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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – After the Vikings failed to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season and the fifth time in eight years, the team has reportedly fired head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman.
The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero first reported the moves Monday morning. WCCO’s Mike Max has confirmed the firings.
Tom Pelissero is reporting that the #Vikings fired GM Rick Spielman and Head Coach Mike Zimmer. https://t.co/pCBLf1zmIc
— Jason DeRusha (@DeRushaJ) January 10, 2022
The Vikings finished the season 8-9, with a 4-2 record in the NFC North.
Zimmer joined the Vikings in 2014, and led them to a 72-56-1 record across eight seasons. His win percentage is the third-best in Vikings history behind Bud Grant and Denny Green. The team did not get above .500 at any point in either of Zimmer’s last two seasons as coach.
Spielman had been with the team since 2006, and held the general manager title since 2012. He was the man who hired Zimmer in 2014.
(credit: Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
The year before Zimmer arrived, the Vikings defense finished last in points allowed and second-to-last in yards allowed. Zimmer, one of the most respected defensive minds in football, immediately turned the unit around, and they finished 11th and 14th in those categories his first year. In the 2017-18 season, they finished first in both categories. The past two years, however, the defense has fallen off a cliff, finishing 29th and 27th in yards and points allowed last year and 24th and 30th this season.
The Vikings won the NFC North twice under Zimmer, and never finished last in the division.
In the 2017-2018 season, Zimmer’s best year, the Vikings went 13-3 and made it to the NFC Championship game, where they lost 38-7 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Zimmer’s overall playoff record was 2-3, with both wins coming against the New Orleans Saints.
During his tenure, the Vikings had seven different quarterbacks start games. They also had six different offensive coordinators in his eight seasons.
Before coming to the Vikings, Zimmer was the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati for six seasons. He spent seven seasons as the DC in Dallas before that, with a year in Atlanta in between.
Spielman’s first draft as GM netted the Vikings future Hall of Fame safety Harrison Smith, currently the longest-tenured Viking. Under his watch, the Vikings’ first rounders were hit and miss. In addition to Smith, he drafted Anthony Barr, Xavier Rhodes and Justin Jefferson. He also missed on players like Matt Kalil, Laquon Treadwell and Mike Hughes.
Beyond the first round, Spielman and the Vikings’ scouting department found several productive players. Stefon Diggs was a fifth-round pick before emerging as one of the NFL’s best receivers. Defensive end Danielle Hunter, a third-rounder, was one of the league’s best pass rushers before being sidelined by injuries the past two years.
Spielman also made one of the greatest undrafted free agent signings in team history when he brought on wide receiver Adam Thielen out of Minnesota State Mankato.
The move Spielman will most likely be remembered for, though, is signing quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive, guaranteed contract following the Vikings’ nearly miraculous 2017-18 season.
Source: New feed
