A year ago, Mike Zimmer coached the Vikings to a 13-3 record — their second NFC North Division title in four years — and a berth in the NFC Championship Game.
Apparently a lot of the NFL experts believe Zimmer no longer knows how to coach because of the Vikings' 8-7-1 record this season.
But when you look at the NFC North standings for the past five seasons, you find the Vikings have the division's best overall record at 47-32-1. Green Bay is 45-34-1, Detroit 42-38 and Chicago 31-49 after going 12-4 this season to win the division title. The Vikings and Packers are tied with two division titles in that span.
There were a lot of reasons why the Vikings didn't duplicate their 2017 record. Among them:
• Offensive line coach Tony Sparano died July 22, two days before training camp opened, and the Vikings had to replace him with co-offensive line coaches.
• Pat Shurmur, the 2017 offensive coordinator, left to become coach of the New York Giants. The Vikings replaced him with John DeFilippo, who was fired after the Vikings lost at Seattle with three weeks left in the regular season.
• And, the Vikings were hampered by injuries in 2018. In 2017, starters and key contributors missed a total of 62 games. This season, the total games missed by key personnel was 85.
In 2017, the only key starters — not counting the quarterbacks — who missed more than one game were offensive linemen Nick Easton and Mike Remmers (five each), rookie running back Dalvin Cook (12) and safety Andrew Sendejo (three). Of course, QBs Sam Bradford (14 games) and Teddy Bridgewater (eight) didn't play most of the season.