Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What was it like to play under Mike Zimmer? Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles explains

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins Matthew Coller to talk about the firing of Mike Zimmer. Jeremiah talks about Eric Kendricks' comments about a fear-based organization and explains what it was like to play under Zimmer and how the environment made it difficult on players at times. Jeremiah said his hard-nosed mentality may have hurt relationships with players. Plus he talks about what he'd want in the next coach and the most exciting NFL playoff games this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And folks, I want to talk about commitment. Our friend Jeremiah Searles for Tuesday Morning Left Guard could have just said, hey, can't do it this week. Got a lot of things going on. I'm traveling from this bowl to that bowl. I'm doing these agent things that I'm trying to be big time,

trying to be the next Mike McCartney to negotiate the huge quarterback contracts and such. Instead, he's doing long snappers but finding time from a hotel somewhere in florida jeremiah searles uh i really appreciate it man what's going on oh i couldn't miss this week dude we talked about last week how this week could be like content central and i'm running around dallas i'm running around orlando just watching my phone going, yes, content, content. So, yeah, I'm good. I'm here at the Hula Bowl down in Orlando.

I was at the CGS Bowl in Dallas earlier this week. So it's good to get down here, down to UCF campus. We were just talking before the show. This place is amazing. I guess there's like 53,000 kids or something on campus, which is wild, but I totally get it now that I'm down here. Yeah, I went there once. I went to an Orlando Magic game when Dwight Howard was playing there and it was unbelievable to watch

him play basketball before the game. I don't know how much you ever got to interact with NBA guys at all, but before the game, I was watching Dwight Howard warm up and he was standing out of bounds, like beyond the three-point line out of bounds and nailing threes just over and over and it's like that's a guy who in the game is not even allowed to shoot them and it's just like he's seven foot and he can hit threes from out there anytime he wants like the nba freak says so that's that's my one orlando store before we get into it we we uh we actually came down here when i was in nebraska we actually went to bowl games we came down here uh twice for the capital one bowl here in orlando and the first time we came down here we weren't like really sure we'd like go to disney world and did the whole thing

but then we came back the following year exact same bowl and we learned like hey if you just find the people in the yellow shirts and like hey we're with the bowl game they're like zooming to the front of the line and then we got absolutely trashed at epcot center we did the world of beers and just like you go through just get a beer at every place and like we were sitting in meetings that night we were all seniors we didn't care and we just were like so drunk in the team meetings our line coach was so pissed and we still had to win the game so it worked out there you go so let's talk about this man how about we just start out give me your reaction to the vikings not just firing mike zimmer but also rick spielman to hit a complete reset button on the entire organization.

Yeah. You know, first of all, I feel for Zimmer and Spielman and their families, like no one cheers for a guy to lose his job. Right. I mean, but it is part of the business when you live in the coaching world and you live in the NFL of eight years is a hell of a run. I mean, there's not a lot of teams that I mean, shoot, look at look at Brian Flores in Miami. Dude lasted three. Right. I mean, he accomplished a lot. So first of all, look at look at Brian Flores in Miami dude lasted three right I mean he he accomplished a lot so first of all first I want to thank him he gave me an opportunity to play for him means a lot to me and my family but kind of looking at from the outside in it was it was time it was time it was expected and I know we weren't sure if Zimmer was gonna get fired not

Zimmer excuse me if Spielman was gonna get fired or just restructured in the organization but I think this does confirm what we all believe that needed to happen of full reset. Right. It's this is not as much. I know he had his comments where he said this is not a rebuild, but it kind of is. I don't think it's as much of a rebuild if we were at Jacksonville or the Jets or anything like that. But it is going to be a bit of a rebuild process and where they go with it all.

And first things first, find a GM. Then you kind of got to make the decisions from there. rebuild process and where they go with it all. And first things first, find a GM, and then you kind of got to make the decisions from there. So lots of moving parts, but I think that Vikings fans will be refreshed, re-energized. And this is what this organization needed. As tough as it is to see guys come and go, sometimes that's what you need to get things started again. I have, I think, a question that's on a lot of people's minds for you as someone who played for Mike Zimmer is, you know when eric kendrick says that uh he thinks that the next coach shouldn't run the organization through fear

