Xs and Os with Mike Zimmer | Week 1

the Minnesota Vikings. So that that's that's just a wonderful accomplishment. And I know you know you're trying not to smile, but I know you're not in the recognizing wonderful accomplishment business specifically in one place. But that has to make you feel good. Well, it makes me feel good. If we win a Super Bowl, that's that that will make me feel good. Um, you know, we're just grinding every year and trying to trying to get a little bit better.

Now now that I've buttered you up, you care to share with the audience and he updated Anthony Barr, Christian darrisaw related news or that's why we butter you up right? Yeah, I think, um, I think barstill has a chance. We'll find out. We'll find out a little bit more later this week. You know. Deresau is probably probably not be ready this week. Yeah. When I say when I say Christian with the limited amount of practices that he's had, you know, and I mean you've talked about it a

million times. It's with Christian, you just you wait, get him into shape, get him into the spot, make sure he knows how to do it, and then maybe roll with him. Right Yeah, And you know when you've only practiced a few days and then you know, you keep having these setbacks. You know, it just continues to linger on. So you know, we're gonna have to get him out there on the practice field for for a while and see if he can hang in there and do it. You have a linebacker named Nick Vigil and he's a

former member of the Cincinnati Bengals. What do we get with Vigil now? And maybe if he has to play extensively, what do you get with him? You know? Um, I was just talking about him today with the coaches and he really reminds me a lot of Chad Greenway. He's very smart. His personality is the same, the very quick thinkers. Um, you know, I think he's a good player. Um, you know, he understands his role and it understands everybody else's role. So, um,

you know, we're glad we have him. So if Nick makes a big play a zach or something, the karate kick is that expected. I don't know what his what his little style is yet. And then then of course he'll get into some form of vodka business and will just move on. It's Mike zimmer Head, coach of the Minnesota Vikings XS, the os kfam, the Vikings Radio Network, and those of you at Vikings dot com. We welcome you now them with with your pass rush and Denil

Hunter obviously ready to play this year. Just overall the depth of your pass rush. You feel good about it? Yeah, I do. I think with um, with uh dj Wanham, who has a lot of versatility, we can do a lot of different things with him. With with Griffin um

and then Sheldon Richardson. I think those kind of combinations, but also the combination of weatherly Uh you know, so I think I think I like the combination of guys, you know, where if they're double team and one guy, we have a chance to work on some other areas. And then you know you had bar in there and and Kendricks and Vigil and some of the you know

Harrison Smith. Yeah, um, you know we have some versatility in the rush game now with when when you beat New Orleans in the playoffs and put Everson and Denial inside, Yeah, that's a bold move specifically, you know, with not much time to do it. Then it worked to wreck the game and you moved on. Did that you know even for you doing it as long as you have, did that open your eyes at all to to you know,

maybe do more non obvious things. Because you mentioned DJ can play all over the place weather, they probably can and and so on. Well, I think what we're trying to do, Paul, is look at the skill set of the individual players and then look at the opponents and their their skill sets and where they're at, and then you know, how can we get good matchups where we're

trying to get good matchups? And also you know, maybe it's it's using want them a little bit more as a linebacker, and so instead of having four down guys.

We have three down and a hybrid guy. So you know, there's a lot of little variations there that we can we can kind of do with those guys through through all your years, Mike, you know, I'm not exactly sure what you did in Dallas, but those those years in Cincinnati in here, why have you never had three four as a base Why have you generally been a four three guy? Well, I did have a three four in base in Dallas. My first two years in Dallas we

were three four one. Coach Parcels came in and I think he wanted to change over the second year, but we're number one league on defense, so he couldn't do it then. So the third year he had us move over there to three four, And you know, it brings a lot of versatility. You know, I like it. You know, you have to have the right kind of personnel. You have to have two big outside linebackers, and then you have to have some big, thick guys in the middle. So then you get to Cincinnati and you run it

as well as you did there. I mean, just one of the league's best defenses year after year, and with Gino Atkins and de Montepeco, in the middle, you know, than Kevin and Pat Williams here for years and now

Michael Pierce, Dalvin Tomlinson. I mean that's just so important to have your kind of guys in the middle, right, Yeah, I think it's And they're all different, um, you know, the Mike, Michael Pierson, Tomlinson are different than Geno Atkins and Peco were, um, you know, so you've got to kind of figure out, you know, what they're best at

and kind of move move from there. You know, Sheldon's a little bit more like I'm not saying he's Geno Atkins, but he's a little bit more like that, a little bit more slithery, you know, where the other two guys are big, strong, physical guys, and uh you know that allows us to um do a few more things with some of the some of the guys behind them. Yeah. So just just from kind of the Rube standpoint, the fan standpoint, looking at it outside, Hunter, Tomlinson, Pierce, say,

wantum Weatherly, Griffin, whomever. Is it safe to say that, Okay, Daniel's going to draw the majority of the doubles, but you can't double all of them. So now Pierson, Tomlinson, who never have had big sack totals. It'll give them a chance to work their way to do different things, right, Yeah, a little bit. Um. You know they're they're run players, really, these two guys, UM, I think that's what they kind of hold their hat on. We're continually trying to continue

to work with them on there. But you know, with the ends and the linebackers and the safeties, that allows us to to generate a little bit more pass rush in that way. But you know, in order to do that, you got to stop to run first, and that's that's basically those two guys's job first is to get the run stop so we can rush and pass her. How how good your new hunter? UM? You know he's he's uh got a good leg, big leg, has some good hang time. He'll have some mishits, so you know, we're

trying to work with consistency on him. And over the last X amount of years, did you ever think that you would be focusing as much on special teams truly as you have? Um, I probably should have a lot more, but we we are very very um diligent about um who's going to be active on game day based on special teams. We're gonna you know about who made the who made the club based on special teams, because I think it was such a glaring weakness for us last year.

