O’Connell’s Upcoming Choice at Defensive Coordinator Is Humongous
After the presumptive Minnesota Vikings head coach, Kevin O’Connell, wipes the presumptive from his job title, he will make countless decisions affecting the future of the Vikings. It’s only a matter of time.
For the sake of the 2022 season, though, the most impactful immediate decision is his choice of defensive coordinator.
Why? Well, the fans got what they chanted for — a young, offensive-minded head coach. Unless he has a secret side gig of defensive stuff under a different alias, O’Connell is an offense guy. The Vikings next defensive coordinator will run that side of the ball. Gone are the days when a Vikings offensive coordinator is plucked for promotion elsewhere, leaving the Vikings wondering “what’s next for the offense.” O’Connell, like his boss Sean McVay, is solely accountable for running the ship offensively.
If the next Vikings offensive coordinator gets promoted at this time next year — good. O’Connell goes nowhere, securing continuity on offense until he’s no longer the head coach. Vikings fans inside the Zimmer era are emphatically not used to this phenomenon.
The defensive side of the ball is a different animal. The next defensive coordinator will have autonomy, and if that man is promoted to another NFL team, well, Minnesota fans enter familiar territory in replacing the coordinator of a certain side of the ball.
Because O’Connell doesn’t specialize in anything defense per his resume, the coordinator chosen for defense is extremely vital to the 2022 wins and losses. That person alone could determine if the 2022 Vikings are any good. O’Connell has the brain to implement a prolific offense, but defense is a crapshoot. He needs an accountable defensive coordinator, preferably with a history of leading defenses.
The last thing Vikings fans want to endure is a redux of the Daunte Culpepper era when the team didn’t tackle, and games were habitually shootouts. This also occurred during the Leslie Frazier era — with a run-first team on offense. Yuck.
Plenty of candidates for defensive coordinator exist — Vic Fangio, Wink Martindale, or even Wade Phillips. Hell, Phillips tweeted he was retiring from retirement a while back. A witty Son of a Bum, indeed. He tweeted this one year ago:
More applicable to the Vikings, he tossed out this digital pigeon on Thursday:
Phillips’ son, Wes, is the tight ends coach with O’Connell on the Los Angeles Rams staff.
It is probably a longshot for Phillips to become the Vikings defensive coordinator, but the candidate field provides intriguing reputable names. Phillips is one of those.
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Too, O’Connell could hire a young whippersnapper like himself to run the defense, but this choice is one he absolutely cannot get wrong. The NFL — and its fans — is so enamored with offense that defense feels like an afterthought. But fusty defensive teams do not win Super Bowls. They just don’t. Phillips even has theories about it:
O’Connell’s selection for defensive coordinator will be the first or second major referendum on his judgment — and the stakes for the 2022 Vikings are humongous.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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