Post by Purple Pain on Aug 4, 2021 12:51:02 GMT -6
Purple Insider (Matthew Coller): Has Mike Zimmer changed? 'Ah shoot, definitely'
...
purpleinsider.substack.com/p/has-mike-zimmer-changed-ah-shoot
The Athletic (Arif Hasan): Vikings coaches getting creative on both offense and defense early in training camp
theathletic.com/2751227/2021/08/04/vikings-coaches-getting-creative-on-both-offense-and-defense-early-in-training-camp/
In a world where NFL coaches are leaning more toward saying nothing and spinning positive, Zimmer has never found much use for coach speak.
Multiple people expressed their surprise that Zimmer has so strongly come out in favor of vaccinations. Is it classic Zimmer to be so singularly focused on winning football games that he doesn’t care which side of the political spectrum thinks this, that or the other thing about vaccines? Or does his willingness to suggest that everyone should get the vax show a greater awareness? After all, nobody had Zimmer dropping the words “Delta variant” on the bingo card.
Zimmer’s latest straight-forward commentary comes just days after players and coaches who have been around the 65-year-old lifelong football man for many years said that he’s made changes recently to be more attentive to the ideas of those around him.
“Ah shoot, definitely,” linebacker Eric Kendricks said when asked if Zimmer is different now from his early days as head coach. “I feel like when I first got here he was a super old school coach and he [still] has those tendencies to his coaching style but I really feel like as we go on he tries to adapt to new techniques or new technology that he may receive in his ear from the training staff so we’re always progressing, we’re always trying to get better and he adapts to that, for sho.”
Adam Thielen said he’s mentioned to other players that he’s seen less my-way-or-highway.
“I’ll put it this way: I’ve talked to a lot of guys from other teams and guys that I look up to – Larry Fitzgerald, as an example – talked to those guys and that’s kind of what I portray to them of Coach Zim, just a guy who’s willing to adapt,” Thielen said. “That’s maybe not his M.O. but he’s willing to do it because he wants to do what it takes to win. It’s not always going to be the case but he’s willing to listen and we’ve done such a great job of having that conversation. Whether anything changes from it or not, it’s always in the best interest of the team and just having those conversations has been awesome. I think that’s (a credit) to him, management and then just the leadership of this team.”
Multiple people expressed their surprise that Zimmer has so strongly come out in favor of vaccinations. Is it classic Zimmer to be so singularly focused on winning football games that he doesn’t care which side of the political spectrum thinks this, that or the other thing about vaccines? Or does his willingness to suggest that everyone should get the vax show a greater awareness? After all, nobody had Zimmer dropping the words “Delta variant” on the bingo card.
Zimmer’s latest straight-forward commentary comes just days after players and coaches who have been around the 65-year-old lifelong football man for many years said that he’s made changes recently to be more attentive to the ideas of those around him.
“Ah shoot, definitely,” linebacker Eric Kendricks said when asked if Zimmer is different now from his early days as head coach. “I feel like when I first got here he was a super old school coach and he [still] has those tendencies to his coaching style but I really feel like as we go on he tries to adapt to new techniques or new technology that he may receive in his ear from the training staff so we’re always progressing, we’re always trying to get better and he adapts to that, for sho.”
Adam Thielen said he’s mentioned to other players that he’s seen less my-way-or-highway.
“I’ll put it this way: I’ve talked to a lot of guys from other teams and guys that I look up to – Larry Fitzgerald, as an example – talked to those guys and that’s kind of what I portray to them of Coach Zim, just a guy who’s willing to adapt,” Thielen said. “That’s maybe not his M.O. but he’s willing to do it because he wants to do what it takes to win. It’s not always going to be the case but he’s willing to listen and we’ve done such a great job of having that conversation. Whether anything changes from it or not, it’s always in the best interest of the team and just having those conversations has been awesome. I think that’s (a credit) to him, management and then just the leadership of this team.”
