Major Changes For Minnesota Vikings Likely After Brutally Disappointing 2021 Season

Can you hear the final bit of air as it leaves the balloon? Pfft … pfft … pfft. The air stream grows weaker and weaker with each passing minute.

That’s the story for the Minnesota Vikings for the 2021-22 season. The Vikings will take the field Sunday for a hugely disappointing final game against the forlorn Chicago Bears in a game that has playoff implications for neither participant.

The game could turn out to be the swan song for head coach Mike Zimmer, general manager Rick Spielman and quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Would making all of those moves be an indication of panic by ownership or are they simply the right moves to make for a team regularly disappoints its fan base.

The belief here is that the team has gotten to the point of no return as it is presently constituted. The point of demarcation was the NFC Divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers following the 2019 season.

The Vikings had finished second in the NFC North with a 10-6 record and had earned a spot in the playoffs as Wild-Card team. The Vikings went on the road and defeated the favored New Orleans Saints 26-20 in overtime, as Cousins threw the game-winning TD pass to the always-dependable Kyle Rudolph.

That gave the Vikings plenty of momentum as they headed to the west coast and their date the following week against the 49ers. While Minnesota was once again the underdog, there was little reason to think they couldn’t push the Niners to the limit and possibly come up with a last-minute victory.

The 49ers came into that game with a 13-3 regular-season record, but the Saints had done the same thing. The Vikings were not intimidated against the Saints, but they were against San Francisco. Minnesota was beaten handily by a 27-10 margin, and the game was not really as close as the score indicated.

In particular, Cousins was overwhelmed by the circumstances and did not look like he belonged on the big stage. While he completed 21 of 29 passes, the Vikings gained just 172 yards from those attempts for a putrid average of 5.9 yards per pass. Cousins was sacked six times by the Niners, and he looked as if he had been hit by a truck.

The Vikings have not recovered from that loss. They suffered through a 6-10 season in 2020 even though they added a dynamic rookie receiver in Justin Jefferson and running back Dalvin Cook proved to be one of the best at his position in the NFL.

The problem was a butter-soft defense that opponents chewed up consistently. The interior run defense was particularly weak, as both the Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers ripped through the Minnesota run stoppers with impunity.

This was particularly galling to Zimmer, who had previously earned a reputation as one of the best defensive minds in the game. The Vikings spent much of last offseason rebuilding their defense with acquisitions like defensive tackles Dalvin Tomlinson and Michael Pierce and the addition of cornerback Patrick Peterson.

The return of defensive end Danielle Hunter also looked like a major move because of his brilliant pass-rushing ability, but he was unable to stay on the field for more than seven games as a result of tearing his pectoral muscle.

The Vikings go into the finale with a 7-9 record, and a win will not alter their status as losers. They have been unable to get out of their own way the last two years. There is a feeling of inevitability that the team will lose any big game they have under the current regime.

Spielman has not given Zimmer and the coaching staff a team that is capable of winning key games. It seems that Zimmer no longer can reach his players, who rarely come up with a winning 60-minute effort. The belief among many NFL notables is that Cousins is not the quarterback who will seize control of the moment and drive his team to important victories.

If owner Zygi Wilf is of a similar mind, expect the Vikings to clean house on Black Monday and beyond. If he still has belief in one or more of his key leaders, Vikings fans should expect more losing seasons in the years ahead.