When did you give up on Zimmer?

I finally gave up when he started Dakota Dozier game after game despite being factually garbage. It showed me he doesn't actually know what he's doing in some capacities.

I gave up on Rick after the Yannick trade and Bradbury bust.

Personally I began to feel that Spielman/Zimmer had probably plateaued when they 'got their guy' but missed the playoffs with Kirk in 2018.


But objectively, Zimmer sailed off the edge of the NFL head coach map with his 7th season in 2020.

And that wasn't a matter of opinion, but rather an easily verifiable fact.

In the 21st century, it doesn't take a head coach 8 years to build a conference champion. Ever.

In fact not only does it take nowhere near a decade to build a conference champion, it almost always takes half that time or less. And recently it's taken new head coaches only two or three seasons to reach that threshold.

Zimmer was a good head coach whose ceiling was... good head coach. We saw his best 4 years ago, and waiting for the unprecedented possibility that he would exceed that ceiling in his 9th year and beyond would have been an enormous mistake for owners committed to hoisting a Super Bowl trophy.

NFCCG against the Eagles. Isn't that when after the game he admitted "yeah, I probably should have made some adjustments?"

I always thought that Zimmer was better suited for a DC. The end of the 2018 season I was ready to move on.
One thing that I found puzzling was a lot of times the team would come out flat for the big games.

It's like you read my mind. I guess I didn't fully "give up on him" at that point but the Yannick Ngakoue trade/theft was definitely a jump the shark moment. AKA: moment.

He didn't.

Sounds like he was lied to, trust was broken, and he wanted out. It was hinted that it related to Spielman and/or marketing. Regardless, the source said with 100% certainty it wasn't because of Zimmer or his role in the offense. It was something different altogether. This source spent years in the locker room with Diggs. He told them the real story, and the source said they understand why he wanted out. And while they won't tell the full story, because it's Diggs' to tell, they are willing to say it was NOT about Zimmer. Also, consider this source has been wanting Zimmer fired for a while now. But they also want to be fair and honest.

2017 was when he lost me.
As you said, Case wasn't the greatest QB, but he tried his guts out every play and others followed, he was way more of a leader than Zimmer.
Then after the cluster f!ck in the NFCCG when Zimmer was asked about his defensive decisions, he came back with "this defense has worked for 20 years" That's when I thought, he's done, so set in his ways and can't see that maybe after 20 years someone has figured him out.
IMO his refusal to acknoweledge he needed to change/update his system doomed him to failure and things went down hill after that, to the point that even in 2020 he was still saying "I've never had a bad defense" and then the wheels fell off.

He spent so much time as a DC where his main focus was to bash QBs, make their life hell, and when he became a HC I think he strugged to adjust his thinking to realise that he needed to embrace a QB, work with him, help him improve. You can still hate the other 31 QBs in the NFL, but the guy that dresses in Viking purple is on your side.