A New Era: Zimmer and Spielman both fired on Black Monday

[swede700]

Here's a pretty solid list of potential candidates for GM:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/12/31/future-general-managers-week-17-preview

I would especially look at some of the candidates of color, as I think that will be the direction that the Wilfs go...and while not likely, I wouldn't rule out Catherine Raiche...she's very young, but will probably be a GM some day.  

[vikingsrule]

18 minutes ago, swede700 said:

Here's a pretty solid list of potential candidates for GM:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/12/31/future-general-managers-week-17-preview

I would especially look at some of the candidates of color, as I think that will be the direction that the Wilfs go...and while not likely, I wouldn't rule out Catherine Raiche...she's very young, but will probably be a GM some day.  

I just want the best candidate, period. Tired of being mediocre. 

[marshpit23]

List and rationale of least to best fit for Viking’s next head coach:

 

https://zonecoverage.com/2022/minnesota-vikings-news/the-most-and-least-exciting-head-coaching-candidates-for-the-vikings/?utm_source=Zone+Coverage&utm_campaign=fca74c4a1e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_df2c0772c8-fca74c4a1e-66004125&mc_cid=fca74c4a1e&mc_eid=9be7d11e2c

if you don’t feel like reading:

1. Kellen Moore

2. Joe Lombardi/Joe Brady

3. Byron Leftwich

4.. Doug Pederson 

[Heimdallr]

How do we feel about Lane Kiffin?

[wcblack34]

4 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

How do we feel about Lane Kiffin?

Seems like a tool. More suited to the college game where players respect him because they have no money and are naive.

[SemperFeist]

13 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

How do we feel about Lane Kiffin?

There isn’t an emoji or .gif that would accurately portray my level of disgust and distain. 

[gopherwrestler]

8 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

Seems like a tool. More suited to the college game where players respect him because they have no money and are naive.

See, I don’t understand this. 
We didn’t respect Zimmer because he was hard nosed and just a coach.

now they won’t respect Kiffen because he’s too personable?

[wcblack34]

1 minute ago, gopherwrestler said:

See, I don’t understand this. 
We didn’t respect Zimmer because he was hard nosed and just a coach.

now they won’t respect Kiffen because he’s too personable?

I think he's a job-seeker. A guy who is always going to be looking out for the next best coaching gig. I think he ends up at a bigger SEC school eventually. 

I don't think him being personable is the problem. I think he's simply better equipped to dictate to naive kids than grown men. 

[vikesfan89]

13 minutes ago, gopherwrestler said:

See, I don’t understand this. 
We didn’t respect Zimmer because he was hard nosed and just a coach.

now they won’t respect Kiffen because he’s too personable?

No matter what personality we get people aren't going to like it if we aren't winning

[marshpit23]

44 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

How do we feel about Lane Kiffin?

Not the kind of coach we want running this team of professionals. He needs to stay in the college game.

[Robb_K]

21 hours ago, Nozizaki said:

A little surprised to see Spielman let go. Rumor has it he was actually working on identifying new head coaching candidates last week, so even Spielman was blindsided by the news. Either way, this is time.

With Zimmer an Spielman gone, though, you have to wonder what the Vikings will do with Kirk Cousins. More than likely everyone who worked to bring him in in 2018 will be gone. His stats are inarguable, but his contract is a liability. I would guess it's a 50/50 shot he is traded/extended by the start of the new league year.

