Mike Zimmer ‘on a mission’ to get the Minnesota Vikings ready for 2017

The Minnesota Vikings had a disappointing 2016 season, but head coach Mike Zimmer is on a mission to ensure that 2017 will be much better for the team.

Mike Zimmer has a plan for his team. As soon as he was hired as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in January of 2014, Zimmer has made it clear that he has only one goal in mind: bringing a Super Bowl win to the franchise.

Sadly, things didn’t work out well in 2016. The Vikings were torn apart by injuries, had their offensive coordinator resign, and appeared to have some problems with executing the game plan late in the season.

But this season did some good things as well. It exposed several of the weakness that Minnesota has and let the team know some of the things they will need to do if they want to make a statement during the 2017 season.

Zimmer spoke during his season-ending press conference on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 and already has his sights on how to improve during the offseason according to ESPN.com.

"More from The Viking Age6 biggest draft steals in Minnesota Vikings historyFormer Vikings first-round pick could reportedly return to NFC NorthBears analyst has extremely embarrassing Kirk Cousins take6 Vikings who (maybe) won’t make the 53-man roster in 2023Predicting what the Vikings will do in the 2023 NFL Draft based on 2022“We will be on a mission to get this thing fixed to where we need to get to go,” he said. “I do think we have a good nucleus on this football team here. I think [general manager] Rick [Spielman]’s done an unbelievable job of bringing the right kind of guys in. All the meetings that we had with the players yesterday, they believe that we have an extremely strong locker room. We have the right kind of guys here. Obviously, we’re doing a lot of soul-searching as to why we didn’t get into the playoffs.”"

Zimmer not only knows the team needs some work heading forward, but he also put emphasis on himself. He talked about leadership and direction, two things he knows he will need to excel at if he wants to take the Vikings to the promised land.

"“I just know, ultimately, I’m responsible for getting these players to where they need to go, and that’s what leadership is. It’s taking a group of people somewhere that they’ve never been before. I haven’t done that yet.”"

Next: Key offseason dates for the 2017 NFL season

The long offseason is already here for the Minnesota Vikings and a lot of things will happen between now and the start of the new season to have an impact on the team. Hopefully the coach, players, and management can do what is needed to bring the Vikings back to the playoffs next season.