Why You Should Be Excited about Kevin O’Connell as Next HC
The Minnesota Vikings are on the brink of formally hiring Kevin O’Connell, an offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. O’Connell and the Rams take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, and the Vikings identified him as the next skipper mere minutes after opting out of HarbaughMania.
HarbaughMania gripped Minneapolis for five days when news broke last weekend that Jim Harbaugh was interested in the Vikings. Fans rallied, tweets were sent, and Harbaugh was number-one-with-a-bullet to become the Vikings next head coach. But no cigar – Minnesota extended no employment offer.
There is still reason to be excited about O’Connell, though.
Foremost, O’Connell (for the time being) would become the second-youngest coach in the NFL if no other teams currently needing head coaches hire someone younger. Therefore, Vikings faithful satisfy the thirst for a youth movement, presumably pivoting the foundational culture to embrace offense. For eight seasons, Minnesota preached defense – and defense always. The problem? The Vikings defense descended to hell in 2020, refusing to bounce back amid a couple of injuries from Danielle Hunter and the mass exoduses of players like Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph, Trae Waynes, Anthony Harris, Everson Griffen (for a minute), etc.
In this regard, O’Connell is the anti-Zimmer. Mike Zimmer was older, defense-first, and “old school.” O’Connell is young, offense-first, and new school. Vikings football will not feel the same anymore. If you grew tired of ZimmerBall – jumping out to a lead, trying to suffocate with defense, and running out the clock – O’ConnellBall will likely implement nothing of the sort. The Rams team currently employing O’Connell steps on necks when things are humming, so there is no reason to believe O’Connell would suddenly depart from that philosophy.
Youth. Check. Not-Zimmer. Check. What’s next?
Well, Minnesota embarks on the “friends of Sean McVay” experience. After McVay led the Rams to the Super Bowl in 2018, the craze was to hire anybody associated with the high-octane young coach. The Bengals did – and now they’re in the Super Bowl. Zac Taylor was on McVay’s staff. So did the Green Bay Packers, hiring Matt LaFleur to replace Mike McCarthy. And in three seasons, the Packers have performed wonderfully, falling just short – over and over – of reaching the Super Bowl.
The McVay Coaching Tree is flourishing. Now, the Vikings seize the trend. Unless O’Connell is the one outlier – that’s entirely possible, just be warned – the precedent set by Taylor and LaFleur is promising.
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Plus, O’Connell partners with another young man, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, formulating the GM-HC combo. These are new, not-hardnosed brains in the room. They’re modern guys, slapping in the face the Spielman-Zimmer era.
Maybe it’ll work; perhaps it won’t. But the Vikings ownership fundamentally veered off course from the 2014-2021 way of doing things. Those eight seasons netted no Super Bowls and no Super Bowl appearances.
Because the shift away from Zimmerian ideology is so vivid, O’Connell’s arrival should generate new hope. And for a franchise with 61 Super Bowl-less seasons – despite a litany of playoff trips – change is damn near mandatory.
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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