Vikings opener eve: There should be no hot seat for Zimmer or Spielman

For the first time in Mike Zimmer's tenure here, there is talk heading into the season that his job may be on the line.

There is also talk that Rick Spielman's job may be on the line, although that talk isn't quite as new.

But if you listen to certain people in the media, both coach and GM could be gone if the Vikings miss the playoffs this year, or are a very quick out.

I think that's madness. Barring some absolute catastrophe of a season, neither one should be in any danger of being fired.

I get that talk of firing people is always going to get clicks or views. It's brash. It gets people to pay attention. But in many cases it has no logic behind it.

Let's start with Zimmer, who begins his 6th season here 16 games over .500. That's 16 games over despite inheriting a rock bottom defense, despite the Adrian Peterson suspension a game into 2014, despite losing his starting QB in 3 of 5 seasons, despite the cavalcade of injuries in 2016, despite the volatility at kicker and o-line. Now, all coaches deal with adversity(well, outside of Foxboro) but these have been some major issues. And the worst Zimmer has done is 7-9 in year one. He wins a playoff game in 2015 but for Blair Walsh. He got a team led by Case.Keenum to within a game of the super bowl. He is unquestionably one of the best coaches in the NFL. He is not perfect. He is not beyond criticism. But to have him on any kind of hot seat is insane. You don't just jettison really good coaches for the sake of doing it.

As for Spielman, he's been here longer(although I don't really count anything until he actually became THE guy after 2011), and has more things on his record that you can truly knock him for.

But most of the bad stuff with Spielman is either relatively minor(5th round picks for kickers) or issues that almost every GM deals with(finding a long term franchise QB). And he, like Zimmer, has also been a victim of those issues that are out of even his control.

But around those he has built one of the best rosters in the NFL. That's what I hate about the Spielman haters. All those players you like? He got them for you. He drafted Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, Dalvin Cook, Trae Waynes and Anthony Barr high. He drafted Stefon Diggs, Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks and Mackenzie Alexander in the middle rounds. He found Adam Thielen and Anthony Harris out of nowhere. He signed Linval Joseph, and yes, Kirk Cousins, the best FA QB available in years, at a discount. And he has been able to do it all while managing the cap brilliantly. This team never has to get rid of players they really want to keep for cap reasons.

Well they haven't won a super bowl, they say. No shit. But is that the bar? Win a super bowl, and within a few years, or you're fired? That's insane. It speaks to the idiot mentality of fans and media that winning a super bowl is easy. Well I'm sorry, but it's not easy at all. Good coaches and GMs don't win super bowls. You don't just get rid of really good guys like Zim and Rick just for change's sake, unless you want to be one of those perpetually messed up franchises.

There can be times when coaches or GMs can stay too long(the Bengals) , but again this is just year 6 for Zim and year 8 for Rick. Most of them good. One of them as memorable as any season I've seen. We have it pretty damn good here, and we don't appreciate it nearly enough.