Why Mike Zimmer should be the 2017 NFL Coach of the Year

The Minnesota Vikings head coach has dealt with a ton of adversity this season and his leadership has the team experiencing one of the franchise’s most successful campaigns ever.

Following an impressive win in Week 1 over the New Orleans Saints, it seemed as though the 2017 season was going to be much different for Mike Zimmer and the Minnesota Vikings than what they experienced during the previous year. There would be no quarterbacks almost losing their legs, no planes getting stuck on the runways, no more eye surgeries to be had, and no more stuffed animals would be getting their throats slashed (allegedly).

But since this is the NFL, adversity is really part of each and every season and there is no way to avoid it. Which the Vikings and their head coach found out, once again, in 2017.

A few days after Minnesota’s opening week win over the Saints, reports began to circulate about Sam Bradford experiencing some discomfort in his knee and that his status for the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers was up in the air. The Vikings quarterback ended up having to sit out and the team had to face the Steelers with Case Keenum as their starting signal caller.

The results in Pittsburgh were not very uplifting, as Keenum struggled and Minnesota suffered a 26-9 loss.

However, Zimmer did not overreact to the his team’s disappointing performance by signing a free-agent quarterback off the street to come in and replace Keenum. Instead, the Vikings and their head coach adjusted their game plan the following week and ended up demolishing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3.

Minnesota’s Week 4 matchup with the Detroit Lions would present Zimmer with his next obstacle for 2017.

During the Vikings’ second offensive drive of the third quarter, Minnesota rookie running back Dalvin Cook took a carry and ran the ball up the middle for 10 yards before injuring his knee on a cut move and fumbling the ball in reaction to the injury. It was later revealed that Cook suffered a torn ACL and his year was over just four games into the 2017 season.

“It may sound a little silly, but Zimmer does not get enough credit for sticking with Keenum, McKinnon, and Murray this season.”

Once again, instead of overreacting to the loss of their talented rookie by scrambling to replace him with a free-agent or acquiring a player in a trade, Zimmer and the Vikings decided to just roll with their two remaining healthy running backs in Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray. The decision proved to be a smart one as Minnesota has actually averaged more rushing yards per game since Cook went down in Week 4.

A few days after the rookie was lost for the season, rumblings of Bradford returning to the field in Week 5 began to gain some steam. The rumors of the quarterback coming back ended up being valid as Bradford was named the starter for the Vikings Monday night matchup with the Chicago Bears.

But Bradford’s time on the field in Chicago ended up being short-lived. His knee injury was clearly not even close to being healthy and his presence in the lineup actually did more harm than good for Minnesota’s offense that night.

Seeing that the offense was struggling with Bradford under center, Zimmer opted to bench the veteran quarterback late in the second quarter and replaced him with Keenum for the remainder of the game. Once again, the decision by the Vikings’ head coach turned out to be a good one as the Keenum provided the spark that was necessary for the team to come out of Week 5 with a win.

Despite being asked every single week about who his starting quarterback was going to be, Zimmer has stuck with Keenum under center since that Monday night in Chicago. Even when fellow quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was added to Minnesota’s active roster in November and the cries for him to start began to echo throughout the team’s fanbase, the Vikings’ head coach kept Keenum in the starting lineup.

When he has not been dealing with the quarterback situation, Zimmer has been molding Minnesota’s defense into one of the league’s best this year.

With the head coach calling the shots, the Vikings’ defense currently ranks among the NFL’s best in points allowed (first), total yards allowed (first), passing yards allowed (second), rushing yards allowed (second), and 3rd down conversion rate (first).

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What separates Zimmer from other Coach of the Year candidates this year like Sean McVay, Doug Pederson, or Doug Marrone is the tremendous impact his decisions have had on both sides of the ball.

It may sound a little silly, but Zimmer does not get enough credit for sticking with Keenum, McKinnon, and Murray this season. The argument can be made that he did not have many other options, but that could also be said for some former NFL coaches who are now out of the league thanks to not being able to make the correct roster decisions when the pressure became high.

If anyone thinks that Minnesota would have a 12-3 record after 15 games without Zimmer leading the way, then it may be a good idea to take a step back and realize how crazy of a thought that actually is.

Next: Big changes for the Vikings offense in 2018?

He has the Vikings currently staring at their best shot at a Super Bowl win for the first time since 2009. Something he said looked forward to doing back when he was introduced to the Minnesota faithful as the team’s head coach in 2014.