um look having covered mike zimmer for a long time i i know exactly what he's talking about and the stories come to my mind pretty quickly but maybe you could talk about that of like the zimmer is a very very smart football person but I think struggled to understand player perspective a lot of times and it was very evident in 2016 even in my first year covering the beat and I wondered after that year I remember having a conversation with someone saying like is he going to last in this because I think when you treat players the way that he does if you're that hard on them, sometimes that burns out pretty quickly. And I think that Eric Kendricks, of all people saying something about that, made it clear that

you're kind of burning the candle at both ends when you are as hard on players as Zimmer was. Yeah. I mean, he's as old school coach as they come, right? I mean, you talk about old school coaches. The first thing that comes to mind is they work hard, they grind you. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think sometimes people think that's a knock there's nothing wrong with an old school coach I think the part that Zimmer struggled with is he really was just if I'm here to win football games like and that was his sole purpose we used to joke about like it's just all ball all the time you'd see Zimmer at the Christmas party be like hey Zim hey how's it going be like hey what happened on that rep in nine on seven today right Like, he just lived in that world all the time,

and he just couldn't really get out of it. And it was – you were scared if you messed up, Zimmer was just going to lose it on you. And he did. There was multiple times we'd have the team meeting call-outs and those type of things, and those happened everywhere. But as a young player, I just kind of assumed that's how it was everywhere. I just kind of assumed this is the way the NFL is right you got grinders and coaches they

get after you like that's just the nature of the business I go up to Buffalo with Sean McDermott it could have been more polar opposites and Sean McDermott is sitting there at the lunch table with his guys and Brandon Bean the GM said hey man how are you how's your family there's full wide Bible studies done by the head coach's wife and it it was just different. And again, I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but Zimmer just kind of had the authoritative mentality, my football team, my way. And when you're winning, you're going to come here. We're going to win a Super Bowl. Go sit naked on the 50-yard line. You say, aha, yes, sir. But, I mean, when things aren't going well and you kind of feel like you maybe have to pivot, I feel like Zimmer was like, the players will pivot to me. I don't have to pivot to my players of how I do things. And that's hard when you're losing football games at a consistent rate

and square peg, round hole, or whatever it is. And I feel like that kind of was the downfall of Zimmer with the fear-based piece of it is. And I feel like that's kind of was the downfall of Zimmer with the fear based piece of it all. Not as much the fact that being a hard coach and grinding guys is the wrong way to do it, but you have to be able to emotionally connect with your players a little bit more, especially in this day of college football and NFL football, where face it, players are a little softer than they were back then. I mean, I'm a little softer than the guys. I mean, I'm a little harder than the kids I'm recruiting now. It's just different.

The world is different. And Zimmer just kind of refused to change. Well, I also think that players now are more aware of everyone else's situation than they would have been even five, seven years ago because they could just communicate with each other so many different ways. And they see so many other things

where it's like Stefan Diggs could see that other teams were targeting their number one wide receivers all the time, or talk to other players instantly about how their coaches were designing game plans around the pass, or even how much influence that they would have when it came to, you know, over the offense and over how they wanted to play. And I know that Pat Shermer struck a really good note with most of the players when he was here because it seemed like more of a collaborative effort, which I know when Mark Wilf brought up that word collaborative, he was talking about a lot of different things

that have not been collaborative. But I even think that what Stefan Diggs said he wanted from Mike Zimmer was to listen to him, to hear me out. Like, listen to what I think. And Diggs, you know, is a very intelligent person. This isn't just some dope egomaniac who just wanted the football. It's like a guy who really understood the game and how the team could be better. And it was like, no, sorry, man. Like I'm the coach, you're the player, you do what you're told. And that doesn't work for everybody. That certainly does work for some people. And that's why it's, it shouldn't

be painted with the brush that every player who played for mike zimmer just couldn't stand him i think what anthony bar said was right that everyone respected his football acumen i think some people actually responded really well i think terrence newman did terrence newman certainly had his moments um in in 2016 but i think that like he was a guy that could deal with someone who's just all ball or something like that and then interpret that and help other people deal with it teddy Teddy Bridgewater, I think, was really good with sort of interpreting Zim and being able to help other players deal with it. When that was gone, when the Terrence Newman and Teddy Bridgewater were gone, and here's Kirk Cousins, who never connected with Mike Zimmer himself, it was sort of every man for himself in that locker room after that, as opposed to

here's a group that galvanizes with each other and then can deal better with the way the coach is handling. Yeah, I think you nailed it there. And sometimes the us versus them mentality works because it continues to allow guys. Sorry, air conditioning kicked on. It's really loud. It's not over the audio. Okay.

