Vikings coach Mike Zimmer mulls handing playcalling to his son. Believe it when you see it

A skeptical eyebrow was raised by a visitor chatting with Mike Zimmer on the patio outside his second-floor office at TCO Performance Center on Tuesday.

"Honestly," said the 65-year-old Vikings coach, "I don't know yet if I'll call the defensive plays this year."

Yeah, right, Zim. You've only done it at the highest level of football the past 21 seasons, including the last seven as head coach. And this is the year you'll be unveiling some significant schematic changes come Sept. 12 at your old haunts in Cincinnati.

Seriously?

"Well, my other deal is, right, I got a young special teams coach [Ryan Ficken] and I got a young offensive coordinator [Klint Kubiak] with a pretty young staff," Zimmer said. "So do I keep investing as much time as I need to do to call plays on defense and not invest the time I need to in the game management and the other stuff? That's really been going through my mind as I'm trying to decide what to do."

He's got a point. Ficken and Kubiak are rookie coordinators. The special teams were especially awful last year. And the offense has lost Klint's dad, Gary, whom Zimmer once called, "the best thing that's ever happened to me since I've been [in Minnesota]."

But …

Wouldn't turning over the defensive playcalling duties to co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer just add another inexperienced son of a playcalling guru to the mix?

"It would be easy for me to interject because I'd know what's being called," said Zimmer, meaning he would be listening in and able to overrule any call he doesn't like.

Mike gave Adam a trial run during the preseason. Both seemed pleased heading into Friday's 28-25 loss at Kansas City in the preseason finale.

Said Mike: "I thought he did a really good job last week against Indianapolis."

Adam said he thought he did better against Indianapolis than against Denver. "The communication with Coach Zim and [defensive consultant] Paul [Guenther] was really good during the game, and that helped, so it's a good experience for me as I grow," he added.

There is, of course, a huge difference between the preseason and the regular season. Teams play vanilla schemes and make basic calls in August. The Vikings also played the Broncos with no starters and the Colts without five defensive starters.

"Yeah, it's definitely harder [in the regular season]," Mike said during his Wednesday news conference. "But he did do a good job last week. I told him that after the game."

Suddenly, a Dallas flashback struck Zim as he remembered what it was like when he was learning how to call plays.

"You know, when I was with [Bill] Parcells, he'd tell me when I did a good job, and when I didn't do a good job," Zimmer said. "So I think it's important that they understand where it is. Bill used to say — I have to bleep this one out — but I'd make a call and he'd say, 'Oh, I hate that blankety-blank call.' I said, 'Coach, they got 1 yard.' "

Zimmer said he thinks it's important for young coaches to get experience calling plays.

"I think they should do it," Zimmer said.

He then said something that caused another skeptical eyebrow to be raised.

"Quite frankly, I don't want to do it anymore, but sometimes I do it," he said. "But it's tough. I probably shouldn't say this, but it's probably not as hard for an offensive head coach to do it as it is a defensive coach, because there's so many other things you've got to be dealing with. But I've done it for a long time, so I have experience at it. But it's good to get [Adam] experience."

Back on that patio Tuesday afternoon, Zimmer was asked if he honestly could see himself not calling defensive plays in Cincinnati on Sept. 12.

"Yeah, I don't know," he said. "I really don't know."

With all due respect, another skeptical eyebrow was raised.