Murphy: Wilfs must deliver for Vikings fans who deserve better
The Vikings made big changes on Monday, now it's time to correct the mistakes of the past
By Brian Murphy
The Triangle of Reckoning has claimed its first two souls. Now what?
Now that Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf did their fiduciary duty Monday morning by firing general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer, the New Jersey stewards must toss aside their construction hard hats, drop anchor in Minnesota and don big-boy thinking caps to deliver this stunted NFL franchise from mediocrity.
Their moves were draconian but obvious after Minnesota missed the playoffs for the second straight season despite outsized expectations. The real work begins in earnest.
It starts with hiring a personnel master and innovative coach to deconstruct and rebuild an aging, expensive and regressive roster.
To reconcile whether productive but underachieving quarterback Kirk Cousins is worth the $45 million in salary cap space he will consume next year despite one playoff victory and a .500 winning record over 10 seasons.
And to sell whatever short- and long-term vision the reclusive Wilfs have to an exhausted fan base that demands more and deserves better.
The inexorable conclusion to another disappointing season came Sunday in a forgettable 31-17 victory over the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium. But it began four months ago with another inexcusable winless start.
The uphill, emotionally draining climb into the thin air of contention crashed dramatically with an unforgivable last-second loss to the hapless Detroit Lions and another late-season collapse that doomed Zimmer and lashed Spielman to his coach’s fate.
The vibe at U.S. Bank Stadium yesterday was more county morgue than Irish wake.
Blame it on the thousands of no-shows, a reinstituted mask mandate or the resignation of those who chose to bear witness to the end of the Zimmer/Spielman era instead of scraping off permafrost from everything in sight.
The Vikings mailed it in to fall behind 14-0, then rallied in the second half against another moribund team that has been plotting its full-scale housecleaning since October. Cheers, NFL, for turning an unwanted 17th game into a January preseason scrimmage.
Zimmer deserved to be fired for missing the playoffs for the fifth time in eight seasons and falling to 15-19 since Minnesota’s hollow wild-card victory over New Orleans in January 2020.
For enabling and then vilifying an archaic and conflicted offensive scheme that wound up burying more heretic coordinators than the Spanish Inquisition. And for promoting a bunker mentality that alienated fans, the locker room and, ultimately, the Wilfs.
Zimmer could be hard-nosed, hard-headed, a bully and a martyr – often in the same unflattering and petulant news conference. The us-versus-them lessons Bill Parcells taught him during their pillow chats could not account for treating media and paying customers with dignity, managing more empowered players and enduring raw criticism in the social media era instead of wallowing in it.
His old-school maxims tickled the flock during Minnesota’s early winning seasons. However, when the unjustifiable losses piled up, they just became old.
Zimmer would not yield an inch at the notion of starting rookie Kellen Mond in a no-stakes, Week 18 show trial. Or when superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson only needed 17 yards against the Bears to surpass icon Randy Moss for most receiving yards in a Vikings season.
Zimmer defiantly chose to run the ball and take a knee in the waning seconds instead of a free downfield shot, a chorus of boos delivering last rites to a useless win. The gesture would have cost Zimmer nothing and could have rewarded Minnesota’s best player.
“I don’t care about records,” Zimmer huffed and puffed afterward. “All I care about is wins.”
That looks great on a bumper sticker or a 1982 resume. It also is a stubborn and lonely hill on which to die if he never gets another head coaching opportunity.
Then again, he just might.
Zimmer posted a 72-56-1 regular-season record. Only Bud Grant and Denny Green have a higher winning percentage among the franchise’s nine head coaches.
He deserves respect for toughening the Vikings and elevating them from a rudderless franchise into a Super Bowl contender, despite Adrian Peterson’s child-abuse scandal, Blair Walsh’s wayward playoff miss in the arctic, Teddy Bridgewater’s devastating knee injury and Sam Bradford’s breakdown.
Zimmer instilled discipline, raised expectations and rode the No. 1-ranked defense to the NFC championship game following the 2017 season.
But Minnesota peaked then with the Minneapolis Miracle. Their embarrassing pratfall in the title game at Philadelphia, bookended with their no-show in a divisional loss to the 49ers two years later, exposed the Vikings as a really good team, but not a championship one.
Which brings us to Spielman.
He swung hard in the draft and free agency and missed more than he connected, especially the last three years. Yoking the franchise to Kirk Cousins’ fair-market but top-heavy contract handcuffed the Vikings to an eroding talent base that neutered Spielman’s ability to truly rebuild instead of just filling potholes.
He only coaxed one playoff victory out of Cousins, which is hardly enough to whitewash the first-round drafting of Christian Ponder, Matt Kalil or Garrett Bradbury. Or the desperation signings of an incompetent Josh Freeman and past-his-prime Bradford.
Spielman was never able to fortify a leaky, lumbering offensive line that too-often left quarterbacks unprotected, neutralized the running attack and kept the Vikings scrambling for an identity as Zimmer scapegoated and burned through four offensive coordinators.
Spielman and Zimmer epitomized the arrogance and lack of accountability endemic to NFL franchises who preach a dismissive know-it-all attitude that insults their heavily invested fans and community stakeholders.
The Wilfs need to take a comprehensive look at how their absentee ownership has widened the competitive gulf between the Vikings and consistently successful Packers in the NFC North. And the credibility gap between the organization and its home market.
Minnesota taxpayers were leveraged hard to help the Wilfs build their billion-dollar revenue rivers in Minneapolis and gleaming headquarters in Eagan. What bang have they gotten for their buck?
It has been 45 years since the Vikings played in a Super Bowl, their four losses now generational tall tales grandparents pass down to heirs scarred deeper and more recently by six consecutive NFC championship game losses.
This is a pivotal moment in the long history of a proud franchise. The leadership choices the Wilfs make in the coming days will have repercussions for years, if not the next decade.
The True North Minneapolis Miracle is not a feel-good trademark but a Super Bowl parade down Nicollet Mall.
Everything else is just conversation. The same conversations Vikings fans have been having far too long.
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Excellent article Murph. I have really enjoyed your articles this year.
I hope you continue to write for Purple Insider, Murph! Your colorful command of the English language brightens my day every week, even though I am one of the Viking fan dinosaurs (1969... THE PAIN! THE PAIN!). BTW, what is your new job in Miami?