Why the Vikings made the right call to extend Mike Zimmer

Zimmer deserves it

Sure, Mike Zimmer hasn’t been able to help Minnesota reach their ultimate goal yet. But he’s at least given the Vikings multiple opportunities in the postseason to bring home the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl win.

During the six years since he was hired as the team’s head coach in 2014, Minnesota has finished a season with a losing record just once. Zimmer has also led the Vikings to a pair of playoff victories during his tenure and he might have helped them win even more if a certain kicker was able to nail a 27-yard chip shot in 2015.

Something that he probably deserves more credit for is the culture he’s built in the Minnesota locker room since he became the head coach. Current members of the Vikings roster have uttered multiple times that they would, “run through a wall,” for Zimmer and there aren’t a lot of coaches around the NFL today who get that same respect from their players.

To really understand how good of a head coach he’s proven to be since arriving to Minnesota, think about how many teams around the league would fight to hire him if his contract actually didn’t get extended and he were free to coach anywhere he desired in 2021. Most would agree that he would have multiple enticing offers and some of them would probably even come from teams who don’t even have a head coaching opening.

For anyone who believes that the Vikings have even a sliver of a chance to win a Super Bowl this season, that’s due to their current head coach and what he’s turned the franchise into since he got the job.