Head coach Mike Zimmer could get fired if Vikings lose to Steelers in 'TNF'?

Talk of potential coaching changes is already taking hold around the NFL. One situation might be bad enough, however, that the team may not even wait until the end of the season to make a change.

Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is firmly on the hot seat and may not even last until the end of the season, according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. The Vikings are 5-7 and highly unlikely to make the playoffs, and they are coming off a loss to the lowly Detroit Lions. Zimmer’s calling card is usually his defense, but the unit has given up 382 yards per game, the third-worst mark in the league.

Worse yet is the fact that Zimmer appears to be wearing on his players and even his staff. The Vikings coach “continues to wear out players and coaches with his caustic manner,” La Canfora reports. Zimmer is on such thin ice that a loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday night could be enough for the Vikings to fire him with four games remaining in the regular season.

It’s not a huge surprise that Zimmer is in trouble. Although he has a 69-54-1 record as Minnesota’s head coach, the team is poised to miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since he took over in 2014. That so-called “caustic manner” has been on display publicly as well as privately.

It’s bad enough that Zimmer is getting called out by one of his Vikings predecessors, which has to be hugely embarrassing.