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You've heard it said that there are few things in life that we can know for a 100% certainty. Things like the sun setting in the west; the whole thing about life, death and taxes. Those are things that we know for sure.
Might I suggest we add that the Minnesota Vikings will make the NFL Playoffs in 2021 to that list?
Sure it might seem foolish to throw something as trivial and unpredictable on the table with the other certainties that we live out lives by...but is it really?
Since taking over as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings back in 2014, Mike Zimmer has an overall winning record at 64-47 (.576). That's admirable and has allowed him to retain a job in one of the most competitive industries for seven years and counting. But digging into the numbers a little bit, there is a definite trend that has formed and it comes with a frequency of every-other year.
Generally speaking, Mike Zimmer's Minnesota Vikings make the playoffs every-other year. Well, actually that's not a generality, that's actually what his teams have done.
In seasons that begin the year with a calendar year that ends with an even number, Mike Zimmer's teams struggle. In years that end in an odd number, Zimmer's Vikings make the playoffs and have considerably better on field success.
In fact, when you break down the numbers to see how this plays out, here's what you get.
In even seasons where the Vikings miss the playoffs, Mike Zimmer has posted an overall record of 30-33. That's a below .500 win percentage at .476 and an average of 7.5 wins per season. On offense the team posts an average ranking just above 18th in the league in points scored. On defense, Zimmer's forte, the struggle years saw the Vikings rank right around 13th in the league.
For the odd numbered seasons where the Vikings have made the playoffs each of the three times, Coach Zimmer has a winning record of 34-14, a dynamic winning percentage of .708. The offense has seen success with an average ranking of 11th for points scored and the defense has dominated ranking inside the top-3 for points allowed.
So while the excitement is building with the fan base following the restructure of Danielle Hunter's contract and the signing of Sheldon Richardson, we can couple that with the optimism that Aaron Rodgers might be out of Green Bay, and all of the sudden fans are REALLY EXCITED about the Minnesota Vikings this season.
Double down on your bets as well because it's an odd yeared season and based on what we discussed earlier, that means good news for the Vikings in 2021!
If we were to dig a little deeper into this trend, 2021 might actually end up being REALLY GOOD for the Mike Zimmer and The Purple.
But wait, there's more...catch the rest of this article including an explanation as to why 2021 might be special at VikingsTerritory.com