Everybody knows how the fates of star college quarterbacks Justin Fields and Kellen Mond ended up in the NFL. Fields went 11th overall in the 2021 draft to the Chicago Bears. He spent three seasons with the team and produced some memorable highlights, but he couldn't stay healthy and didn't win a lot of games. He got traded to Pittsburgh for a conditional pick. Mond was a 3rd round pick of the Minnesota Vikings that same year. He was gone after one year and hasn't been able to sign with a team since May.
A new story involving both of them came out this past week courtesy of Mark Craig of the Minnesota Star Tribune. It does an in-depth interview with former Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and how he went from the cusp of a Super Bowl to a nasty breakup with the organization. It turns out 2021 was a tipping point for him as a rift developed between him and then-GM Rick Spielman. Much of the tension came from Spielman's desire to draft a quarterback despite problems elsewhere on the roster. Worse still, the two quarterbacks he liked, Fields and Mond, didn't impress Zimmer.
“The first round, Rick tried to trade up for Justin Fields, who hasn’t done anything,” Zimmer says.
With four third-round picks, Spielman selected, in order, quarterback Kellen Mond, linebacker Chazz Surratt, offensive lineman Wyatt Davis and defensive end Patrick Jones II. Zimmer was there for only the first pick.
“When he picked Mond, I walked out of the room,” Zimmer says. “I left the building. I didn’t even talk to him on the phone.”
It gets better.
Later that season, as the Vikings were struggling, Zimmer was asked if he might use that as an opportunity to get a look at Mond. He said no. When asked why, his reply went viral, "I see him every day." Rather than apologize for the comment years later, Zimmer took a victory lap.
“People made a big deal out of me saying after that game I didn’t need to see more of Mond,” Zimmer says. “I saw him every day in practice. Maybe I was omniscient or something. He played three NFL snaps and two were bad.”
Mike Zimmer apparently knew something was off with Justin Fields.
His comments seem a bit vague, but he was likely referencing the fact that Fields only started 22 games in college, threw less than 600 passes and his biggest claim to fame was getting blown out in the national championship against Alabama. Keep in mind that Zimmer is a defensive coach. He sees the game from that perspective. To that end, he likely saw what teams like Indiana and Northwestern did to stymie Fields (30-of-57 for 414 yards, 2TD, and 5 INTs) and immediately saw red flags.
As for Mond, that was even worse. He couldn't even complete 60% of his passes in college. Was he going to magically improve that in the NFL? One can understand why Mike Zimmer walked out. He knew Spielman had blown a huge opportunity, and it was likely going to cost one or both of them their jobs. The 2021 class is widely considered one of the worst in recent Vikings history. Zimmer was fired at the end of the season. Even if they had somehow landed Justin Fields, it wouldn't have changed anything.
Everybody thought the coach was being bitter about the results. It turns out he may have seen something before they did.
