On Thursday, February 8, the Dallas Cowboys went down memory lane by appointing former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer to oversee their defence for the second time in his NFL tenure.
On Thursday night, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network broke the story on social media.
Pelissero stated, “Sources say Mike Zimmer will be hired by the #Cowboys to be their defensive coordinator.” “Zimmer, 67, has been a respected defensive specialist for a long time and is the third-winningest coach in Vikings history. A significant addition to Dallas, where Zimmer served as coach from 1994 to 2006.
Dan Quinn, the former defensive coordinator for the Cowboys, left the team after a disappointing playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers in January to take on a head coaching role with the Washington Commanders. Zimmer will succeed Quinn.
Between 2014 and 21, Zimmer led the Vikings for eight years. According to Pro Football Reference, the squad went 72-56-1 in the regular season and went 3-1 in the postseason during that time.
Before joining the Vikings, Zimmer managed the defence for the Cowboys from 2000 to 2006, the Atlanta Falcons in 2007, and the Cincinnati Bengals from 2008 to 2013.
2021 saw Minnesota fire general manager Rick Spielman and quarterback Zimmer after an 8–9 regular season. In place of head coach Kevin O’Connell, who guided the team to an NFC North Division championship in 2022 but struggled to a 7-10 record the previous season after quarterback Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles roughly halfway through the season, the Vikings hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their replacement.
Though his journey out of Minnesota was marked by awkwardness that at times verged on the strange, Zimmer left as one of the most successful coaches in the team’s history.
In 2019, a former player accused coach Zimmer of nepotism when he promoted his son to co-defensive coordinator. In December 2022, ESPN’s Tim Keown conducted a thorough investigation into the new Vikings culture under O’Connell and discovered that, in their two years together in Minnesota, star wide receiver Justin Jefferson had never gone to Zimmer’s office.
