Minnesota Vikings: Should Mike Zimmer’s job be in jeopardy?

Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer has had a successful stint at the helm of the Vikings, but should his job be in jeopardy going into 2020?

Following the conclusion of the 2019 NFL season, Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer wrapped up his sixth season at the helm of the team. Even with an impressive regular-season record thus far in his time in Minnesota, the lack of postseason victories could be a reason Zimmer finds himself on the hot seat entering the 2020 campaign.

With preparations underway for the upcoming season and changes likely to take place around the entire team going into the offseason, should Zimmer’s job as the head coach of the Vikings be in jeopardy?

In six seasons at the head of Minnesota, the 63-year-old Zimmer is already one of the most successful head coaches in the organizations history. Zimmer arrived in Minnesota in 2014, taking his first head coaching job in the NFL with the Vikings while replacing former Minnesota head coach Leslie Frazier, who served as the head coach of Vikings for about 3.5 seasons before he was fired after the 2013 campaign.

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Since 2014, Zimmer has led the purple and gold in a total of 96 regular-season contests, tallying an overall record of 57-38-1 (59.9 percent win percentage) during that span. Minnesota has won the NFC North title twice — in 2015 and 2017 — under Zimmer and the team finished below the .500 mark just once to this point, that taking place during the 2014 season when the Vikings went 7-9 overall.

In terms of how Zimmer stacks up on the all-time head-coaching list in the franchise’s history, his 57 career victories rank third all-time, behind only legendary coaches Dennis Green (97 wins) and Bud Grant (158) atop that list. His 59.9 percent win percentage also ranks third in Minnesota’s history behind Green (61.0 percent) and Grant (62.1 percent).

Despite all of that regular-season success, some still think that Zimmer’s job should be in danger going into the 2020 year. And a bulk of the reason for that is the lack of results in the postseason.

Under Zimmer, Minnesota has reached the playoffs a total of three times during the coach’s six-year tenure, falling in the NFC Wild Card Round in 2015, advancing as far as the NFC Championship Game in 2017 and most recently falling in the NFC Divisional Round in 2019.

Zimmer holds a playoff record of 2-3 in six seasons, which has resulted in the team’s he has led exiting the postseason much earlier than they hoped in those seasons.

Towards the end of the 2019 campaign, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin wrote a story outlining why she thinks Zimmer is on the hot seat going into his seventh season as head coach of the Vikings.

"Zimmer is in line to earn another contract extension — his deal goes through the 2020 season — after putting the Vikings in position to get back to the playoffs. The turnaround from (the 2018) season, when the Vikings missed the playoffs and tensions rose internally over the direction of the offense, is the byproduct of Zimmer’s all-or-nothing approach in Year 6.His defense has struggled throughout the season, allowing 400 yards to Seattle in a game that could have greatly impacted the Vikings chances to earn a home playoff game. That cannot continue to happen if he wants to remain on the safe side."

The Vikings haven’t totally turned into the powerhouse that Zimmer and company had hoped they would turn into at this point in his head coaching career in Minnesota, but the veteran coach has helped lead the Vikings into becoming one of the top defensive teams in the league consistently while putting together an enticing group on the offensive side of the ball.

That combination has led Zimmer and the Vikings to being able to string together some solid regular-season performances, but their lack of success in the postseason might be enough to push the head coach into being in the hot seat conversation right out of the gate in 2020.