Sometimes the best jobs are the one you don't get. Right, Mike Zimmer?

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – The Tennessee Titans hired Ken Whisenhunt as their head coach in January 2014 over Mike Zimmer, who interviewed for the job twice.

Whisenhunt was 3-20 with the Titans before getting fired Tuesday by the team’s new controlling owner. Zimmer is 12-11 with the Minnesota Vikings, who are off to a 5-2 start this season and on a three-game winning streak entering Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams.

Did Zimmer dodge a bullet?

“I feel bad for guys who get fired, because I know how hard this job is.,” Zimmer told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday. “I don’t think of it as dodging a bullet.”

He added with a smile: “My bullet might be coming soon. Who knows?”

Zimmer, 59, told FOX Sports last year that he nearly pulled out of Vikings’ coaching search after getting passed over once again by a team, believed to be the Titans. He had interviewed for five other NFL head coaching jobs in previous years but lost out each time.

The Vikings look smart for ending that streak. In 2014, Zimmer guided the team to a 7-9 record despite the legal issue that sidelined star running back Adrian Peterson most of the season and an injury that forced rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater into action sooner than planned. Now, they’re one game back of the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North.

Meanwhile, the Titans went 2-14 in 2014 and are 1-6 this season. Team president/CEO Tommy Smith, who had worked closely with general manager Ruston Webster on the Whisenhunt hire, retired in March. Amy Adams Strunk, daughter of the late Bud Adams, took over as controlling owner and fired Whisenhunt from her home in Texas on Tuesday.

Those sorts of circumstances are impossible to predict from the outside. Of course, making the right hire can cover up a lot, at least on the field.

“You never know,” Zimmer said. “Yeah, I was fortunate to get with these players and this management and things like that. But you hope that you have an effect on them, too.”

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