Not as loud as me being in the airport. Yes, this is true. I think that us versus them mentality can work both good and bad. You know, good, it galvanizes a team, right? Sometimes the players can band together and it becomes like us versus coaches, but we're going to prove them wrong type of thing, which happened at times. I do think, I mean, the you like that moment with Zimmer and Kirk comes to mind. Like as much as I think that we painted that as like, oh, look,

they're getting along. I think it was more of a like, you like that? Like I see, I can do it type of thing, you know? And I think it was good and bad, but eventually it all comes down to wins and losses. And is this working? Is this not working? And with Zimmer to feel that this was, and I wonder kind of too, what his relationship with Spielman towards the end really was.

And we saw it in camp, right? I mean, when you have an us versus them mentality, it's okay when it's coaches gm versus players at times but when it's coach versus gm gm versus coach coach versus players you then it's just dysfunction and when you have dysfunction in the nfl it's distraction when you have distraction distractions lead to losses and that's just the nature of the business and i think there was just a lot of that over the last this year especially a little bit over the covid year too and so you just kind of have to realize that I think the Wilfs, being as far away that they are, not seeing it every day, I think that even they could start to see it.

I think even them being in the East Coast and they could start to see it. And that's probably when they were like, you know, this is time for a change when it's starting to bleed over into our camp over here. We're seeing it. We're looking at it through the media. That's when it's time to pull the eject our camp over here we're seeing it we're looking at it through the media that's when it's time to pull the pull the eject button and really just get going on something else and i think you diagnosed it right on because the kellen mond

thing is just so good evidence of like those two are not on the same page either and zimmer maybe resents spielman for signing cousins to the contract and then the extension and letting his defense fall apart and Spielman resent Zimmer for calling out his rookies all the time which is look I mean Daniel Carlson is an example that people go back to all the time but I think it's super fair to just be like yeah you know you cut a guy because he missed a couple of field goals well you can debate that decision all day long kickers are hard to predict but what you can't debate is that it was totally inappropriate to just dunk on the guy, to just like destroy the kid after he missed the field goals. Like, dude, he's in his first season.

Like, what is the purpose of this? Did you see the game, Zimmer said, after he was asked why they cut Carlson? Like, come on, man. It's just unnecessary. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that that stuff wore on people. The press conferences, there would be messages to players and then messages to the media that didn't match up. There would be call outs to people who didn't deserve it. Sheree Floyd is one I think of of just Sheree Floyd doesn't have his career anymore because of a botched surgery.

It's a tragedy. What happened to that guy? He's a good player. And Zimmer was like, yeah, he's always hurt. Screw him. It's like, whoa, dude, it was a botched surgery. It's a tragedy. What happened to that guy? He's a good player. And Zimmer was like, yeah, he's always hurt. Screw him. It's like, whoa, dude, it was a botched surgery. It was like nothing he did wrong. So things like that, I think, I think made it very difficult for people to feel like a place in their heart for the guy who just slammed so many people all the time. And after years of that, and when you're not winning as much as you should, there's no, there's no there's no love lost at the end and we haven't seen players tweet out thanks coach Zimmer and things like that they haven't instant in a world where anybody can release a statement anytime they want we've

seen crickets from players when it came to this and I think that Kendrick's really kind of said the quiet part out loud a little bit with that feeling. But now here's a question for you is when it comes to the next coach, what I hear is, you know, Hey, don't hire just a player's coach, just to hire the opposite of Zimmer. But I think that almost everybody has to be a player's coach and probably should have been all along anyway, that there's, there's different ideas of old coaches because we just lose what it was like back then with those coaches. So we think like, Oh, Parcells was just ripping everybody all the

time. Like, I don't know. I mean, I guess we'd have to talk to some people who actually played for Parcells. Cause it doesn't really seem that way from the stories that you hear about players who actually played with him. Um, but I want to know where that balance gets struck for you. Like if you could set up your ideal head coach for how he manages players, how would you do it? You know, I was just having this conversation with my business partner and we were talking about kind of what makes a great head coach in the NFL.

And I think the number one thing that we decided on was he has to be a great leader of men. And when I say men, a lot of times you hear that thrown around at the college level, right? Like he's a great leader of men. That's different. That's a leader of kids. I think when you talk to the NFL, you're talking men, ages 25 to 35, right?

