5:02 am | November 24, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:
EAGAN, Minn. — His team and job title may have changed in the past 20 years, but Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is exactly the same.
At least, his motivational tactics haven’t changed.
“Oh, I’m a pest,” Zimmer says. “I pester my players, poke them with a stick, talk to them about how good they can be and what my expectation level is for them. And my expectations are pretty high.”
Three-time Super Bowl champion Darren Woodson knows all about those expectations. The defensive back and five-time Pro Bowler played for Zimmer from 1994 to 2003, when Zimmer was Dallas’ defensive backs coach and then defensive coordinator.
“His thing was always my matchups,” Woodson says. “It wasn’t so much the player before that played my position. It was the matchups that I would have. It was Shannon Sharpe or it was Steve Smith in the slot this week — you can’t cover him.”
Woodson finished his career with 23 interceptions and the most tackles in Cowboys history.
“He’d put little notes in my locker about whoever the players were that I was seeing and all that stuff, like, ‘He’s going to kill you,’ ‘You suck,’ those type of things,” Woodson says with a laugh.
More than two decades later, Zimmer is still pestering players in his secondary, while adding another layer: the Woodson Meter.
What is the Woodson Meter? The actual definition could depend on whom you ask. But in having to face it nearly every day, safety Harrison Smith probably has the best idea, and it is simple: being able to do everything at a very high level.
“Whether it’s tackling a big back, taking a lineman, or covering a small, twitchy slot receiver,” Smith says. “It’s the ability to be a well-rounded player.”
“Darren used to want to work on his coverage skills, so when the defensive scout team was out, he’d go out there and play corner so he could work on covering Michael Irvin,” recalls Zimmer. “So I’d say stuff like that to Harrison, and the next day I’d see him out there covering the wide receivers.”
Neither Smith nor Zimmer can recall exactly when the coach began the “Woody”-themed pestering and prodding of Smith, but both say it has been at least two years. In that time, Smith has led the Vikings in tackles, defensive touchdowns and interceptions. His three sacks this season already have tied for the most in any season in his career.
“It’s come up in the goal line a couple times where I may be aligned one way and he’s like, ‘Well, why don’t you align like Woody used to?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I kind of like it this way!’ He’s like, ‘Well, you know, Woody could do it.'” Smith laughs. “It challenges me to up my game.”
In seeing the similarities between his two players, Zimmer draws inspiration from his days with Woodson to help propel Smith today.
“Darren was easy to coach,” Zimmer says. “There was one time, we were playing somebody and they had this tight end, and I’m talking about how great this tight end is and this and that. And he said, ‘Hey, Zim, give him to me. Just let me cover him. I’ll take care of it.’ That’s the kind of guy he was.”
Those anecdotes are working for Smith.
“You’ve got to have a little bit of cockiness as a defensive back, but when Zimmer started talking about Darren and how great he was, that’s something big that you got to live up to,” Smith says. “It’s not that I need to change my game, but try to improve in areas that he says Darren was really good at. It’s definitely something to aspire to be.”
How does Woodson feel about a meter of success being named after him?
“Harrison is not the first to get this treatment,” Woodson says. “Zimmer used to do that to me. I can remember the times when I would have a good game, maybe an interception, two interceptions, a fumble … and he would never give me the game ball. He said, ‘That’s what I expect.'”
Woodson and Smith have established a friendship where they try to text every week. Woodson often gives Smith feedback and advice. And it all started with Zimmer’s Woodson Meter.
Says Woodson: “I told Harrison, ‘Now, I expect greatness from you. I’ll watch film and watch games and you make a great play? Well, I expect that from you. No game ball for you, brother.'”
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