Sports
Vikings Territory: Stakes For Vikings Return To “Normal” After Aaron Rodgers Returns To GB
After all, the signal-callers within the division would formulate a ho-hum outlook: Andy Dalton, Jordan Love, and Jared Goff.
July 27, 2021
The months-long flirtation of Aaron Rodgers potentially playing for the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, or nowhere is deceased.
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When the tarot cards suggested Rodgers was done in Wisconsin, the 2021 stakes for the Minnesota Vikings changed. Rodgers out of the way would mandate that Vikings skipper, Mike Zimmer, win an NFC North crown to continue beyond this season. After all, the signal-callers within the division would formulate a ho-hum outlook: Andy Dalton, Jordan Love, and Jared Goff.
The Vikings will still need a fancy season for Zimmer to see 2022. Since his hire date in 2014, Zimmer alternates good seasons with mediocre ones. And because the expectations were high heading into 2016, 2018, and 2020 – even-numbered years when Minnesota underwhelmed – Zimmer must continue the strange pattern in 2021. That is, he likely needs a playoff win or two for Vikings management and ownership to employ him in 2022. A segment of fans in Minnesota already believes that the Zimmer era is “stale,” so another bout with 9-8 or 8-9 could serve as the catalyst for a head coaching change.
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So, the stakes with Rodgers returning to Green Bay no longer dictate that the Vikings must win the NFC North, but that would be a tremendous perk. The Zimmer version of the Vikings has long seemed like a team that needs homefield advantage to thrive in the postseason. Winning the division is the simplest way to effectuate that vision. If the Vikings do play second or third fiddle in the division for a fourth straight season, Zimmer must find the blueprint for winning a postseason game while performing aptly in the follow-up contest. After the team upended the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 season, the subsequent effort at San Francisco was lackluster, leaving some cynical fans to ponder whether the upset of the Saints did “more harm than good” in continuing the Zimmer era. That mindset is silly, but it is no fun to be shellacked in the playoffs – like the Eagles did to the Vikings in 2017.
However, Zimmer needs a playoff win – by any means necessary. And he probably needs two of them in the same month.
This press release was produced by Vikings Territory. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
