In the final six years of Bud Grant's initial 17-season coaching run with the Vikings from 1967-83, the Vikings were never more than two games above or below .500.
Mired in mediocrity, Vikings at a pivotal point in franchise history
It's fine to dream big as candidates are being interviewed. But remember this could go a different direction, too.
January 18, 2022 at 3:26PM
After missing the playoffs at 8-8 in 1983, Grant retired — and the Vikings hired Les Steckel to take over as head coach. That 1984 season was a 3-13 disaster, enough so that Grant came out of retirement in 1985 to coach a 7-9 team before giving way to Jerry Burns and another season of missed playoffs in 1986.
That four-year stretch from 1983-1986 was the last time the Vikings missed the playoffs in four consecutive years. Ever since then, they generally have been a team that had a chance to compete for a playoff spot every year — with occasional flirtations with greatness in 1998, 2000, 2009 and 2017.
This is relevant now, as I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, as the Vikings reach somewhat of the same crossroads they reached after that 1983 season.
The last four years of the Mike Zimmer era produced a 33-31-1 record, including one playoff berth and an upset playoff win.
That's not objectively bad, but it is decidedly mediocre. In moving on from Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman last week, the Wilf family made it clear that they are not interested in being stuck in the middle.
As candidates for the GM and coaching vacancies are interviewed this week, the dream of course is to hit on the right combination that makes the Vikings consistently competitive enough to aspire not just for a playoff spot but for the Super Bowl.
There is a flip side to that, though: The wrong hires could send the Vikings into the sort of tailspin that the franchise has tended to avoid.
The Vikings haven't missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons since 2005-07. The 1983-86 stretch was four years. More than four years out of the playoffs? You have to go back to the 1960s.
So no pressure on the new hires. And no pressure on the Wilfs, who must — to borrow a Spielman phrase — get this right.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
