The end of the Zimmer and Spielman eras.

The axe came down on Mike Zimmer Monday. And perhaps a bit surprisingly, also on Rick Spielman. 

So, the Vikings are officially beginning their biggest overhaul at the top in a decade and a half.

I think time will be favorable to both of their tenures here. Both were much better than their detractors will ever want to admit. But both of their skills had slipped noticeably in the last couple years. And the fact is, missing the playoffs in consecutive years, especially when you have this much top end talent, would get just about any coach (and probably any GM) fired.

I already see that most annoying subsection of Vikings fans and media trying to craft the narrative that it was signing Kirk Cousins that got these men fired. Nonsense. These firings would have happened SOONER if not for the Kirk signing. Kirk has been one of the only guys on the team to keep them going the last 2 years.

No, here is why they were fired. 

First with Zimmer. I don't think it can even be questioned that 2021 was his worst year as Vikings HC. Technically he had a worse record last year, but I will go to my grave believing that squeezing 7 wins out of that team was a real accomplishment. But only getting 8 this year was just not okay. We all saw how this team week after week would either make wins needlessly difficult, or turn winnable games into hard luck losses due in very large part to an approach by the coaching staff that was grotesquely conservative and gutless. How do you lose that game to Dallas and let a backup QB lead a game winning drive on you? How do you let the then-winless Lions go 90+ yards on you for a walkoff touchdown in a game you HAD to win? At a point it no longer mattered if this was Zimmer forcing Klint Kubiak's hand or Kubiak just doing things his way, with Zimmer not stopping him. This couldn't continue.

And Zimmer had two very bad defenses the last 2 years. You can get one mulligan on that, but not two, and not after a whole offseason devoted to building back that defense resulted in only a miniscule improvement. Yes there were major injuries again, and things out of his control, but if you are still a great defensive coach you don't let those Dallas and Detroit drives happen. Or let Sam Darnold go 96 on you to force OT. Or give up points before the half of almost every single game. Zimmer used to adjust, be aggressive, make his defense a real threat. That ended, and so does his tenure.

As for Spielman, until pretty recently I was on board with keeping him around. The misfortune that effected Zimmer effected him too.

People want to say the Kirk signing was a failure. No. It was 100% the right move, although even here it was kind of a lucky break to even have a QB of his caliber become available at the exact right time that we needed an upgrade there.

People say that signing was a bust because "Well we signed him to win a super bowl and we didn't win a super bowl." Well, no, he was signed to be a big upgrade at QB and he has  been that.

What took that 13-3 team to a non-playoff team in 3 of the last 4 years was not Kirk ruining everything, or killing the cap, or whatever BS narrative the Kirk Cousins Derangement Syndrome crowd has screamed about for 4 years.

What actually happened was that Spielman's personnel moves AFTER the Kirk signing have mostly been busts.

Spielman was not without blotches on his resume prior to 2018. He drafted Matt Kalil and Laquon Treadwell. He gave Blair Walsh a contract extension for no reason. He did not have a feasible backup QB in place at the time of the Teddy Bridgewater injury, so he had to either deal a 1st round pick for Sam Bradford or risk basically forfeiting a whole season before it began.

But he also made up for some of mistakes in major ways, by finding Adam Thielen, drafting mid-round studs, and always keeping the team in good salary cap position.

Kirk Cousins's presence did not make Rick dumber, but his moves went sharply downhill.

In his last 4 drafts, he has one big homerun (Justin Jefferson), a promising maybe (Christian Darrisaw), and 3 absolute huge busts in Mike Hughes, Jeff Gladney and Garrett Bradbury. Now, you can't blame Rick for Hughes always being hurt or Gladney beating his girlfriend. You CAN blame him for Bradbury, cause if you take a 1st round center he can't be a bust. But Rick, unlike his earlier years, was no longer hitting on those mid round picks. He's had a few hits in the last 4 years (O'Neill, Irv Smith, Cleveland, Wonnum) but the roster has not been replenished as well as it needs to be.

His outside free agent moves have also not been very good lately. 

Michael Pierce has given them very little. They gave a ton of money to Dalvin Tomlinson but haven't gotten a very good ROI. The decision to overhaul the secondary after 2019 was a huge mistake, and most of the vets brought in this past offseason have done little. Even the good moves haven't really moved the needle. Yes, I think the coaching has not gotten the max out of the talent, but the blame doesn't fall on one guy. 

He spent a 5th round pick on a kicker, then cut him after 2 games at Zimmer's behest, only to then trade ANOTHER pick a year later for a kicker who didn't even make it past the camp cuts. 

And, finally, a lot of the extensions have not worked out. Anthony Barr's Vikings career is likely over, but it maybe should have ended a couple years ago. Obviously you don't NOT extend Danielle Hunter, but his career has hit a major wall by missing over 75% of the last 2 seasons. Extending Dalvin Cook looks like it may be a mistake, as he looked sharply diminished this year aside from a couple games and was a complete non-factor too often.

Fact is that the majority of the big feathers in Rick's cap are getting further and further into the distant past. This is a "what have you done for me lately" business. 

I probably would have given Rick the chance to work with the next head coach, but I understand wanting to just make a clean break from this regime.

So the Vikings head into an offseason full of unpredictability. The Wilfs will hire a new GM first, so Zimmer's job may not be filled for a while, but this is a good offseason to be hiring since fewer head coaching jobs are open than usual. And I think the Vikings job is the most attractive spot, especially if a coach wants to win right away. You're not winning quickly in Jacksonville or Chicago. Even if the GM search takes a while, there will be many intriguing candidates left. It would seem like we will hire an offensive coach, but there are some defensive guys out there too. 

And a whole new regime means any veteran player is not guaranteed to be here. Yes, even Kirk. I think it would be a mistake to trade him, at least without a really good replacement plan, but if that's the decision when the time comes then that's how it is.

For now, I will just say thank you to Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman for doing a pretty good job here over the years. Some of my favorite Vikings memories ever were delivered by their teams. We didn't get that ultimate memory, but maybe the next guys will.