The Mike Zimmer era isn’t officially over, but the tone the 65-year-old Minnesota Vikings head coach carried during his postgame press conference following Sunday’s 31-17 victory over the Chicago Bears appeared to match reports that he will be fired after eight seasons in Minnesota.
Zimmer was asked about his job status by Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.
“No, I haven’t heard anything about my job status,” Zimmer said, pointing at Tomasson and saying “I haven’t heard anything about yours, either.”
Zimmer added: “Not my choice. Not my decision.”
Zimmer deflected questions about his future with the team, Asked to reflect on his eight years in Minnesota, Zimmer said: Let’s not go there today. You want to talk about it tomorrow, then let’s talk about ti tomorrow. This isn’t the time to recollect for eight years.”
Quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose future with the team is also up in the air as he carries a $45 million cap hit into his final season under contract with the Vikings, didn’t go into many details when asked about his time with Zimmer.
“It’s been four years, a real privilege to work with him. I’ll leave it at that and we’ll see what happens,” said Cousins during the Vikings Radio Network postgame show.
Zimmer ranks third in Vikings coaching history in games (129), wins (72) and winning percentage (.560), trailing Bud Grant and Dennis Green in all of the major coaching categories.
But in eight years under Zimmer, the Vikings reached the playoffs just three times (2015, 2017, 2019), for a total of five playoff games and only two wins, both coming against the Saints: The “Minneapolis Miracle” in 2017-18 and the overtime win at New Orleans in 2019-20.
