Mike Zimmer as Sean Payton's defensive coordinator in Denver?
Buried deep in Albert Breer's MMQB column this week is a juicy detail about people wondering aloud to him about the possibility of Mike Zimmer as new Broncos head coach Sean Payton's defensive coordinator in Denver.
Zimmer, out of the NFL since being fired by the Minnesota Vikings after the 2021 season, is supposedly joining Deion Sanders' staff at Colorado University. Sanders has said Zimmer is "coming" to Boulder but the university hasn't made anything official with the 66-year-old coach.
Enter Breer with this tantalizing thought:
"It seems as if Seattle assistant Sean Desai, an old Vic Fangio disciple, is well positioned for the Broncos job, but I’ve had multiple people wonder aloud to me if Payton might take a swing at luring Mike Zimmer, whom he worked with in Dallas, over to Denver from Boulder, where Zimmer is working for Deion Sanders."
Is this just a meaningless-yet-interesting note from Breer or is this a comment planting seeds for future news? Where there's smoke there's fire?
The connections between Payton and Zimmer run deep. They were both on Bill Parcels' staff in Dallas from 2003 to 2005 before Payton was hired as head coach of the Saints. A 2018 story from ESPN profiled their close relationship, noting that they are golf buddies and have been "great friends" for years.
What's more is that Denver general manager George Paton was part of the Vikings front office for all eight seasons Zimmer was head coach in Minnesota. That could be meaningless, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Related: 10 facts about new Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores
Related: Minnesota Vikings 2023 offseason guide: What's going to happen?
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.