MOBILE, Ala. — Head Coach Mike Zimmer said Wednesday that every rep at Senior Bowl practices has value for Vikings coaches.
Zimmer opts to watch the practices with General Manager Rick Spielman from the press box at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, where the North and South teams will play Saturday in the 68th annual college all-star game.
In addition to the live reps, Zimmer and Vikings assistants and scouts have access to film that is distributed to all teams.
"It's great, and I think it's fun for the players," Zimmer said of the more than 100 prospects who were brought to Mobile. "It's a real honor for players to be invited to the Senior Bowl."
Scouts have put in evaluations all fall and sometimes over the course of multiple years, particularly players from large schools, but the Senior Bowl also has gone to great lengths to find players from smaller schools who are worth a longer look.
This week, the prospects are on the same playing field with an opportunity to make a meaningful impression through practices and meetings with the teams.
In addition to prospects explaining why the love football, they also can show their passion for the game from the start to finish of every rep.
"One of the big things you get to see is how they finish plays, how they interact with the other guys," Zimmer said. "All of that stuff is important."
Zimmer's favorite part of this week is the head-to-head competition.
"You get a chance to eyeball them, and a lot of these small-school players get up against better competition," Zimmer said. "I think that's always good when you see how they interact with other people, and you see them against good players every play. I think that's a lot of it.
"As far as the big school guys, it's the same thing," Zimmer added. "They get to go against good competition this whole week, whereas during the season, they might be three or four games throughout the course of the year. I think it's the competition, especially when they get up against the really good players, then you can kind of evaluate them even better."
Zimmer said the Vikings benefitted last week from Defensive Coordinator George Edwards and assistants coaching in the East-West Shrine Game, which also included a week of practice and preparation before last Saturday's game.
"The biggest thing, like last week when George was coaching those guys, you get a chance to find out how they interact with the playbooks, how they interact with the different schemes and things like that and understanding professional rules," Zimmer said. "That part is really good. You don't get to see it as much here when you're just watching, but luckily I have some friends on some other staffs, and they'll tell me about some of these guys."
The Bears staff is coaching the North this week, and the Browns staff is coaching the South.
Zimmer also discussed **changes to the Vikings coaching staff** that include lifting the interim designation on Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur, sliding Kevin Stefanski from coaching running backs to quarterbacks and hiring Kennedy Polamalu to coach running backs and Clancy Barone to coach tight ends.
After dealing with a detached retina that's required multiple surgeries since November, Zimmer said his eye is "doing better."
"I still can't see out of it, but I'll have another surgery, probably at the end of April and then hopefully, it will be all good then," Zimmer said.
