Adam Zimmer is his own coach

[Bengals1181]

Since being on the sidelines for his first NFL game with his dad in 1994, Adam Zimmer knew that he wanted to be a coach. He also knew that he wanted to follow his own path before working for his dad was a possibility.

That turned out to be this offseason. With the retirement of Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson and Hue Jackson moving into that spot, Adam Zimmer was hired in early February to be a defensive assistant, helping coach defensive backs and special teams.

“It’s going pretty well. It’s been a little adjustment, being in a different environment. But I’ve learned a lot,” said Adam Zimmer. “Eventually I always knew it was something I wanted to do (coaching on a staff with his father). To learn how he does it and be around him more, everything’s good.”

Added Mike Zimmer: “He’s just like the new players. He’s learning a lot about how we do things. He’s very, very smart. He’s conscientious.”

Even before being hired here, Adam Zimmer had made appearances around Paul Brown Stadium. He would visit Cincinnati when his team was on its bye week and also would hang around sometimes with the coaching staff during the Senior Bowl and NFL Scouting Combine.

The Bengals hired Zimmer after he was a defensive assistant with the Chiefs for three seasons. After Kansas City finished 2-14 last season, they cleaned house.

Before that, he was on the Saints staff for four years, including the Super Bowl season of 2009. At New Orleans and Kansas City, though, Zimmer helped coach the linebackers.

With the Saints, Zimmer got to work under and learn from Gregg Williams and Joe Vitt, while at the Chiefs it was Romeo Crennel and Gary Gibbs. When Gibbs took over as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator last season, Adam Zimmer had expanded duties working with the linebackers.

With a resume of learning under those coaches, both Zimmers thought the time was right to coach together for the first time.

Said Adam Zimmer: “I didn’t want to be that guy that was just there because my dad was there. I’ve been on staffs where that was the case, and they had no credentials to be a coach, but they followed their dad around from here to here to here. I didn’t want to be one of those guys. I kind of wanted to learn how to do things my way and not just the way he does it. Kind of get my own personality as a coach before I got on the same staff with him.”

For a couple of years, Mike Zimmer has talked to his son about a possible switch to coaching defensive backs. Mike Zimmer entered the league coaching the secondary, but as he has said, there isn’t an abundance of good defensive backs coaches throughout the league.

“It’s so much more of a passing league now that you really want to know how everything works. Now that I’ve worked with the linebackers and the DBs, I know how to put it all together. So I think it’s going to be really good,” said Adam Zimmer about coaching DBs so far.

“DBs are different than linebackers. And it’s been an adjustment learning exactly what they’re doing. You kind of have a good feeling what they’re doing behind you when you’re with the linebackers. But now it’s like ‘OK, you have to be 14 yards deep on this spot on the field all the time.’ You don’t know all those little details unless you’re coaching them.”

One of the biggest contributions Adam Zimmer has made during the offseason program is he put together a PowerPoint presentation before the start of OTAs on each coverage. He put together a point-by-point tutorial for each player, showing the alignment and what they’re supposed to be doing. There were then examples of each coverage with video.

The presentation impressed cornerback Leon Hall, who had known Adam Zimmer a little bit before he joined the staff.

“He’s more outspoken than I thought he was going to be, in a good way. He’s in there coaching guys up,” Hall said. “He’s a little more reserved but kind of talks like his dad. This is the call and this is how it is supposed to be done, which is good.”

Adam Zimmer being on staff has had another positive effect – for the first time since joining the Bengals, most of Mike Zimmer’s family is in town. Besides Adam, his daughter Marki Zimmer has also moved here. Youngest daughter Corri is still taking classes at Texas State.

“It’s been really good. I get to spend a lot of time with them. We do a lot of things together. They all worry about me a little bit,” Mike Zimmer said. “I’m hoping to talk my other daughter into coming here, too, once she graduates.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130601/SPT02/306010118