Mike Zimmer inherited a Vikings team that went 5-10-1, and took them to the playoffs in his second season.
Zimmer, despite shoring up the defense and finding a good quarterback, has seen some up-and-down years in his time with the Vikings. He has made the playoffs as coach of Minnesota three times and has missed it three times.
FanSided thinks the inconsistency hurts Zimmer. Russell S. Baxter, who works for the outlet, recently compiled a coaching power rankings list.
Though Zimmer helped his team win a playoff game last year, the Vikings coach came in at 20th overall. Here’s what Baxter wrote:
“He’s been at the helm of the Purple Gang for six years. But Mike Zimmer has yet to take the Minnesota Vikings to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The club comes off a 10-6 showing and a wild card appearance and won a road playoff game at New Orleans before being humbled by the 49ers. There have been some changes on defense.”
Yes, Zimmer hasn’t always had a playoff-caliber team, but some of the names ahead of him on these rankings I consider to be unfair. Bears coach Matt Nagy was ahead of Zimmer, who seems to be more unproven.
There’s also Jon Gruden. I think if this was the early 2000’s it’d be hard to rank Gruden outside the top 10 on a coaching list. But this is a different time, and Gruden, as coach of the Raiders, hasn’t really shown that he can be good just yet.