Co-defensive coordinator Andre Patterson, who has known Zimmer for decades, said that he isn’t different as his core but this offseason Zimmer did make one change: He went in search of potential defensive changes.
“The one thing he did this year that was great was instead of us just studying the tape about what we do, we spent time studying other people and looking to see if there’s some things that we can add, that we didn’t become old, crusty coaches that just stick with what we do,” Patterson said. “I thought that was great because it caused some mass discussions in our room. You got different viewpoints from coaches all in the room, had different ideas. I think we’ve added some stuff to our package that are going to make us better.”
Zimmer said that the only way to survive in the NFL is by adapting. Without that mentality as a defensive coach, you don’t last very long. The cat-and-mouse element of football is what makes it fascinating. It’s other circumstances — like relenting on his anti-kneeling stance last year after the murder of George Floyd — that we may have seen a coach who’s been pushed toward understanding his players. With more player empowerment in recent years, coaches who don’t get players are out quick (see Patricia, Matt).
"If you've got a problem, you've gotta figure out somehow how to fix it,” Zimmer said.
Maybe that’s why Zimmer is so frustrated by key players’ lack of vaccinations. It isn’t something he can adjust or change or study or break down. He’s tried to fix it by bringing in the the NFL’s lead doctor. He’s tried to fix it by telling unvaccinated players that things would be harder on them. Now he’s trying to fix it by calling out everyone in front of the world.
In that way, he isn’t different. He’s bounced back after every down season in Minnesota in part because he does anything and everything to fix things. But COVID and vaccinations are out of his control and in a year in which he’s facing a great deal of pressure, well, you could feel the helplessness in his podium comments.
“[What if] something like this happens a day before a game that has a chance to get you to the playoffs?” Zimmer said.
He knows there’s no amount of changes that will alter the results when you’re without your star players. And Zimmer wants it to matter that he’s been able to adapt.
“The one thing he did this year that was great was instead of us just studying the tape about what we do, we spent time studying other people and looking to see if there’s some things that we can add, that we didn’t become old, crusty coaches that just stick with what we do,” Patterson said. “I thought that was great because it caused some mass discussions in our room. You got different viewpoints from coaches all in the room, had different ideas. I think we’ve added some stuff to our package that are going to make us better.”
Zimmer said that the only way to survive in the NFL is by adapting. Without that mentality as a defensive coach, you don’t last very long. The cat-and-mouse element of football is what makes it fascinating. It’s other circumstances — like relenting on his anti-kneeling stance last year after the murder of George Floyd — that we may have seen a coach who’s been pushed toward understanding his players. With more player empowerment in recent years, coaches who don’t get players are out quick (see Patricia, Matt).
"If you've got a problem, you've gotta figure out somehow how to fix it,” Zimmer said.
Maybe that’s why Zimmer is so frustrated by key players’ lack of vaccinations. It isn’t something he can adjust or change or study or break down. He’s tried to fix it by bringing in the the NFL’s lead doctor. He’s tried to fix it by telling unvaccinated players that things would be harder on them. Now he’s trying to fix it by calling out everyone in front of the world.
In that way, he isn’t different. He’s bounced back after every down season in Minnesota in part because he does anything and everything to fix things. But COVID and vaccinations are out of his control and in a year in which he’s facing a great deal of pressure, well, you could feel the helplessness in his podium comments.
“[What if] something like this happens a day before a game that has a chance to get you to the playoffs?” Zimmer said.
He knows there’s no amount of changes that will alter the results when you’re without your star players. And Zimmer wants it to matter that he’s been able to adapt.
purpleinsider.substack.com/p/has-mike-zimmer-changed-ah-shoot
The Athletic (Arif Hasan): Vikings coaches getting creative on both offense and defense early in training camp
Offense
The Vikings offense so far has worked much more on play-action sets than in previous camps despite always having been a team known for heavy use of play action in their offense. While this could simply be part of their install schedule — they may reserve some of the more standard passing plays for later in camp — it looks unique given their history of mixing it up a bit more in previous years.