Guys that might have families, might not have families, single, but there's just a lot of development that happens on a personality level too. You're out on your own for your first time. You have to be a great leader of men. I don't think it necessarily necessarily for a head coach especially you have to have the shiny x's and o's guy that's what the coordinators are for i think the coordinators i mean a great example is andy reed right brilliant x's and o's guy but he's a great leader of men what he's able to do in philadelphia and then he does it again in k City. And I just want someone to come up there that really feels like he can help lead those guys

to a championship. And when you put it through that lens, it kind of narrows the field down, in my opinion, of who do you really believe is a leader of men versus who do you think is just a good football coach. Now, I'm not saying he doesn't need to have a great football IQ. I think anyone who hires a head coach can have a great football IQ. But look at their past as far as what teams have they led. Has there been issues with the team in the locker room? Has there been issues off the field? Has he caused stir with X, Y, Z reason?

Like Urban Meyer, we knew that was going to be a dumpster fire from the beginning based off of his track record, right? I mean, Matt Rule, you're kind of like, he dealt with college kids. Can he deal with professionals? And i'd look at from that lens of i want someone in minnesota that is going to be there a while like i don't want to go get the old coach that's going to be there for two three years and then he wants to retire like i want to get a young coach that wants to be in minnesota for eight ten years and help get that program and develop and look at guys like like what sean mcdermott did up in buffalo and understand that it takes a couple years of roster turnover, but you can kind of create a culture in which you want. And that's really

what's important for me is the leadership aspect of taking the ownership, being humble, but knowing you belong. Hey, I'm humbled and I'm really excited to be here, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I think those are the kinds of things I'm looking for to take the next head ball coach up in Minnesota. I think that one key part of it is being able to communicate with players on a football level for as in what works for you. I think that the really good coaches are able to do this where it's Brian Dable looking at Josh Allen and saying, what works for you? Does running for a thousand yards work for you? You know, it does like, it does work for him. Like what type of, but what type of structure of your offense or your defense works for the players that you have? So Kansas city,

Steve Spagnuolo is a good example here. Tyron Matthew was always a great player, but they took Tyron Matthew to a different level with what worked for him. So can you diagnose what works for him? This approach in Tampa Bay, I thought with Brady was just, was just perfect. Like what works for you, Tom? Like what? I mean, and of course, New England had no problem with success and they had a great system and great coaches and everything else. I'm not criticizing that, but you know, I think that they took this approach of how

do you want to play it? What works for you? Hey, you go teach players too. I know that Terrence Newman, who just had, he had an impact on my career because I learned so much from him just on those Fridays where everybody be eating chicken and standing around talking. And I would just go over to his locker and just fire some questions at him. But, you know, Terrence could have run the defense himself.

He was so smart. So he knows what works for him. And Stefan Diggs knew what worked for him. And these players have a really good knowledge by the time they're veterans of their strength, their weaknesses, the people around them and getting feedback from those players acting like, Hey, I'm going to play this offense with Kirk, the way I want to play it. Cause I think this is right. I mean, I think that Zimmer was absolutely right at the type of offense that Kirk cousins needed. He needed a play action bootleg type of more protection, more running game and stuff like that. And then he could really thrive. But I mean, did he ever ask Kirk? I mean, they started watching film together the very last year and then they couldn't even agree publicly and how much they watched what

they talked about, whatever else it was two different messages. And you know, I think that being in lockstep with your players like that, your key players is super, super important to feel like not only I'm not just a cog in the machine, but I have kind of a say, I have kind of a voice in this,

in what we do. And the same thing goes for your coordinators and everything else. Like they can't, they can't live with fear either, which offensive coordinators clearly did other than maybe Gary and Pat Schirmer who were older. But you know, I think that that's important now, especially because players maybe back in the day, you know, they, they didn't know as much about the game. They're learning from just their coaches or whatever else. I think they're learning from many different sources these days, and they understand. Like, Stefan Diggs knew exactly what the quarterback rating

when the ball was thrown his way was. He knew what the stats were. He saw them. Guys didn't maybe necessarily understand things like that 20 years ago when Zimmer was first coming up. So I think that we've seen that from a lot of the best coaches that get painted as like, oh, they're just hype guys or whatever else. But I think that we've seen that from a lot of the best coaches that get painted as like, oh, they're just hype guys or whatever else.

