Could the Minnesota Vikings move on from Mike Zimmer after 2020?
Will the Minnesota Vikings move on from Mike Zimmer after the 2020 season?
Now just weeks away from the start of training camp leading into the 2020 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings appear to be rolling into the new year looking to play out the final year of their head coach’s contract before deciding on extending him.
As the offseason continues to roll along, there has yet to be any news of a contract extension for Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer, who is going into this new season on the final year of his deal with the organization.
Zimmer is set to go through his seventh season at the helm of the Vikings in 2020 after becoming the ninth head coach in franchise history in 2014 following a stint as defensive coordinator with the Cincinnati Bengals.
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In his six years leading the purple and gold, the 63-year-old Zimmer has compiled a record of 57-38-1 (59.9 percent win percentage) in a total of 96 regular-season games. That includes two NFC North titles and three trips to the playoffs, making it as far as the NFC Championship Game in 2017.
While Zimmer has done a nice job in leading the team and most notably beefing up the defensive unit into one of the top groups in the NFL annually, there is reportedly growing tension between Zimmer and the organization as he goes into the upcoming year without a contract extension as of yet.
As is the same contract situation for Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, also going into the final year of his deal, Zimmer and Minnesota have not reportedly had too many discussions surrounding a potential extension for the head coach. That, according to The Athletic’s Chad Graff (subscription required), has resulted in “growing tension” between Zimmer and the Vikings.
With tension apparently growing, could it actually be a possibility that Minnesota ends up moving on from Zimmer — and potentially Spielman — following the conclusion of the 2020 season? Or is it more likely that the organization wants to wait out the result of the upcoming year to determine which direction it heads at head coach in the future?
How realistic is Mike Zimmer’s departure from the Minnesota Vikings?
According to St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Charley Walters, the possibility of this being Zimmer’s last season in Minnesota could certainly be a possibility.
If the Vikings were to move on from Zimmer, there could be a potential candidate to replace him waiting in the shadows on the Vikings coaching staff at the current time. That is, if Minnesota does move on from Zimmer and it wants to promote from within the organization rather than looking outside.
That coach who could potentially step in, as Walters writes in his column, is offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Gary Kubiak, who joined the Vikings coaching staff prior to the start of the 2019 season.
Kubiak, who is a few years younger than Zimmer at the age of 58, could make for a decent replacement given his proven track record as a successful head coach in the NFL. He would be one of the top candidates to take over, given his health would allow him to take over those duties.
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It’s still to be seen exactly what Minnesota does at head coach beyond this year, as Zimmer heads into the final year of his contract with the organization in 2020. But as time continues to move along without the two sides agreeing to any sort of contract extension, that possibility of a new coach taking over the team will gradually increase.