When contracts for NFL head coaches and general managers make their way into the news cycle it’s rarely good news for the names mentioned. That was the case for Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell and Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah when it was recently reported that they would be going into the 2024 season without contract extensions. It’s not a death sentence given that both are under contract through 2025, but it’s certainly not good news either. The report feels especially unfair to O’Connell who has outperformed early expectations in Minnesota.
Kevin O’Connell’s Offenses Have Consistently Overperformed
When Kevin O’Connell took over for Mike Zimmer, he inherited a stale, run-first offense that hadn’t consistently performed in years. He fixed that overnight. In his first season at the helm, the Vikings won 13 games and cruised to a division title. Those 13 wins were spearheaded by a strong offense and represent easily the best season of quarterback Kirk Cousins’ career. Pundits will argue that the Vikings got lucky in one-score games, which they did win at a historic rate. However, many of those games featured the Vikings jumping out to big leads early behind an efficient offense. Their porous defense often let teams back into games and made the scoreboard look closer than it needed to.
Another point angry fans online love to make is that the Vikings took a step back in O’Connell’s second season. Sure, the Vikings didn’t make the playoffs last year but that was due to Cousins’ season-ending injury, not O’Connell’s coaching. Before Cousins went down, O’Connell had him arguably playing the best football of his career in 2023. He then managed to keep the Vikings competitive in the playoff race even after the Cousins injury. The Vikings kept scoring points while juggling the three-headed monster of Josh Dobbs, Nick Mullens, and Jaren Hall at quarterback. If anything, O’Connell deserved some down-ballot Coach of the Year votes just for keeping Minnesota afloat.
O’Connell’s Leadership Has Been Even More Impressive
Not only did Kevin O’Connell inherit a stale offense, but he also inherited a toxic locker room that had reportedly been festering in the last few seasons under Zimmer. O’Connell immediately improved the atmosphere surrounding the team, with his pro-player approach being a refreshing contrast from Zimmer’s. Being closer in age to his players and being a former player himself certainly helps him maintain a consistent culture. That consistency was especially evident when the Vikings both started and finished 2023 slowly. At no point did the team quit playing hard or start pointing fingers when things went sideways.
O’Connell has also shown the ability to make tough decisions early in his tenure. Winning 13 games in a season usually doesn’t lead to coaching turnover, but O’Connell’s still made the correct call to fire Defensive Coordinator Ed Donatell and replace him with Brian Flores. As a result, the defense made huge strides last season and played a big part in keeping Minnesota competitive. That’s the kind of decision that even veteran coaches hesitate to make after a successful season. That decisiveness along with keeping the locker room on his side could be O’Connell’s saving grace if 2024 does go as poorly as some project.
Vikings Front Office Might Still Sink the Ship with O’Connell On Board
Unfortunately for O’Connell, it’s typical for first-time head coaches to be tied to the performance of the front office. Rarely does the head coach keep his job if ownership decides to clean house in the front office. The comments Vikings ownership made on their contracts feel like the first signs that seats are getting warm at the top. In the case of the front office that feels justified.
Since Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his team have taken over, the Vikings have failed to execute a vision due in large part to simply not drafting well. No player from the 2022 class has popped, with Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth being certified busts. Jordan Addison is a solid player from 2023 but he appears to essentially be the only contributor from that haul.
Additionally, the front office confoundingly did not have a clear plan at the most important position in sports post Cousins. They didn’t want to pay Cousins long-term, yet somehow never took a quarterback before the sixth round in either of the first two draft classes. They were then forced to take a huge chance on an unproven first-rounder in J.J. McCarthy, who wasn’t projected to start immediately even before his unfortunate knee injury.
Frankly, any three-year plan that features a team running Sam Darnold out there for Week 1 is an abject failure in roster management. For the Vikings to have any success this season, O’Connell will have to turn in his best performance yet. Not only will he have to try to turn Darnold from a massive bust to a redemption story, but he’ll also simultaneously need to nurture a rookie quarterback. If he can’t, fair or not, he will be in danger of joining Minnesota’s front office on the hot seat by season’s end.
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