Kirk Cousins is famously good at play-action passing and seems uniquely prepared to take advantage of an offense focusing on it, so one focusing on boot action and deep shots off of run fakes might be in the cards for the Vikings. That can’t be the entire offense, as the Vikings found out against the Packers and 49ers two years ago. They’ll have to add other wrinkles.
That could come from something somewhat similar to play action, a play design that works on the same theme: misdirection. While end-arounds and receiver sweeps have always been implemented to some degree in the Vikings offense, there has been a particular emphasis this year on finding ways to get receivers moving full speed in jet and fly motion to the edge, with or without the ball.
The Vikings offense so far has worked much more on play-action sets than in previous camps despite always having been a team known for heavy use of play action in their offense. While this could simply be part of their install schedule — they may reserve some of the more standard passing plays for later in camp — it looks unique given their history of mixing it up a bit more in previous years.
Kirk Cousins is famously good at play-action passing and seems uniquely prepared to take advantage of an offense focusing on it, so one focusing on boot action and deep shots off of run fakes might be in the cards for the Vikings. That can’t be the entire offense, as the Vikings found out against the Packers and 49ers two years ago. They’ll have to add other wrinkles.
That could come from something somewhat similar to play action, a play design that works on the same theme: misdirection. While end-arounds and receiver sweeps have always been implemented to some degree in the Vikings offense, there has been a particular emphasis this year on finding ways to get receivers moving full speed in jet and fly motion to the edge, with or without the ball.
The Vikings might want to use Adam Thielen’s arm, as they have in the past, on these types of plays.
Adding to that theme are other attempts at misdirection, including plays with multiple running backs on the field and the wildcat formation. The wildcat sees a runner, typically the running back, take a direct snap from the center and then choose to run the ball himself, hand it off to a different runner or even throw a pass. That last option is the least likely, which is why it can occasionally be effective.
But the bread and butter of the wildcat is the direct run from the player receiving the snap. On paper, the benefit is that there’s an extra blocker; instead of a quarterback handing off and then doing little else, the player receiving the snap can block directly after handing it off, keep the ball and benefit from the block of his fellow running back, or read an intentionally unblocked defender and “block” that player with his read.
The benefit beyond the X’s and O’s is that it can confuse a defense and force it to misalign. That’s what happened to the Vikings defense on Saturday night when Dalvin Cook took a direct snap before reading Danielle Hunter and handing it off to Alexander Mattison, who broke out for a big gain.
Combining the wildcat with receiver motion is something Iowa did extremely well last year, and the Vikings might be able to ask former Iowa receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette for tips on how they set up that combination.
Even without the wildcat — something they considered because of the possibility of a quarterback-less offense, which became all too real at the Vikings’ night practice — two-running back sets could enable a player like Ameer Abdullah or Kene Nwangwu to move into and out of the slot and force defenses to account for players they don’t have traditional responses to.
Adding to that theme are other attempts at misdirection, including plays with multiple running backs on the field and the wildcat formation. The wildcat sees a runner, typically the running back, take a direct snap from the center and then choose to run the ball himself, hand it off to a different runner or even throw a pass. That last option is the least likely, which is why it can occasionally be effective.
But the bread and butter of the wildcat is the direct run from the player receiving the snap. On paper, the benefit is that there’s an extra blocker; instead of a quarterback handing off and then doing little else, the player receiving the snap can block directly after handing it off, keep the ball and benefit from the block of his fellow running back, or read an intentionally unblocked defender and “block” that player with his read.
The benefit beyond the X’s and O’s is that it can confuse a defense and force it to misalign. That’s what happened to the Vikings defense on Saturday night when Dalvin Cook took a direct snap before reading Danielle Hunter and handing it off to Alexander Mattison, who broke out for a big gain.
Combining the wildcat with receiver motion is something Iowa did extremely well last year, and the Vikings might be able to ask former Iowa receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette for tips on how they set up that combination.