I would guess it's a 100% shot that he'll either be traded or extended by that time.  No team is going to play him at $45 million this coming year.  That's a crippling amount of cap space unavailable needed to field a team.  Only teams with super QBs like Mahomes, Wilson, Brady, and Rodgers, who can lift whole teams on their backs to wins, AND who also have an extraordinary player scouting/coaching/teachingdevelopment culture that continues to crank out solid replacement players can afford to devote such a big % of their Cap to one player, and be able to field enough depth of quality players to compete with the better teams.  Unfortunately, Cousins can't lift his team to wins consistently, and The Vikings under Zimmer were only good at developing players in volume for the first 4 years of Zimmer's run, and, even then that was mainly just on one side of the ball.  Cousins will either be traded or extended to smooth out his cap hit.  That will depend mostly upon how the new GM and coach want to fill out the positions on the team for next season and the 3-4 year plan, and, possibly, secondarily, upon the trade market for Kirk.  Personally, I think that because the 2023 Draft will have so many better high-quality QB prospects than 2022, Kirk will be 34 years old next season, it's most likely that the strategy taken by the new GM/HC team will be to aim for using The 2023 draft to obtain their hoped eventual "franchise QB", and use a low-cost, stop-gap, placeholder QB, to "tread water" in 2022 and 2023, after trading of all but the few very best of the oldest veterans, and the less productive veterans, and while they stock up on younger, lower-cost talent at the weaker position areas, building a better team to play around the eventual franchise QB in 2024 (after he eases in in 2023).  Maybe they can get Teddy Bridgewater, or some other $8 to $12 Million Dollar l3rd-tier starter level QB as a placeholder, to play all of 2022, and be a safety net during the drafted QB's rookie season.  But the new regime should try hard to also bring Kellen Mond along,If HE develops well, he and the rookie can compete, and if we're lucky, after one year of the bridge QB, the the two youngsters might be able to hold down the starter and back-up QB positions. 

The important reason for getting rid of BOTH Zimmer and Spielman, was to bring in a new regime that is dedicated to bringing in the best coaching staff for scouting and player development.  Such teams have the best chance to compete consistently on the highest level in this Salary Cap era.  And the GM and HC absolutely HAVE tom agree on how to stock the team.  Zimmer was too heavy on defence and running the ball onffence.  Spielman was more well rounded on both sides of the ball, but his weakness in trying to appease Zimmer by scrimping on the OL to be able to overemphasise the Densive Line and defensive Backfield, and paying ridiculous amounts of guaranteed money to a 2nd-tier QB at the expense of having a weak OL that can't protect a static pocket QB with little pocket awareness, plus drafting small OL prospects for their running speed and mobility at the expense of pass blocking created the reasons they couldn't succeed.  I'm guessing that because The Wilfs have seen that Zimmer's 1990s style of stressing defence and a running-based offence, doesn't work under the new passing-favoured rules, they will choose a GM that will be passing offence oriented, and want to have a more balanced approach to stocking the positions.  So Cousins will be traded, and they will try hard to re-sign Hunter at a reasonable rate, try hard to get Thielen to re-sign at a more team-friendly rate, let Pierce go, let Barr go, try to get Smith to re-sign at more team-friendly rate, and let Woods go, and let some other of the less productive veterans go, and use that extra cap space to keep Hunter, and sign UFAs to shore up the CB, DL, G, and C positions.

[gopherwrestler]

Obviously it’s just a guess, but of all teams, that would make sense. Go back to Dallas and just coach the defense. His defense would do pretty well there….. I’d guess Kearse would want to leave tho.

[SemperFeist]

53 minutes ago, gopherwrestler said:

See, I don’t understand this. 
We didn’t respect Zimmer because he was hard nosed and just a coach.

now they won’t respect Kiffen because he’s too personable?

It’s not just about the respect that the players will give the coach, it’s also about the respect that the coach will give the players. 

From interviews I’ve heard from Kiffin over the years, I would have next to no faith that he’d give the necessary respect back to the players. I don’t see a coach who would treat his players like colleagues, but rather just another person who’s in charge. I don’t see a coach who would have that professional give and take with his players. 

