Tuesday, February 11, 2020 Vikings Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Adam Zimmer
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Tuesday, February 11, 2020 Vikings Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach Adam Zimmer Great to be here. Excited to work with you guys throughout the year, and excited to get to work with Andre (Patterson) and Coach (Mike) Zimmer. Excited about this opportunity to make the Vikings (defense) the best defense that we can have in 2020. Q. What is it like for you to work for your dad, Mike Zimmer? A. It’s good. We have a great relationship, great communication. It was an adjustment at first when we were in Cincinnati, but we’ve been doing it seven years now, so I know how to approach him. I know how he thinks, and I think we have a great working relationship, one where I can learn a lot from him. Q. What does it mean to you to get a promotion like this? A. It’s really exciting. It’s something as a young coach you always work for, to try and keep moving up in the business. For me to have this opportunity is really exciting. It’s something I’ve been working for, something I think about a lot. It’s just something you work for, and you’re excited for, but you still got to keep working and keep grinding away to be the best you can be. Q. How helpful is it for you to take on this role with Andre Patterson? A. I think it’s great having Dre (Andre Patterson) with me. I go way back with Dre, when I was real little at Washington State. I know him really well, and we have great communication. Him coaching the defensive line and me coaching the linebackers, we’ve already worked really closely together, so I don’t think that will be much of a change now that we’re both trying to put this in the grand scheme of things all together. Q. Was it Mike Zimmer’s idea to keep you both with your position groups? A. I’ll do whatever he (Mike Zimmer) wants me to do, and I think I do have a great relationship with my players and I do enjoy working with the linebackers. Ultimately it’s his decision on how he wants to have the dynamic, but I do think keeping the continuity of me coaching the linebackers and Dre coaching the defensive line, I think that’s really good for us, because we have been pretty good at those positions. Q. Is there an added pressure to keep the family’s reputation for coaching quality defense going? A. I really don’t think about the added pressure. I think about doing the best we can to make this defense the best it can be. Whatever role that has for me, whatever role that has for how we play defense and how coach wants to play defense, that’s the goal; to be the best defense in the NFL. Q. What are you most proud of seeing the linebackers develop in your six years of working with them? A. We’ve had some tremendous growth from all of our guys. From Anthony Barr being a Pro Bowler, Eric Kendricks has gotten better each and every year, and he’s now an All-Pro, which hasn’t happened for the Vikings (at linebacker) in a long time. I think I was told it was Matt Blair who did it way back in the day. The improvements, to see these guys go from where they were as a rookie to where they are now, and their communication and their understanding of the defense, understanding of the game, has been really impressive. Even young guys like Eric Wilson who had to come step in for us last year and has done a heck of a job for us. Ben Gedeon, I really like him. We’ve developed some young talent that is kind of the core of our group right now. Q. How do you see this transition working with Mike Zimmer and Andre Patterson together? A. Yeah, I think it’s a collaborative effort. We’re going to be in there, Dre and I are going to make this transition as smooth as possible. We’ll work together on the game plans, I know Coach (Mike Zimmer) will be involved a lot in them. I think that the more we can collaborate and work together, the better it’s going to be, because we’ve all been through a lot of games in this league. Q. Do you see a day where Mike Zimmer has someone else calls plays? A. That’s up to him. Whatever he thinks is best for the Vikings. If he thinks it’s best for him to continue to call plays, we’ll help him as much as we can. If it’s best for me or Andre to call it, we’re open to that possibility. Whatever we go through in training camp and OTAs and however he feels comfortable, I think that’s how we’re going to approach it. Q. Did Mike Zimmer have any conversation with you as to why he thought you were ready for this opportunity? A. Not really. I think he’s been talking to me about a lot of different things and how to approach things as my career goes along, so I know he wouldn’t have made this move if he didn’t think I was ready. He’s just like that. He’s not just going to do something because I’m his son or anything like that. He believes that this is the time and I’m ready, and I’m going to try and prove him right. Q. What is it about this defense that has made it consistently successful? A. Number one, I think we have really good players. They really do a great job trying to execute the scheme. They study, they’re in to it. I think being in the same scheme for so long helps, because they understand the little details of how we play, but again, it comes back to the consistency of the roster. We’ve had a lot of the same guys around here a long time, and we do have a lot of corrections we need to make. Our expectations are higher than fifth in the league in points, we want to be the best in everything. I think we can still get better, but the consistency of the players, the work ethic of the players, and I think the scheme is good, but we can always keep tinkering with that. .