Mike Zimmer is not expected to return next season to the Minnesota Vikings next season, according to a report Saturday from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. GM Rick Spielman is likely to return, the report added.
Zimmer's Vikings were never outright bad, but rarely great. Five of his eight seasons finished within one game of .500 in either direction, and the Vikes never finished last in the four-team NFC North, but they also weren't a consistent threat to Green Bay's hegemony in the division, either.
Heading into a lame-duck Week 18 game, the Vikings are 7-9 for the second straight season.
His best team, 2017, went 13-3 and reached the NFC Championship -- you remember Stefon Diggs' miracle catch to beat New Orleans -- but they missed a chance to become the first team in NFL history to host the Super Bowl when they lost the title game to Philadelphia the following week. Those Eagles would defeat Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at US Bank Stadium in Minnesota's Super Bowl.
In all, Zimmer has won two playoff games in eight seasons on the job.
The 65-year-old took the long road to his first head coaching job. He was Washington State's defensive coordinator when Barry Switzer brought him to Dallas as a defensive assistant on his first Cowboys staff. He long outstayed his boss, eventually becoming defensive coordinator under Dave Campo, then retained by Bill Parcells. He split for Atlanta when Parcells retired and Wade Phillips took over, then ran the Bengals' defense for six seasons before landing the Minnesota job in 2014.
In addition to winning a Super Bowl with the Cowboys and reaching an NFC Championship as a head coach, he won the NFL's assistant coach of the year award in 2009 and the George S. Halas Courage Award, given by the Pro Football Writers Association, in 2010.
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