You know, we have to and Cincinnati has a really good special team shooting now. I mean, it's just the preseason, and there were some problems coverage wise and special teams wise in that Denver game, but it seemed to get better or improve for the most part, even though it's preseason. You're always looking for improvement. Is that fair? Yeah. And one of the things we started doing this year is with the whole team, we're watching all the special teams.

So after the game, the whole team comes in and you know, when a guy makes a great player a great hit, and they let him know, and you know, if a guy gets rocked one time, and then they let him know about that too. So we're trying to make that a big point of emphasis with the special teams this year, whether the return game, making sure that you know, we have some more explosive plays in there as well. XS and Knows with Mike Zimmer courtesy of

the Minnesota State Lottery. I'm Paul Allen. A few to close, not time for two more, Bob but we're getting close. Same question about the punter with DD Westbrook, what do you like about him? Well, you know, he's got great speed. I like him as a receiver as well. But he's

got great speed. He catches the ball really well. Uh. You know, if we do if we do a good job with with our hold hold ups and our gunners, and we do a good job on defense to to create some some situation where we can hold those guys up, then I think he's got a chance to make some big plays in the return game. With the Bengals offense, Zach Taylor, he he seems to want to throw a lot. Is that true? And how is their offense? Well, I though I do think that's true. I think they've got

a really good quarterback in Burrow. You know he um he's very quick, uh to decipher, gets the ball out of his hands really quick, so you know, it makes it hard to rush. But they've got excellent receivers um and uh, you know they're getting the no backs a lot of times, they'll be in five wides and um, you know, they'll do a lot of things. But they got a good running back and mixing two. He's a big, hard running back. You know kid that we liked a

lot coming out when he came out of Oklahoma. Um, so, you know, I think they're very explosive. I saw something they like, he's the fourth most passing yards for rookie quarterback in history the NFL or something like that. Yeah, very very good. Joe Burrow now zero offensive touchdowns in the preseason. How good an explosive do you expect the offense to be starting against Cincinnati? Well, you know, I think it's a little bit of uh, you know, we have to go out and prove it, just like the

rest of our football team. Um, you know, I believe we have some some really good weapons with our wide receivers. Um. You know, I think, uh, Tyler Conklin does a really nice job at tight end. We obviously have Dalvin Cook and Madison in the backfield. Um, you know, dal Dalvin has looked great in practice. And you know, the more of these teams loading up on to stop him, the more opens up for Jefferson and Feeling and Conklin and and uh, you know, trying to get the ball in

some of these other guy's hands. Chrit Chris herndon the New Viking. He scored on you guys as a rookie when you were out there. How does he fit into the mix and is there a learning curve just shifting teams, offenses whole thing. Yeah, I think there's a learning curve, you know, and so we're trying to bring them, bring them along as fast as we can. Uh, you know, they'll have a package form as we come come into

this ball game. But um, you know, he's a guy that you know, I haven't seen a lot other than on tape in a couple couple of practices. But he's done a really nice job with you know, the things we've asked and do thus far, with what you saw from Herndon or what we don't know about Conklin or whatever Titans are going to play. Do you feel they're run blocking, that they're willing, you know, that they're willing to compliment not only what you want, but what is

best for the offense. Dalvin, Yeah, I think both of them are willing. Uh you know, sometimes sustaining is the key to that, and not just being willing blockers, but sustaining. Tyler's improved tremendously in the time that he's been here in his blocking, and so you know that should be a big plus for us. Last one for Mike Zimmer. Thirteen years ago, age fifty two, you became defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals for six seasons, subsequently ended up here.

What do you remember about Paul Brown Stadium? One of the one I mean is you got all these new stadiums and everything. You go to Sofa later in the year, hopefully twice, but you go there later in the year. Paul Brown Stadium, it's it's been around forever. Well, yeah, it's it's right on the river. The wind comes off

off the river a decent amount. They've got terrific fans. Uh, you know, they're they're they're very loud, not as loud as our fans are, and probably not as good as our fans, but they have good, solid fans, and um, you know, it's it's gonna be a you know, like for the first game, especially the first game you come out of the season with fans, it's gonna be it should be allowed. Um, very very aggressive crowd. Um. You know, I've been in the visitors locker room when we played

there in the preseason. That was the only time. But yeah, it's it's a it's a good place and it's a beautiful stadium right next to the ballpark there uh the great red ballpark yet so um, it'll be It should be a fun day. Short drip. No, you can't get to Walton, can you? No, I won't be able to make it. So you're gonna be in Cincinnati with Zimmer, Rage Ranch Luria minutes away or whatever. You're not gonna be able to go? Yeah, I can't make it. I

understand that it's a business trip. How far is Louisville from Cincinnati? It's an hour about an hour and in Louisville's Churchill Downs And I'm Paul Allen with Mike Zimmer, soon to be twenty twenty three, owner of the Kentucky Oaks Champion. Her name is Immacula Glory. Good luck this weekend. Thanks for the conversation, Hi, Paul, Thank you. More Vikings football conversation around the Corner on XES and O's via kfa N and the Minnesota Vikings or Radio Network.