The current Minnesota Vikings head coach has already achieved a bunch of success with the team, despite joining the franchise less than five years ago.

Following the team’s miracle playoff win over the New Orleans Saints last season, there was some thought that 2017 may be the year Mike Zimmer helps delver the Minnesota Vikings their first ever Super Bowl win. Unfortunately, the Vikings’ luck ran out in the NFC Championship and the team fell short of the Super Bowl once again.

Despite not being able to bring a championship to Minnesota yet, Zimmer is already one of the most successful head coaches in the franchise’s history. Of the nine people to coach the Vikings since 1961, none have won more games in their first four seasons with the team than Zimmer (39).

Since he has only been with Minnesota for less than five years, Zimmer obviously has not been able to lead the Vikings to as many playoff appearances as some of his predecessors. But one more trip to the postseason and he will tie Jerry Burns with the third most playoff appearances by a Minnesota head coach.

So if one were to rank the Vikings’ head coaches in order of success, it may look a little something like this.

Bud Grant Dennis Green Mike Zimmer Jerry Burns Brad Childress Mike Tice Leslie Frazier Norm Van Brocklin Les Steckel

At this point in time, an argument could be made that Burns deserves to be ranked higher than Zimmer on this list. However, Burns had the luxury of working with the same group of quarterbacks for most of his tenure in Minnesota and Zimmer has already had six different signal callers as his starter since 2014.

If he is able to lead the Vikings to a spot in the Super Bowl within the next few years, Zimmer might be able to surpass Green on the list. Green led Minnesota to the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons with the team, but never all the way to the Super Bowl.

Since Grant led the Vikings to a total of four appearances in the Super Bowl during his tenure as the team’s head coach, Zimmer has a lot more work to do in order for him to ever end up at the very top of this list. But if he is able to earn the Twin Cities a Vince Lombardi trophy or two, then that argument would definitely be something worth having.