Things ultimately didn’t work out for former head coach Mike Zimmer with the Minnesota Vikings, but he hasn’t given any inclination that he’s retiring or stepping away from coaching for the foreseeable future.
If Zimmer is looking for work as a defensive coach, he should have no problems finding a spot on a team somewhere, especially if that team is the Dallas Cowboys. ESPN’s Todd Archer recently named him as a possible fit at “Jerry World” if the Cowboys lose Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator.
“Outside the building, could former Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer be an option? He has a long history with the Joneses as a former Cowboys assistant and McCarthy has long respected his work,” Archer wrote.
Zimmer cut his teeth as a defensive coordinator in the NFL with the Cowboys from 2000-2006, but his earliest work with the team stems as far back as 1994 as a defensive assistant.
A coaching vacancy could open up if Quinn lands a head coaching job elsewhere. The Vikings actually interviewed him for Zimmer’s former job on Wednesday.
If Zimmer is still looking to coach, a return to Dallas makes all of the sense in the world considering his familiarity with owner Jerry Jones and the rest of the organization. Say whatever you want to say about his head coaching run in Minnesota, but he’s clearly a talented defensive mind that would add tremendous value to a unit that flashed with eye-popping playmakers like Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs on the field.
The team still finished in the bottom-half of the league in passing and rushing yards allowed. So there would obviously be things to clean up.
But it would also be the fresh start Zimmer needs after being fired by the Vikings. Few jobs would fast-track him back into the head coaching line quicker than this one.
