franchise quarterback here for a long time,” he said. “We improved towards the end of the season. We went through a lot of ups and downs with the off-field things and all the other issues we had, and our team kept battling and fighting. I’m not happy with the results, but I’m happy with a lot of the things we were able to overcome for moving to the future. If we played better in about three or four of the ballgames we could still be playing this week, but that’s just the way it is.”
Zimmer said he is in the process of doing postseason evaluations and that a big key in the offseason will be to continue to teach players how to perform late in close games.
“We’re going through the personnel and trying to figure out what players we want to bring back, start talking about the draft and free agency as we get going there,” he said. “There were some situations that came up throughout the course of a few of the ballgames that we have to be more prepared for when we get into those situations during the course of the season.”