But I'm like, I don't know. The way they connect, John Harbaugh, I think, just connects super well with his players. I think it's a mutual respect thing, right? I mean, it's a mutual respect of I know that I'm the coach, you're the player, and there has to be clear boundaries, right? There absolutely has to be clear boundaries. You can't just be like, oh, we're all ch're all chummy like no there is absolute clear boundaries of coach player

but where there can be the gray area is again kind of like dick says being heard and being acknowledged that hey what you say is is meaningful and it's important and i i understand that let's look at it and explore why i either think this isn't a good idea or why I think this is a good idea. And I think that's what you're getting at is that's equally as important to a guy, even if they come to a conclusion that it's not going to work, right? But just the fact that he felt heard and it was talked through was the important piece. And when you can have that mutual respect or if a coach comes to you and says, this is what I'm thinking of I want you to do either technique wise or scheme wise and you go okay but here's why I think that might not work or here's let's watch and see if that works and then it can come down like okay well yeah that's not going to work right like that that mutual respect piece isn't just the well it worked in

1997 so it's going to work right now it didn't just that piece i think is really important too and i think there's a lot of coaches younger coaches especially in the coordinator positions that are doing that that are really excelling right byron left which is a guy that comes to mind uh kellen moore down in dallas is another guy eric the enemy's been doing it for a long time like those guys i feel like are really open to input and really open to suggestion because they're not, I mean, Kellen Moore, especially he was on the field, right? He understands the quarterback sees it from a completely different lens than anyone else. And so you value that opinion. And Eric Bien-Aimé has one of the best quarterbacks of all time and hey, he sees things and they see,

I mean, you always joke like the offensive coordinators for the great quarterbacks, like aren't really offensive coordinators, right? They're're just managers but I think what makes those guys the great offensive coordinators they know how to put those guys in the right positions then let them do their thing and trust them and now you implement that to a head coach I think you have that's your culture is hey I'm gonna put you guys in these situations but I trust you guys to make the decisions that are right for this football team go a long way in today's age of NFL. Folks, we've got an even better offer to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, one word, you can get 15% off your purchase.

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And use the code PurpleInsider for 15% off. Right. I mean, I think about Phil Jackson for this where it's like, yes, he did have Michael Jordan. There's no question about that um but i think he also like loosened things up um for michael jordan or built you know built a team that he was able to hold together that was very volatile in a lot of their personalities especially as we've seen post career from some of those bulls where maybe doug collins before him wasn't and that mark Mark Jackson versus Steve Kerr in the Warriors, they had the same roster. Mark Jackson got them to the first round. Steve Kerr got them

to legendary status. Well, that's the difference sometimes. Of course you need the greatest shooter or the greatest quarterback or the greatest roster, all those things. Of course you do. But there's that next level of how do you take that beyond? And that's where when Brady goes to Tampa Bay and wins the Super Bowl, you could easily say, well, that's just Brady's the greatest. And, you know, Byron Leftwich, what are you, a sidecar? It's like, well, right. But somebody had to work with Tom Brady that entire time. Someone was picked to work with Tom Brady all the time and get the feedback

and apply those things and call those plays and have that trust of Tom Brady. Like, isn't that important that Tom Brady trusts you if you're going into that? So I think this was actually a thing with Favre in Minnesota where he was able to take them to the NFC Championship and close to the Super Bowl. But I'm not sure the next year when things got hard that he trusted Brad Childress, and that was where it sort of fell apart. And that's another thing, too, that a lot of times

when things have gotten hard for this team they have not persevered through it and that's the point sage roosevelt's made a great point to me about gary kubiak sage loves gary he would die for gary and i mean he just the way the way that gary treated players he said that there were seasons where their team was straight up bad but they would want to get that last win to get to 500 for their coach. Like they, at the end of the year, they'd be like, look, we know we're not a good team. We're no, we're not making the playoffs, but come on guys. We got to get a win here for Gary. Like, let's just make sure that we show up for him. And Ryan Harris won the Super Bowl. He talked about this with Gary of like, they wanted it for him as much as they wanted it for themselves. And that, And these are the edges.

