Zimmer Expects To Have Conversations About Contract Soon

Mike Zimmer doesn’t lack confidence. He showed up to his first few head coaching interviews without the type of over-stuffed binder filled with playbooks and five-year plans that other coaches toted. Just give him the job, he’d say, and he’d get to coaching like he’d always done. He doesn’t hesitate to note that he ranks among the Vikings’ most successful coaches, trailing only Bud Grant and Dennis Green in winning percentage. He’s made a point not to fret publicly about his job security even during times that seemed turbulent in recent years.

His friends and early associates have said that bravado began as he first groomed defensive backs at a small college in the 1980s. Then he believed he was one of the NFL’s best coordinators in the 2000s. In recent years, his confidence has grown in his ability to be a head coach thanks to his six-year run at the helm of the Vikings.

Perhaps that helps explain the peculiar offseason path the Vikings have chartered, one that’s straddled a win-now philosophy and a build-for-the-future one. They extended Kirk Cousins, locking up the quarterback into his mid-30s. Then they traded his best wide receiver. They franchise tagged Anthony Harris to bolster the secondary. Then they let any cornerback with experience walk.

None of it seems to add up in the context of a singular goal for the team. Are they trying to re-stock for a Super Bowl run in a few years? Or are they trying to win the Super Bowl this year?

But perhaps that’s not the best way to frame what the Vikings have done this month. This view may better explain the plan: Owners Mark and Zygi Wilf essentially gave Zimmer and Rick Spielman prove-it contracts before last season. They genuinely like both, but wanted more success after the team failed to reach the playoffs in 2018. Now, after Zimmer and Spielman delivered a playoff win and after the Wilfs didn’t enjoy having to answer questions about Zimmer and Spielman’s job security in a quickly-released statement in January, ownership is poised to give Zimmer and Spielman contract extensions. With the confidence that their jobs are safe and they can plan beyond one year, Zimmer and Spielman are trying to carefully navigate this path of both being a playoff contender in 2020 and having the pieces in place to compete for a Super Bowl in coming years.

To do so, they’re betting on themselves.

For Spielman, that means nailing the draft in a way he hasn’t since 2015, when he nabbed four good starters — and three great ones — in the same class. On paper, his roster has gotten worse in the days since the league year started earlier this month. He traded his best wide receiver. He said goodbye to Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, Everson Griffen and Stephen Weatherly — all players he drafted. He cut Linval Joseph and Xavier Rhodes.

It’s impossible to completely replace that kind of talent with a bunch of rookies even if the draft goes well for the Vikings. But more broadly, this is Spielman’s best chance to inject youth to his roster. For the first time since drafting Anthony Barr and Teddy Bridgewater in 2014, Spielman has two first-round picks. And for the first time since 1985 (a class that yielded Hall of Famer Chris Doleman), the Vikings have five picks in the first three rounds.

If Spielman navigates the draft well, it’s not hard to envision a haul that helps keep the Vikings relevant in the coming years. If not, it seems the Vikings could take a big step back next season from the team that won a playoff game in January.

Such is life when trying to avoid a rebuild and taking an all-in shot at the title.

For Zimmer, no season should eclipse the emotional toll of 2016 when he watched the quarterback he thought he’d retire with suffer a gruesome injury just before the season started, then oversaw a 5-0 start that unraveled into an 8-8 season. But when factoring in expectations and the roster before him, this may be Zimmer’s most difficult task.

The Wilfs know Zimmer is one of the better coaches in the NFL. His record considering all the things the Vikings have gone through during his years is a strong indication that he’d be hard to replace. There was a feeling toward the end of last year that they had seen the peak of his time in Minnesota and maybe a new direction might be needed but the win over the New Orleans Saints was Zimmer throwing his hardest fastball and the 2020 draft brought them a lot of talent to work with over the next few years.

We’re either going to see Zimmer have several more runs at it if they show signs of good things to come in 2020 or we’ll see the Vikings decide after this year that they need someone else to take them over the top with a team that should be quite good in 2021. Wild card is whether Zimmer would go into 2020 without an extension and then just walk away to coach another team no matter how they perform. It’s pretty clear from his comments to Deion Sanders at the end of last season he feels that he’s deserving of more respect rather than reports of possibly being fired or traded.

Will Rick and (Zimmer) get the extension before the season or will they go in with the lame duck status? — Rob E.

I think if they would have been extended, it either would have been right after the rumors leaked that the Saints playoff game was a must-win game for Zimmer or at the NFL combine, where their last extensions were announced. I think both have done an extraordinary job considering the circumstances, so deserve one more extension to prove they can win it with the players they want and the decisions they’ve made. But it hasn’t happened yet, so I doubt it. There is another opportunity, right before training camp — when they typically announce a number of player extensions — but we’ll see.