Mike Zimmer was heading into the final season of his contract in 2020 but it’s being reported that the Vikings are working out a multi-year extension.
Zimmer is the third-winniest coach in Vikings history and has gotten the Vikings to the playoffs three times since his arrival in 2014. There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout his six seasons in Minnesota, with his biggest achievement of reaching the NFC Championship in 2018.
He has a career record of 59-41-1 and has turned the Vikings defense into a solid unit year-over-year. The most exciting piece of the extension will be seeing what Zimmer can do with all of the young talent Rick Spielman and himself have surrounded the team with. When he came to Minnesota, Zimmer was known for his ability to push members of his secondary to the next level, and he’ll now have that opportunity for years to come.
The year the Vikings made the NFC Championship game their defense was on the top of the NFL. As of late, that same unit has lost a lot of key players to free agency.
Zimmer now has one of the younger cornerback rooms to work with, having spent quite a few draft picks on the position in the last three years. The defense still has a lot of talented players, but it will be interesting to see how he can progress such a young cornerback group.
Although he has accomplished a lot already in Minnesota, Zimmer’s Vikings haven’t been able to get over the hump and hoist the Lombardi Trophy. With the extension coming, it seems as if the Wilf family has the faith in Zimmer to bring a Super Bowl home to Minnesota within the next few years.