This game is just so, everyone is so good. These are the edges that you could get when, you know, Mahomes walks over to the sideline and says, I want to run Wasp on this play. And Andy Reid goes, let's do it. You know, like there's just something to that that provides a confidence for players that maybe was not exactly there. And I think really showed up, especially with the quarterback, you know, with working with Zimmer,

that there just wasn't a belief in each other that can take you that ever so slightly more. Maybe not to a Super Bowl, but maybe at least to the playoffs one of these years. Yeah, I think you absolutely you absolutely nailed that. I think that when you have that love for your coach, right? I'm not saying players don't love Zim. I think there's a lot of players that love Zim. But when you have that love for your coach that you're playing for, not just yourself, but you're playing for him,

it does add an extra incentive. And, I mean, you see it all the time with the way teams act when they win big games, what coaches, what players go to their coach, right? What players immediately run to the head coach and give him a big hug. And we saw a lot of that in 17. You know what I mean? I remember, I mean, Everson's a guy that comes to mind. I mean, Daniil Hunter-Barr, all those guys, they loved Zim.

And I don't think that the love piece went away for them. I just think it was the, I don't know if I feel loved back. And I think that's a big piece that as a player, like especially if things change over the course of five, six years, right? Like, why don't I feel the same love from Zim I felt when we were 13 and three? Like, why is that change? Is that how he feels towards me? Is that how I feel towards him? And that can lead to some animosity, especially you've got guys that have been with you for so long. And I'm not saying that Zim doesn't love those guys, but it does

just change. Like the NFL is full of change for so long. And I'm not saying that Zim doesn't love those guys, but it does just change. Like the NFL is full of change and roster turnover. And I think that played a big piece into how guys were feeling towards the end too, is being a head coach is a tough job, man. You got a lot on your plate. You got a lot of people dependent on you. And sometimes you just kind of change who you are over the course of eight years. It's just nature of the beast.

And when you have players that are with you that long, it's impossible to keep the same relationship over and over again but as a player you just always want to think man my coach is going to love me the same way he loved me when we were winning right and that he just can't the coach can't because he's a production-based business and i think that was another piece that towards the end it kind of fall apart of the seams from all of that as well as much as the guys were just kind of like you know i just don't i don't feel it from you coach i just don't feel what we used to feel yeah i know we like to talk about feelings on this we do we this is a very feelings-based podcast um well football football is an emotional game

i have seen more people cry on press conferences of football than ever when i was covering any other sport i mean it is you give your whole entire body, heart, soul to the game for your whole life. And it means a lot. And the relationship players form with each other. Like Eric Hendricks got really choked up talking about Anthony Barr coming back. It's like really meaningful, these relationships that are built. And so when you see, when you feel like your relationship with somebody who has been there

with you for so long has just disappeared. I'm sure that it hurts. I mean, Eric Hendricks saying when we asked him, how's your relationship with Zimmer? And he said, there's a lot of stuff I'd say is still out there, left out there. And you'd have to ask him. It was like, that's tough. That's tough. I mean, this is Eric Hendricks.

This is not Laquan Treadwell. This is like the pillar of class and work ethic. And just one of the most respected people I've ever been around just saying, yeah, I don't even know. I don't even know how my coach feels about me. That is not a place you want to be for the next coach. So, but I love the insight that you're able to give on this, Jeremiah. It's just invaluable to understanding like that perspective that you know i can't have and our listeners can't have of having played for zimmer

and been in the nfl so i really appreciate that but i want to well go ahead one more thing one more thing before we go over that is the reason i the reason i kind of feel like that i could see that happening there they'll talk about the love lostloss piece is I was with Sean McDermott when we went 6-10 in Buffalo. And, man, you talk about a guy that loved on his players no matter what. I see that same Sean McDermott when they were 13-3 in the AFC Championship, and I see that same Sean McDermott this year even when they struggled. And that consistency of the player's coach.

I don't know. Sean's a brilliant defense coordinator. He took Carolina there. But his ability, and I'm basing this off strictly just my own experiences, his consistency of how he treats his players and how he runs his organization I think is what makes him special. And I'm not saying Zim was inconsistent in how he ran his program. I think he was inconsistent in the way he communicated that to his players.

I think that's where – I'm not saying he didn't. I think his love language, if you want to call it, it varied, right? I mean, it varied from I love you guys, I'm with you to the end to, well, we didn't draft this guy if we didn't play that. It just pivoted, and that was the issue versus the really good coaches, I think, are the ones that are steady through the course no matter what. They ride the ups and the downs, and they're hard on you and you need to, and they'll, they'll love you up. But you had no doubt that off the football field,

they were going to have your best interest and they loved you because you were part of their team. And I think that is the difference for me that I saw in my short time in, in Buffalo, my two years there versus the three years that I saw in Minnesota. And I also felt like there were times where Patrick Peterson was talking to us about flying steady, and he wasn't just saying that's my philosophy for younger players to learn from, but also like that's not Zimmer. It just doesn't fly steady. Look at Mike Tomlin this year.

