EKSTROM: Mike Zimmer, The Debunker

Written by Sam Ekstrom

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer does not see things like a journalist.

While writers crunch numbers and search news archives for possible rivalries, telling statistics, et cetera, Zimmer strictly focuses on the X’s and O’s. He is not looking for storylines or talkers going into games or coming out of them; none of that matters. His revelations to media members are often simplistic, rudimentary and curt – though not rude. If you want a quote from Zimmer to support a theory you’ve hatched, you’re likely to get pushback from the 59-year-old coach. He’ll bust your theory open with five words or fewer.

Zimmer is a football coach and nothing more. He doesn’t put a bow on anything. He avoids superfluous adjectives. He avoids giving long answers to yes-or-no questions. He is not a great orator but is always thoughtful.

“I’m always going to be pretty honest, I think,” said Zimmer on Monday.

He keeps things simple, and in that way, he provides an entirely new perspective on the game. Maybe it’s not as complicated as we thought.
 

A straight shooter

Since Zimmer came to Minnesota from Cincinnati, it’s been established that he is not, as some believed from watching Hard Knocks, a raving maniac. The coach picks his spots appropriately, which raises the effectiveness of his outbursts. When he’s mad, he’ll let somebody hear about it. When he’s pleased, he’ll pat you on the back. When he’s neither mad nor pleased, he’ll stay quiet.

Likewise, when he’s on the podium fielding questions, he only reacts to what he knows to be true. Players don’t get empty praise or fabricated criticism.

During training camp in August, Zimmer was asked if guys like Antone Exum and Robert Blanton were more valuable because they had played cornerback prior to moving to safety. A typical response from a run-of-the-mill coach might be, ‘We like it when guys are versatile. It means they can help us in a lot of different ways because of their different skillsets.’

The Zimmer response: “They probably play safety because they couldn’t play corner.”

Can’t get more honest than that.

Later in the same interview, Zimmer commented on an acrobatic Xavier Rhodes interception during practice. Instead of raving about Rhodes’ good hands and vast improvement, he said the corner’s positioning was poor on the play. “He doesn’t have to make it a great play,” said Zimmer. “He can make it an easy play.”

The former Bengals defensive coordinator doesn’t want his team to be blinded by small successes and lose sight of the larger picture. Zimmer preached caution after his jumped out to a 1-0 start. “We have not done one thing yet,” he said. “We have so much work to do, so far to go to where we want to get to, that I would be disappointed if we were celebrating one win on opening day.”

The Vikings would lose four of their next five games to drop to 2-4.
 

Short term memory

The coach doesn’t believe that the past has much to do with the present or the future. What’s happening now is all that matters to Zimmer. He doesn’t see correlations between yesterday’s NFL and today’s NFL. With each dawning of the sun, there is a new league to re-analyze with new personnel and new tendencies.

“Every week is so different in this league,” said Zimmer in Week 2. “Nothing is the same, as you’ll see this week or the next week after that, everything is so different.”

The Vikings were playing the Patriots that week, and Zimmer refused to acknowledge the success he’d had against the Patriots the previous season, where Cincinnati ended Tom Brady’s illustrious streak of consecutive games with a touchdown thrown. Though it would have made for a great story had Zimmer waxed on about holes in the New England defense or the gameplan he used to beat them the year prior, his hesitance to say too much turned out to be a smart decision. New England went on to smoke the Vikings 30-7 in Zimmer’s home debut.

The head coach realizes that football isn’t predictable, and he doesn’t try to pretend that it is. Things that worked the year – or the week – prior are not necessarily going to work in the same way moving forward.

Three weeks ago, the Vikings beat the Falcons 41-28 in Teddy Bridgewater’s first start. Jarius Wright, the team’s third wide receiver, had a big game with eight catches and 132 yards. After the game, Wright pointed to the fact that he and Bridgewater worked together frequently with the second team during training camp, hence the reason for their good connection. “Me and Bridgewater got a lot of reps early in the year with Cassel being the starter, Bridgewater being the second team, and I was also on the second team,” said Wright.

I asked Zimmer about this after the game. He didn’t cooperate.

“They both got a lot of first-team reps, too,” he said. “I don’t think that was a factor.”

Again, Zimmer refused to acquiesce because he knew the theory to be a fallacy. Any player can have a big game on any given Sunday in the National Football League, not necessarily based on their drills during training camp.

On a broader scale, Zimmer has to constantly look ahead, especially with this year’s version of the Vikings. Looking into the season’s rearview mirror would only display a trail of injuries, incidents and unwanted national media attention. The best can only be ahead for Zimmer, who is looking to mold the team to his high standards. He is trying to design a culture that doesn’t treat losing as an option much like the New England Patriots, who Zimmer became very familiar with in his time in the AFC. “The thing about New England, it’s always been about winning the football game. It doesn’t matter about statistics or individual goals, whatever they do; they go to win games.”

Winning as a unit

Zimmer usually isn’t one to single people out – for better or for worse. Sans some irritation with Josh Robinson in training camp and subtle barbs here and there, Zimmer deflects most direct questions. He’d rather not excuse a unit’s poor play because of the mistakes of a single player.

Throughout the Vikings’ recent struggles on offense, he’s pointed out flaws in pass protection, receivers failing to get open and quarterbacks not making decisions quickly enough. In other words, it’s everybody’s fault. “I’m not going to talk specifically about the players, whether it’s good or bad,” said Zimmer. “I’ll just keep going from there.”

No one man decides a football win or a loss in Zimmer’s eyes. To succeed, players must have impeccable execution in harmony with the rest of their teammates and a meticulous eye for detail. Zimmer usually spares the details for reporters because, frankly, it wouldn’t be that interesting.

“It’s technique stuff,” said Zimmer. “It’s boring stuff for you.”

Zimmer sees things clearly. Nothing is as complex or as simple as it seems. A 30-point victory is no different than a 1-point victory, and a 30-point loss is no different than a 1-point loss. There is a golden mean for everything, including blame. It gets distributed evenly in times of struggle like the Vikings are dealing with now.

“We all need to play better,” Zimmer said bluntly. “I need to coach better.”

Zimmer attempts to shatter the misconception that a football team can be tweaked to be successful. Overhauled might be a more appropriate word; not from a personnel standpoint but a cultural and schematic standpoint. Right now the Vikings are failing as a unit. Zimmer doesn’t feed the media frenzy by calling out the offensive line alone. It’s everybody’s job to improve. It’s everybody’s job to do what Zimmer wants because Zimmer has a plan.

“I’m the boss,” said Zimmer. “Their job is to please me, not the other way around.”