Written By Sam Ekstrom
Most of the Vikings only know one version of Mike Zimmer – the head coach version. The somewhat quiet man who picks his spots to discipline, who masterminds an aggressive and exotic defensive approach that’s regarded as one of the league’s most imposing; the genius film-analyzer with an unprecedented eye for detail who loves teaching – and gets frustrated when his high standards aren’t met.
Perhaps that’s why safety Taylor Mays, a product of Zimmer’s pre-Minnesota system in Cincinnati, was released abruptly Tuesday morning. “It wasn’t working out,” Zimmer said mysteriously after the team’s mini-camp practice. But in talking to Mays about his relationship with Zimmer – his defensive coordinator for three of Mays’ five years in the league – one wouldn’t get the impression that there is any bad blood between the player and coach. The former Bengal credits Zimmer’s presence in Minnesota as one of the reasons he chose the Vikings in free agency, as does veteran cornerback Terence Newman. Both Zimmer protégés spoke to Cold Omaha about their relationships with the Vikings head honcho (Mays doing so before his release), how Zimmer’s personality has changed from Cincy coordinator to Minnesota head coach and the void Zimmer left in Cincinnati after his departure.
What’s abundantly clear is the respect both players have for Zimmer as a tactician. Sure, Zimmer has taken his lumps dealing with in-game strategy as a head coach – when to throw challenge flags, how to manage a clock – but as a play-caller and an instructor, he’s earned a reputation as one of the NFL’s elite. “Zim is probably the best at dialing up calls and knowing what the offense is going to do,” said Newman back on April 27. “He gets a lot of credit, and he should get a lot of credit.”
“I think he’s just a teacher,” said Mays. “He kind of takes the time to teach individually the position or the technique and everything that kind of comes within each play, and sometimes things like that take time, and sometimes coaches don’t want to take the time to do it, or they don’t do the detail in it, but he’s a very detailed coach, and I think that’s what sets him apart from other coaches.”
What “Zim” seems to have perfected is the art of constructive criticism; discipline that does not offend but encourages. He evidenced this last training camp when he admitted that his typical style was too strict for Xavier Rhodes, and he needed a more sensitive touch. This is the mark of a quality leader – someone who can adjust their leadership based on the characteristics of their constituents. “He’s strict, and he’s detailed, but he’s not a drill sergeant,” said Mays. “There’s kind of like a fine line between the way he presents what he’s saying and the way you interpret it. I like it.”
Nobody would define Zimmer as a cuddly teddy bear. He’s not like his predecessor Leslie Frazier, who often stood back and let coordinators and assistants handle the admonishment. He is also not Mike Tice, whose loud personality made for voluminous sound bites but very little organizational discipline. Zimmer is appropriately stringent. He won’t yell at you … unless you deserve it. “I’ve felt like it’s something in a positive way, so you can’t necessarily take it personally because it’s always been like that from him,” said Mays, referring to Zimmer’s blue streaks, made famous by HBO’s Hard Knocks. “I just kind of take it in the role of I’ve just got to do whatever I can. At the end of the day, if he’s hard on me, that just kind of makes me a better football player.”
It’s not uncommon to hear Zimmer uncork a bleep-worthy expletive if, say, his defense isn’t concentrating during practice. But long-time Zimmer pupil Newman says the head coach seems to have dialed back the profanity now that he’s the face of the coaching staff. “He uses a lot less four-letter words,” Newman told Cold Omaha on Tuesday. “They still come out. Usually it’s not just at the defense now, so that’s pretty cool. He gets to cuss out guys on offense and coach those guys.”
Newman played under Zimmer for four years in Dallas and two years in Cincinnati, making this his seventh season playing a Mike Zimmer-ized defense. Their affinity for each other is mutual. “He’s a guy that’s played for me for a long time,” said Zimmer. “He’s tough, smart, excellent. Fifth pick in the draft or something, so he’s always a talented guy, and he’s always played good for me.” It makes sense that Zimmer would seek out a guy like Newman to play for the Vikings, who lacked a second quality cornerback last year as Captain Munnerlyn struggled along with Josh Robinson. Meanwhile in 2014, Newman was playing under first-year defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, who allowed the Bengals to slip from the top 10 in scoring defense for the first time since 2010.
Guenther, the former linebackers coach in Cincinnati, had his work unfairly cut out for him in 2014, having to fill the shoes of Zimmer, the defensive guru whose defense was the backbone of a team that made the playoffs four of the previous five years. “Of course there’s going to be a bit of a disparity when you have a guy that’s done what he’s done for the amount of years that he’s done it,” said Newman of the difference between Guenther and Zimmer. “We get Pauly, who’s a great D-coordinator, but it’s his first year being a D-coordinator at Cincinnati. Of course I think there would be a little bit of a disparity. I mean, he doesn’t see the game exactly the way that Zim does, so it was his first year … it’s no different out here than a rookie playing football — you go through a little bit of growing pains and then you learn and you move forward.”
The Vikings, 11th in scoring defense last season, are expected to grow by leaps and bounds in Year 2 under the magic hand of Zimmer, whose Bengals hurdled from 19th to sixth in defense during his first two seasons in 2008 and 2009. The year-shy-of-60-year-old coach has the talent he needs to construct a monster: top-tier corner Xavier Rhodes, Pro Bowl caliber safety Harrison Smith, a deep defensive line and a UCLA-laden linebacking corps with ample upside. But arguably of more importance: Zimmer has his players’ respect; despite his my-way-or-the-highway attitude.
His perfectionism has never morphed into a Les Steckelian dictatorship; rather a healthy regime where players are hungry for their coach’s affirmation. In short, he’s got a team full of players that will battle for him, including Newman, who feels indebted to Zimmer. “If a coach comes out and tries to get you to sign at a team, you know that guy wants you,” Newman told Cold Omaha. “No matter what happens here I’m going to make sure that I try to make everybody know that that was the right move. I’ll do whatever I have to do to make him look like a genius for doing that.”
One might assume a coach Zimmer’s age with over 20 years of NFL experience would be in the proverbial victory formation; growing fat and happy in a comfortable job, building a nest egg for a retirement filled with golfing (or tractor-riding in Zimmer’s case). But the Vikings coach appears energized by this latest challenge: being a head coach for the first time with a young team on the verge of being a playoff contender and christening a new stadium. It’s evident whether you’re watching Zimmer instruct on the practice field or break down film in a different lexicon than a common man can understand – he is clearly in his element.
“You can definitely tell that he likes his job, that he loves his job, that he’s happy to be in the situation that he’s in,” said Mays. “You could just tell by his enthusiasm, kind of just what he brings every day, so when you have a coach like that, you want to play hard for a coach like that, and that’s why guys respond well to Coach Zim.”
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-11 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.”