If Vikings are about to fire him, Mike Zimmer says he hasn't heard that from the top

Coach Mike Zimmer said Monday afternoon he has not spoken with Vikings ownership about his job status beyond this season. Zimmer is under contract through the 2023 season on a three-year extension signed just before back-to-back losing years.

"I have not talked to any of them," Zimmer said.

The Vikings' 37-10 loss to the Packers on Sunday ensured they'll miss the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. It's the fifth time in eight seasons under Zimmer in which the Vikings will have only seven or eight wins. The franchise hasn't been "knocking on the door" of Super Bowl contention, as co-owner Mark Wilf said 16 months ago in his last public comments about the team's leadership.

Zimmer said he has not discussed his job security with his assistant coaches. He said the coaches plan to play every available starter in Sunday's season finale against the Bears.

"The media is the ones doing all the uncertainty and everything else," Zimmer said, "so we don't worry about that. We just focus on what our job is."

The Vikings defense has regressed every year since 2018 and enters the season's final week ranked 31st, allowing 385.4 yards per game. The Vikings rank 25th in scoring defense, giving up 25.6 points per game.

Another loss, another game in which Zimmer lamented the Vikings offense not running enough. Running back Dalvin Cook had nine carries to quarterback Sean Mannion's 40 dropbacks, leading to questions about whether Zimmer and coordinator Klint Kubiak have a communication problem.

"It's not really a disconnect," Zimmer said. "I talked to him on the play we got sacked on. It was the first of the possession, and I talked to him before that and said, 'Hey, Klint, we've got to run the ball here,' and he was going to run it on second down, thinking he had a good play on first down, and then on second down, it's second-and-20.

"A lot of things like that happened. Sometimes he doesn't hear me when he's calling a play in, because you push the button, and he can't hear me. He can only hear what he's saying. So there's some things like that that go on throughout the course of a game. But again, at halftime, I mentioned that we need to run the ball. Because we had [28 rushing] yards or something at halftime."

Zimmer was asked if he wanted to clarify his postgame comments that he didn't need to see rookie quarterback Kellen Mond in a game without playoff implications because "I see him every day."

"I just mean he's the third-team quarterback," Zimmer said. "He's improved throughout the year. He's got a chance to be a good player, but he's third on the depth chart."

Safety Xavier Woods signed a one-year deal with the Vikings last spring because he wanted to win, which is why he views this season as a disappointment. Woods has a career-high 10 pass deflections, but the Vikings defense has lapsed in critical moments.

"We thought we had a chance to make a run for a title," said Woods, who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this spring. "Certain teams come into a preseason and camp and know they have a good team, and certain teams kind of bluff it. We thought we had a good team, but we didn't put it together."

Quarterback Kyle Sloter, who was re-signed last week, was released on Monday.