In his recent interview with Mark Craig of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, former Vikings coach and current Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer pulled few punches.
He fired a few of them at former Vikings G.M. Rick Spielman.
While there surely were rough moments from 2014 through 2020, given Zimmer’s blunt, direct, Parcellsian nature, Zimmer focused on the 2021 draft. The Vikings had a quarterback, but Spielman was studying quarterbacks — without telling Zimmer.
“I walk in before the draft and Rick is watching quarterback interviews from the combine,” Zimmer told Craig. “He hadn’t told me anything. Normally, he always kept me abreast of everything. And he and I were always good.”
Zimmer confirmed something we’d heard as the 2021 draft began: “The first round, Rick tried to trade up for Justin Fields, who hasn’t done anything.”
The Bears eventually moved from No. 20 to No. 12 to snatch Fields. And it’s unfair and inaccurate for Zimmer to say Fields “hasn’t done anything.” He’s a very dangerous runner. He’s developing as a passer. He could end up being the starter in Pittsburgh, at some point this season.
After Spielman failed to land Fields, Spielmen picked quarterback Kellen Mond in round three. He was the first of four third-round picks, along with linebacker Chazz Surratt, offensive lineman Wyatt Davis, and defensive end Patrick Jones II.
“When he picked Mond, I walked out of the room,” Zimmer told Craig. “I left the building. I didn’t even talk to [Spielman] on the phone.”
“Rick said [the next day], ‘You mad at me?’” Zimmer told Craig. “I said, ‘Yeah, I think you took four backups when we had guys there I thought were starters.’ From that time on, it just kind of got worse between us. And I’m not saying nothing was my fault. I’m sure there were plenty of things that were my fault.”
Zimmer’s lack of interest in having Mond showed.
“People made a big deal out of me saying after [he took three snaps in a 37-10 loss to the Packers] I didn’t need to see more of Mond,” Zimmer said. “I saw him every day in practice. Maybe I was omniscient or something. He played three NFL snaps and two were bad.”
But that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Zimmer clearly didn’t want Mond, obviously. If Zimmer directed his frustration with Spielman at Mond, Mond would sense it at some point. And if Zimmer didn’t come up with a solid plan (or any plan) to develop Mond, Zimmer eventually would be proven omniscient. Or prescient. Or whatever.
“Whatever” is the vibe Spielman is creating in response to Zimmer’s attack. PFT contacted Spielman for comment. He declined.
And while Zimmer would have wanted Spielman to decline to draft a quarterback in 2021, the reality is that, by then, the Vikings had slipped into an annual evaluation cycle regarding quarterback Kirk Cousins. Zimmer wasn’t a Cousins fan, even if Zimmer didn’t unload on Cousins to Craig. Wouldn’t Zimmer have welcomed someone new?
The Vikings, two seasons later, got someone new at head coach. They hired, as teams often do, the exact opposite of their last coach. Kevin O’Connell has done well so far, but it’s still the same-old cycle of one year up, one year down. And Spielman’s successor, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, is still using draft capital on guys who aren’t sticking around.
Thus, if nothing else, Zimmer’s rants are a reminder that Mark and Zygi Wilf have pivoted from “just good enough” being good enough. They provided a clear example of it when they fired Zimmer and Spielman. With no contract extensions until after 2024, at the earliest, for O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah, Zimmer’s words carry a much deeper message to the guys who currently hold the jobs he and Spielman used to occupy.