I mean, that guy could have lost that ship at any time. The quarterback is playing like garbage. Their defense sometimes had meltdowns like they did against Minnesota. And there were so many opportunities for them to just fall apart. And yet they have found a way to be in the freaking play. I can't believe it. After seeing that team up close, I'm like, no way is that a playoff team. With that quarterback playing the way he was playing and the flaws on that roster.

And yet here's Mike Tomlin again. Like, I don't think it's a mistake that someone like Gary or someone like Mike Tomlin, he's very even keeled. And that's, and that's what I like about left, which there are a lot of people who want the big talk or whatever else. Um, Kellen Moore is this way too, but these guys are very even keeled. They were backup quarterbacks. So they played quarterback in the league. And it's like like they kind of understand this thing that also if you exude that you are panicking as a leader then everybody else panics around you and mike zimmer just panicked a lot i think throughout his time so you could say like this is a brilliant x's and o's guy who really knew how to teach football and understood game planning and everything else i don't know how many young

quarterbacks we saw play his defense and just like melt down. Yeah, melt down. I have no idea what Zimmer is throwing at them. So I have a lot of respect for that. But you can't have that up and down. It's already crazy enough that everyone looks to the leader to be there thick and thin.

And I think that was part of his downfall. So I wanted to ask just you talked about some of the people that you think are good candidates. Do you think it's the right direction to go with someone who's less experienced, like a left switch or more, or someone like Doug Peterson who has been there, who's won the Super Bowl? Like, how much do you value previous head coaching experience? No, I think it's important. I do. experience no i think it's important i do i i think previous head uh i think previous head coach is important strictly based off of if you haven't been a head coach before you're learning and you're also being looked at to drag the team out of peril right like hey we need you to lead

us to the promised land as you're kind of learning on the go right it's like taking algebra while you're taking basic math at the same time like you have to learn this one piece in order to do the other piece. And so I value the head coaching experience a lot, which is why I think it's important to go get a guy that has at least been a coordinator for one or two years. So he understands that piece, but you know, I struggle with this because I want, and it's the great question, right? It's the great question of like, well, you can't become a great head coach if you never tried it before. And it's the experience versus the up-and-comer. And so it really, for me, depends on what we want to do as an identity in Minnesota. First of all, it comes down to is Kirky boy there or not, right?

Are we riding it out with Kirk or are we really restarting this thing? Because I think that you can get away with a brand new head coach if you keep some of your veterans intact you keep some of your veterans intact that have been around and you bring in an old school not even old school or a guy that's been a head coach before and really will value those veterans opinions and kind of get input from them like hey how's this team run then yeah you can absolutely do that if you're gonna go new new quarterback new thing you might as well go new head coach. You might as well just start all over with brand new. And guess what?

If it goes off the rails in three years, then you can just start all over again, right? I think that's the safer bet. The safer bet is to go get a brand new coordinator to head coach and say, all right, thought experiment, ready, go. And then after that, you can kind of re-up in three years or decide to move on in three years versus you go get a previous head coach i think you're looking at more we want to keep contending now versus trying to rebuild so

a lot of it's going to depend on what the wilfs feel this roster is capable of what the wilfs feel the new gm they hire thinks this roster is capable of is really going to depend on if you go new head coach or former head coach yeah i mean buffalo is a great model for this i mean they went hey we're gonna go mcdermott bean they're gonna pick their own quarterback and then everybody go from there staley herbert yep i mean that's that's right it's like pairing them together instead of saying okay you inherit this or you inherit that um you usually just want if you're inheriting a quarterback you want it to be matt lafleleur who's inheriting Aaron Hodgers. Like, oh yeah, tough gig.

