On Jan. 13, while the Vikings were less than 48 hours removed from their season-ending divisional playoff loss to the 49ers and still weeks away from the peak of subterfuge season, coach Mike Zimmer gave what might have been the most telling assessment of how the team’s offseason was going to go.
“At the end of the day, it ends up being a young man’s game,” Zimmer said. “The more that we as coaches can help develop these young guys, the quicker that we can help develop them, the better it is for them.
“You always like to see guys have success whether it’s a young guy that you’ve grown and he becomes a free agent and goes to have success with some other team or it’s a guy that’s here that you’ve helped develop to become a good player here.