Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? It’s unclear if this is one of those instances, but former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer’s name keeps popping up in NFL rumor mills.
The latest is from Arizona Cardinals insider Howard Balzer, who says he’s “hearing” that Zimmer and ex-Vikings assistant Nick Rallis, who grew up in Edina and played college football at the University of Minnesota, could have spots on Jonathan Gannon’s defensive staff in Arizona.
Gannon was hired as head coach of the Cardinals earlier this week.
Balzer says Zimmer could be Arizona’s defensive coordinator or a senior defensive assistant, whereas Rallis could also find a role as defensive coordinator or assistant head coach/linebackers coach.
Hearing Nick Rallis and Mike Zimmer could have spots on Jonathan Gannon's defensive staff. Rallis will be 30 in July. Five years as assistant with Vikings, last two as LB coach. He might be DC or assistant head coach/LBs with Zimmer possibly DC or senior defensive assistant.
— Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) February 14, 2023
Gannon was the assistant defensive backs coach with the Vikings from 2014 to 2017, which marked the first four of Zimmer’s eight years as head coach in Minnesota.
Rallis was the Vikings’ defensive quality control coach from 2018 to 2020. He spent the last two seasons as the linebackers coach in Philadelphia, where Gannon was the defensive coordinator.
Zimmer has also been linked to the defensive coordinator vacancy in Denver.
According to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis, Broncos head coach Sean Payton has interviewed six candidates, though he didn’t say outright that Zimmer was one of them.
“I was hearing some noise about Mike Zimmer who is down the road with Prime Time (Deion Sanders). Zimmer and Payton go back to the Cowboy days. We’ll see, I think Sean Payton will make his announcement on his new staff later this week,” Klis said.
Deion Sanders, the new head coach at Colorado University, has said Zimmer would have a role in some capacity on his staff, though the athletics department has yet to formalize anything with the 66-year-old.
