Personnel-wise, the 2021 Minnesota Vikings will undergo a caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation when compared to this season. From 2014 to present – Mike Zimmer’s coaching tenure – the team’s defense ranks as follows per points allowed: 11th (2014), 5th (2015), 6th (2016),1st (2017), 9th (2018), 5th (2019), and 25th (2020).
If you search for reasons as to why this 2020 Vikings season has felt so strange or hapless at times – that is your stat. A team that boasted the NFL’s best defense three years ago now ranks 25th in the industry. It’s a fall from grace that observers of the Zimmer football credo find unfamiliar.