Even without the wildcat — something they considered because of the possibility of a quarterback-less offense, which became all too real at the Vikings’ night practice — two-running back sets could enable a player like Ameer Abdullah or Kene Nwangwu to move into and out of the slot and force defenses to account for players they don’t have traditional responses to.
Defense
The innovations for the Vikings aren’t just happening on offense. Mike Zimmer has constantly experimented with his defense, and we’re seeing early versions of that.
The most striking change is how often the Vikings seem to want to play three defensive ends at the same time as two defensive tackles, replacing a linebacker with one of their defensive ends. With the first team, this has most often been D.J. Wonnum, who has played as a stand-up linebacker who primarily has blitz responsibilities but also will drop into coverage and cover a player deep downfield.
The blitz possibilities have to be tantalizing, and the Vikings could very well experiment with rushing four players and dropping seven with an “edge rusher” as a linebacker — and changing which four players rush every single time. It likely won’t be a common sub package, but it’s one to watch out for.
On top of that, the Vikings seem to be returning to some of their pre-2018 principles. From the 2019 season on, the Vikings moved from single-high safety looks to two-high safety looks, switching from a primarily Cover-3 defense to one featuring Cover-4 principles. In 2020, that shifted to Cover-2 as a means of protecting their young corners.
In camp so far, we’re seeing much more single-high safety, reminiscent of the Cover-3 and Cover-1 systems they used to run, which gives Harrison Smith more time near the line of scrimmage and can aid his pass rushing. Paired with that is a return to the Double-A gap looks, with both linebackers on either side of the center at the line of scrimmage, that the Vikings made famous early in Zimmer’s tenure.
It was a big part of what made those early Minnesota defenses iconic, but they moved away from it in part because of the responses that other teams developed. In camp, we’re seeing the linebacker pair move back up to the A gaps and create one-on-one pass-rushing matchups along with the freelancing that made Smith such a devastating blitzer.
Over time, the Vikings may dispense with some of these new wrinkles or add in new ones, but it’s at least refreshing to see how aggressive they are in attempting to find new ways to improve their units.
The innovations for the Vikings aren’t just happening on offense. Mike Zimmer has constantly experimented with his defense, and we’re seeing early versions of that.
The most striking change is how often the Vikings seem to want to play three defensive ends at the same time as two defensive tackles, replacing a linebacker with one of their defensive ends. With the first team, this has most often been D.J. Wonnum, who has played as a stand-up linebacker who primarily has blitz responsibilities but also will drop into coverage and cover a player deep downfield.
The blitz possibilities have to be tantalizing, and the Vikings could very well experiment with rushing four players and dropping seven with an “edge rusher” as a linebacker — and changing which four players rush every single time. It likely won’t be a common sub package, but it’s one to watch out for.
On top of that, the Vikings seem to be returning to some of their pre-2018 principles. From the 2019 season on, the Vikings moved from single-high safety looks to two-high safety looks, switching from a primarily Cover-3 defense to one featuring Cover-4 principles. In 2020, that shifted to Cover-2 as a means of protecting their young corners.
In camp so far, we’re seeing much more single-high safety, reminiscent of the Cover-3 and Cover-1 systems they used to run, which gives Harrison Smith more time near the line of scrimmage and can aid his pass rushing. Paired with that is a return to the Double-A gap looks, with both linebackers on either side of the center at the line of scrimmage, that the Vikings made famous early in Zimmer’s tenure.
It was a big part of what made those early Minnesota defenses iconic, but they moved away from it in part because of the responses that other teams developed. In camp, we’re seeing the linebacker pair move back up to the A gaps and create one-on-one pass-rushing matchups along with the freelancing that made Smith such a devastating blitzer.
Over time, the Vikings may dispense with some of these new wrinkles or add in new ones, but it’s at least refreshing to see how aggressive they are in attempting to find new ways to improve their units.
theathletic.com/2751227/2021/08/04/vikings-coaches-getting-creative-on-both-offense-and-defense-early-in-training-camp/
... and neither is this Chris guy.