Vikings: Rick Spielman comment could be a shot at Mike Zimmer

Rick Spielman may have taken a shot at his former Minnesota Vikings colleague Mike Zimmer while he was appearing on The Herd With Colin Cowherd during Tuesday’s show.

It was a good run for Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer leading the Minnesota Vikings, but the former general manager and head coach are now out of jobs.

Though Spielman and Zimmer should not have much problem landing on their feet as a front office executive and a defensive coordinator respectively in this offseason cycle, clearly, there is some fracture in their former working relationship. While appearing on The Herd With Colin Cowherd on Tuesday, Spielman may have dropped in a not-so-thinly veiled comment ripping the former coach.

“I think the No. 1 thing you’re looking for is that head coach has to have a relationship with that quarterback, and can a defensive head coach connect with that quarterback. Now you know an offensive head coach is probably going to be able to because that’s his job.”

In short, Spielman hints at Zimmer being unable to connect with the quarterback he spent a small fortune on in free agency by bringing over Kirk Cousins from Washington in 2018.

Vikings: Rick Spielman’s comment on The Herd may be a shot at Mike Zimmer

You can feel the bitterness coming from Spielman’s comment. The Vikings were so close to getting over the top in the latter part of last decade. This corps should have, in theory, won the NFC and gotten to the Super Bowl for the first time since Fran Tarkenton was scrambling behind the line of scrimmage. While the Vikings did accomplish a lot, this was no longer good enough for ownership.

By hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah away from the Cleveland Browns to replace Spielman, the new general manager with Ivy League roots will look to create a sense of compatibility that had been lacking in the Twin Cities recently. One candidate who may replace Zimmer is San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who Adofo-Mensah has already worked alongside before.

Ultimately, a team is not going to have long-term success in the NFL if the head coach and quarterback are not copacetic. This is why if an organization is led by a defensive-minded head coach, he has to be connected with the man under center. There has to be some common ground to make this thing work, or at the very least, have a strong sense of respect towards each other.

While Cousins is a good quarterback and Zimmer was an excellent head coach, that pairing never seemed to be a good fit from the jump.