Report: Mike Zimmer Complained Openly About Kirk Cousins in Meetings Late in 2021 Season
It's no secret that Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins didn't have the greatest relationship during their four years together as the Vikings' head coach and starting quarterback.
Zimmer, whose love for Teddy Bridgewater during the early part of his Minnesota tenure was well-known, likely never wanted Cousins in the first place. He famously expressed his concerns at the 2018 combine over paying a quarterback a significant portion of the salary cap — and how that might inhibit their ability to build the rest of the roster. Zimmer was frustrated last year by Cousins' refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and last year was also the first time the two began meeting every week to watch tape and talk football.
But a new report suggests it went even further than that. Late in the season, Zimmer "complained openly in coaching meetings about Cousins," according to The Athletic's Chad Graff.
Mike Zimmer spent part of his last few weeks as Vikings head coach bemoaning the team’s situation at quarterback.
The veteran defensive guru had made more of an effort to get the best out of Kirk Cousins in 2021, conducting weekly meetings with the quarterback for the first time in their four years together. But toward the end, it became clear to those within the building that the head coach-quarterback relationship hadn’t blossomed the way many had hoped it would before the season, according to sources.
Zimmer complained openly in coaching meetings about Cousins, and some of Zimmer’s top lieutenants echoed the sentiment. Zimmer didn’t feel the quarterback made enough “winning plays,” that he didn’t take the necessary shots to help lead the Vikings to victory, and that he didn’t elevate his teammates.
That last sentence is pretty scathing, but it sums up a lot of the anti-Cousins side of the never-ending debate over the Vikings' polarizing quarterback.
Graff continues:
But that view wasn’t shared by everyone. Some, especially in the front office, thought Zimmer didn’t handle the situation well. They acknowledged to Zimmer that Cousins isn’t a perfect quarterback but felt Zimmer’s job as head coach was to get the most out of the quarterback — and undercutting his play in coaching meetings didn’t help.
Both sides can be right. It's understandable that Zimmer had frustrations about Cousins' play, considering he inherited a team that had just gone to the NFC championship, got paid a ton of money, and went 33-29-1 with one playoff berth in four years.
But it's also true that Zimmer could've done more to help Cousins. Giving him different offensive coordinators every year, meddling in the offense by always pushing them to run the ball more, and bashing Cousins to his coaching staff weren't great ways to maximize the QB's play. Zimmer's defenses, while still stout in 2018 and 2019, were a big reason for the Vikings' struggles over the past two seasons.
The hope for the Vikings now, as Graff writes, is that Kevin O'Connell is the right head coach to pair with Cousins. Both Zimmer and Jay Gruden, Cousins' head coach in Washington, left their time with him with complaints about his play and the conclusion that he wasn't a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback. But Cousins also has fans in former assistant coaches of his, including a couple who have gone on to become top NFL head coaches: Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.
O'Connell, Cousins' QB coach in 2017, is one of those. Since being hired by the Vikings, he has had plenty of praise for Cousins and has described being excited to work with him and build an offense that maximizes what he does well. There's no question that the two will have a much closer relationship this year than the one Cousins had with Zimmer.
“I have a lot of respect for him and the level at which he’s played the position at for a long time now, the consistency, the durability,” O'Connell told SI's Albert Breer. “There’s a lot to like about where he’s at in his career and the experiences that he’s had and continued growth. That’s the important thing, is that he continues to chase the growth and try to chase that excellence he's hunting as a quarterback and as a leader. … But he’s done a lot of good things. You watch the tape, you just purely turn on the tape and you see a guy playing the position at a really high level, in complete control of his game leading the unit. So, I’m excited about getting him going and how we're going to build it.”
Rumors surrounding Cousins will continue to swirl all offseason, but a trade seems unlikely at this point because of the Wilfs' insistence that the Vikings aren't a rebuilding team. It continues to sound like Cousins will remain Minnesota's quarterback for at least the 2022 season. We'll see if O'Connell replacing Zimmer can help Cousins lead the Vikings to more victories.
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