Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Cronin: Zimmer could hand over play-calling duties in 2020
The Vikings won't take the field for a game until August for preseason play, with regular-season games to follow over the next few months.
But at some point in 2020, ESPN Vikings reporter Courtney Cronin believes Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer will hand over defensive play-calling duties.
Each ESPN reporter who covers an NFL team was asked to come up with a bold prediction for the upcoming year, as it could involve offseason roster moves, regular-season results or anything else on their minds.
Cronin opined that she believes Zimmer will hand off play-calling duties to either Andre Patterson or Adam Zimmer, a duo that were recently named co-defensive coordinators.
Cronin wrote:
We might not see this come to fruition for a while, but the Vikings' head coach might decide to delegate calling defensive plays to one of his two co-defensive coordinators. Zimmer has been mulling over this idea for several seasons.
The reason it's believable now more than before is that his son, Adam, the Vikings' linebackers coach, is the co-DC along with defensive-line coach Andre Patterson. What better way for the elder Zimmer to pass on his legacy as a defensive guru than to guide his son through the process of calling plays so he'll be able to take over those duties this fall, or allow his close confidant in Patterson to finally get an opportunity to call his own game.
Mike Zimmer is 57-38-1 in his first six seasons in Minnesota, and has led the Vikings to three playoff appearances in that span.
He has also built one of the league's top defenses, as Minnesota has ranked no worse than 11th in points allowed per game. In fact, the Vikings have finished in the top nine in points allowed per game in each of the past five seasons.
Patterson (defensive line) and Adam Zimmer (linebackers) will each continue to coach their respective position groups in 2020.