[Nozizaki]

7 minutes ago, Robb_K said:

I would guess it's a 100% shot that he'll either be traded or extended by that time.  No team is going to play him at $45 million this coming year.  That's a crippling amount of cap space unavailable needed to field a team.  Only teams with super QBs like Mahomes, Wilson, Brady, and Rodgers, who can lift whole teams on their backs to wins, AND who also have an extraordinary player scouting/coaching/teachingdevelopment culture that continues to crank out solid replacement players can afford to devote such a big % of their Cap to one player, and be able to field enough depth of quality players to compete with the better teams.  Unfortunately, Cousins can't lift his team to wins consistently, and The Vikings under Zimmer were only good at developing players in volume for the first 4 years of Zimmer's run, and, even then that was mainly just on one side of the ball.  Cousins will either be traded or extended to smooth out his cap hit.  That will depend mostly upon how the new GM and coach want to fill out the positions on the team for next season and the 3-4 year plan, and, possibly, secondarily, upon the trade market for Kirk.  Personally, I think that because the 2023 Draft will have so many better high-quality QB prospects than 2022, Kirk will be 34 years old next season, it's most likely that the strategy taken by the new GM/HC team will be to aim for using The 2023 draft to obtain their hoped eventual "franchise QB", and use a low-cost, stop-gap, placeholder QB, to "tread water" in 2022 and 2023, after trading of all but the few very best of the oldest veterans, and the less productive veterans, and while they stock up on younger, lower-cost talent at the weaker position areas, building a better team to play around the eventual franchise QB in 2024 (after he eases in in 2023).  Maybe they can get Teddy Bridgewater, or some other $8 to $12 Million Dollar l3rd-tier starter level QB as a placeholder, to play all of 2022, and be a safety net during the drafted QB's rookie season.  But the new regime should try hard to also bring Kellen Mond along,If HE develops well, he and the rookie can compete, and if we're lucky, after one year of the bridge QB, the the two youngsters might be able to hold down the starter and back-up QB positions. 

The important reason for getting rid of BOTH Zimmer and Spielman, was to bring in a new regime that is dedicated to bringing in the best coaching staff for scouting and player development.  Such teams have the best chance to compete consistently on the highest level in this Salary Cap era.  And the GM and HC absolutely HAVE tom agree on how to stock the team.  Zimmer was too heavy on defence and running the ball onffence.  Spielman was more well rounded on both sides of the ball, but his weakness in trying to appease Zimmer by scrimping on the OL to be able to overemphasise the Densive Line and defensive Backfield, and paying ridiculous amounts of guaranteed money to a 2nd-tier QB at the expense of having a weak OL that can't protect a static pocket QB with little pocket awareness, plus drafting small OL prospects for their running speed and mobility at the expense of pass blocking created the reasons they couldn't succeed.  I'm guessing that because The Wilfs have seen that Zimmer's 1990s style of stressing defence and a running-based offence, doesn't work under the new passing-favoured rules, they will choose a GM that will be passing offence oriented, and want to have a more balanced approach to stocking the positions.  So Cousins will be traded, and they will try hard to re-sign Hunter at a reasonable rate, try hard to get Thielen to re-sign at a more team-friendly rate, let Pierce go, let Barr go, try to get Smith to re-sign at more team-friendly rate, and let Woods go, and let some other of the less productive veterans go, and use that extra cap space to keep Hunter, and sign UFAs to shore up the CB, DL, G, and C positions.

Oh I agree. It's just a 50% chance Kirk gets traded/cut and a 50% chance they extend him. There is maybe a 1% chance he plays out the year on that deal.

But, as you said, I expect them to bring in an offensive mind that embraces the fact that the NFL is a passing league. And you would be hard pressed to find a better QB than Cousins. He's been top 10 in yards/attempt and net yards/attempt each season. Those are best stats to evaluate Kirk on, since the Vikings were so run heavy with Zimmer here, so Kirk has been getting about 50-100 attempts less per season than the other 16+ game starters.

[SemperFeist]

10 minutes ago, gopherwrestler said:

Obviously it’s just a guess, but of all teams, that would make sense. Go back to Dallas and just coach the defense. His defense would do pretty well there….. I’d guess Kearse would want to leave tho.

I’ve said this a few times to some friends. Zimmer in Dallas, or where ever Aaron Rodgers lands lol