5 essential traits the new Vikings head coach needs to have

Be a facilitator of the whole team

The Vikings’ next head coach needs to be just that, a head coach. He needs to be aware of all facets of his team and not just focus on one.

Mike Zimmer has always been a defensive-minded head coach, as he comes from that side of the ball. More and more former players have come out and said he basically was a defensive coordinator with a head coach label. This had shown up plenty of times in past games.

Zimmer had no problem letting the offense do their thing, and the most telling part of that is what he’d say in post-game press conferences. He’d say things like, we should’ve run the ball more, or I was hoping we would have run more.

He was the head coach, he had the power to override what his offensive coordinator is calling, but instead, just let them go about their way. On defense, he was clearly calling the plays and alignments, instead of delegating that to his coordinators while looking at the big picture of the game and the situations his team was in.

Minnesota’s new head coach needs to be a whole team facilitator. If the new guy comes from the offensive side of the ball that’s fine. He can establish his offense and blocking schemes, but then he needs to let his coordinators and coaches make his vision a reality.

If the new coach hasn’t dealt much with defense in the past, he needs to get familiar with it so if he feels the team needs to blitz more or change some coverages or matchups, he can have no issue going to his defensive coordinator and make those demands.

Zimmer became far too one-sided with his team. He was always focusing on the defensive side of the ball and not the total product on the field. The best head coaches are engaged on all sides of the ball and have their fingerprints all over the product that is on the field.