NFL assumptions are risky, at best, but assuming Mike Zimmer is indeed safe and will not be fired before Thursday’s season-ending news conference, he will have clawed his way to the podium as a survivor who’s tied for ninth in current NFL head coaching longevity.
Top 10. And he was hired in 2014. Talk about pressure.
The Vikings coach will rank fifth in the NFC. First in the NFC North. And stand among only five survivors out of the 14 head coaches with defensive backgrounds hired since 2014.
Of those five — the others are Atlanta’s Dan Quinn, Buffalo’s Sean McDermott, Detroit’s Matt Patricia and Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel — none made the playoffs in the Great Offensive Explosion of 2018.