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- Mar 19, 2019
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Vikings assistant defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez has been with the team since 2015, while defensive assistant Jeff Howard joined the Vikings in 2013. Nick Rallis, the defensive quality control coach, just finished his second season in Minnesota.
2. What does the secondary look like?
Zimmer began his NFL coaching career in 1994 as an assistant defensive backs coach in Dallas, as he has a deep affinity for his players in the secondary.
But there is a chance that the group looks different in 2020 as multiple players are set to have their contracts expire at 3 p.m. (CT) on March 18 with the start of a new league year.
Safeties Anthony Harris, Jayron Kearse and Andrew Sendejo are included in that group, as are cornerbacks Mackensie Alexander and Trae Waynes.
Zimmer said Monday that there is a possibility the Vikings secondary has some new faces going forward.
Zimmer said he plans on giving coaches and staff a week or so off before coming back to evaluate the roster. He added that he will then have his usual conversations with Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman, Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton and Rob Brzezinski, the Vikings Executive Vice President of Football Operations who handles the salary cap.
“I think we’ll have to make some tough decisions in a lot of areas, not just in the secondary,” Zimmer said. “Again, we’re going to have to sit down with Rick and Rob and George and talk about where we’re at with salary cap, where we’re at with the age of players, who we feel like are going to be core players for us in the future, and kind of make all those decisions.
“But again, we’ve always done this player evaluation thing with the coaches right after the season,” Zimmer added, “and I just felt like it’s not the right time and we should get away from it so that we’re not biased in whatever happened in the last ball game or the last two weeks or whatever it was.”
Zimmer said this is the first time he will give his staff some time off before returning to recap the 2019 season and look ahead to 2020.
Harris joined the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2015 and blossomed into one of the league’s best safeties. He has started 31 games for the Vikings, including 23 in the past two seasons.
Harris tied for the league-lead with six interceptions in 2019 and has nine picks in the past two seasons. He also had a forced fumble and 11 passes defensed in 2019.
Kearse was a seventh-round pick in 2016 and has made five starts in 62 total appearances for the Vikings. He made clutch fourth-quarter plays in back-to-back-weeks at Dallas and against Denver, but was banged up at the end of the season and did not play Saturday in San Francisco.
Sendejo was with the Vikings from 2011-2018. He began 2019 with Philadelphia but returned for the final half of the season. A starter at safety before Harris’ ascension, Sendejo is a solid special teamer who filled in at slot cornerback in the playoffs due to injuries.
Alexander endured some ups and downs early in his career after being a 2016 second-round pick out of Clemson, but matured into a solid nickel cornerback over the past two seasons. He battled injuries over the years — Alexander has never played a full 16-game season — and missed both of Minnesota’s playoff games with a knee injury.
Waynes was a first-round pick in 2015 out of Michigan State who has tallied seven total interceptions in 53 starts for the Vikings. A full-time starter for the past three seasons, Waynes was also one of Minnesota’s top run defenders on the outside.