Well, I mean, actually he's done a tremendous job dealing with that guy. But aside from that, that jerk, as we debated last week. You bum. Classic. Okay, so here's before we wrap up. And again, I appreciate your time. I know that you're kind of all over the place and busy so uh if you haven't memorized the slate for this weekend i'm going to give you the games here and i want you to give me your love to see it hate to see it games of the weekend slash

monday so on saturday we've got raiders and bangles and bills and patriots then on sunday it is eagles bucks 49ers cowboys steelerss. And I may actually need to be surgically removed from my couch at the end of that. And then on Monday night, we have Cardinals and Rams. So give me your love to see it matchup and your hate to see it matchup. The love to see it matchup is the Cardinals and Rams. You know, I think that that one for me is the, you've got Kyler Murray. They've lost four out of the last five kind of limped their way into the playoffs here then you've got stafford who we all know and love oh so well

like when's he gonna throw us one because he's going to i mean i think he finished the last three games with multiple interceptions if i recall that's a stat that i believe I heard somewhere. What does that stat mean? What does that stat mean? My hate to see it match up is I really don't want to watch the Steelers go get skull dragged by the Kansas City Chiefs. I mean, we've seen this movie before. We know how it ends. As much as I loved that game, the Raiders-Chargers game was great. I was rooting for a tie so that we got the Steelers out of the playoffs.

They had no business being there. Loved Big Ben to death. They're not going to make a magical Eli Manning limp into the playoffs and run to the Super Bowl. They're just not. And I would rather have seen the Raiders and the Chargers, who are both better football teams, in the playoffs than to have to watch the Kansas City Chiefs go beat the Steelers by 30.

Love to see it. Hate to see it. I'm going to go with, I love to see it with the 49ers and Cowboys because I am old and I grew up in the nineties when the 49ers and Cowboys were playing every year in the playoffs and it was young versus Aikman and it was Charles Haley and just like the great Cowboys offensive line Emmitt Smith Jerry Rice these just unbelievable football teams Ronnie Lott uh Mert Hanks like all those guys and that was that's just like this is just a throwback but I also think it's a great matchup like the Cowboys have sort of been imperfect at times uh the 49ers like suddenly Jimmy G is Joe Montana when it comes to the clutch, getting them into the playoffs.

And so it's like this great storyline. If San Francisco wins this game and then it's like, well, what are they doing with Jimmy G now that this guy has gotten them deep in the playoffs again? And the Cowboys, like how big of a disappointment is it if you go 12 and five? Like that one's got a lot on the line. And I always think that those are the most interesting. Like if the Eagles lose to the Bucs, y'all go like oh okay like good job eagles hell of a year like no one thought you do this but when it when it's if you lose it's a big problem and the other one is the patriots and bills because if the bills lose this one then it's oh they kind of wasted the josh allen

thing here you know his rookie contract and now things get harder and then if the patriots lose it's like well you know good year for mac jones and everything but belichick still can't get him deep in the playoffs so i i love when there's the if one team wins or loses there's so much on the line for them i think those are the most interesting games so what's your hate to see it oh did i give a hate to see it i think you did you gave me too love to see it's there bud you hate to see me forgetting to give a hate to see it uh i think the hate to see it's there, bud. You hate to see me forgetting to give a hate to see it. I think the hate to see it is. I mean, it's hard not to,

I wanted to pick something different than Steelers. No, pick that. Everyone in the country hates to see that. Nobody is excited about that football game. I think the other, I think Eagles box might be a hate to see it. It might be like a 43 to 10 hate to see it.

So I, I'm a little concerned about the quality of that football game but you're right there's only one pick for hate to see it and it's steelers and chiefs and they put that one in the prime time i know not that i'm doing anything all day yeah i cleared the slate i hope you have two are you still traveling i'll be home no i'll be home this weekend i get home tomorrow night um and then I'm home next week. I'll actually be in Minnesota Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, next week, visiting some guys that are training up there. And then I had to LA for four days and I finished up the month in Vegas for another few days there for more senior bowl stuff. So we'll be cruising right along, man. But yeah, I'll be up there in Minnesota. I hope it warms up a little bit.

It's 80 degrees here in Buffalo or in Orlando, and I feel like I'm melting. The answer is probably not. I would guess no. You need at least May before you can count on it being a little warmer. So, well, I appreciate it. You know, there are a lot of former players who struggle with, like, what do I do now? And you have too many jobs and kids and dogs and everything else going on.

So you might as well. We're young, right? Yeah, exactly. Staying busy. But Jeremiah, you're going to stay on through the playoffs, of course. So this is not goodbye for now. But just your perspective throughout this entire season has been incredible, I think, for Vikings fans to learn so much from you as a former player,

but also getting into other sides of the game as well. So I appreciate all of your time. And I look forward to us doing what does that stat mean? Playoff edition. Yes, yes. Good football. Good football. Enjoy Florida, man. Later guys.