2 Popular NFL Sites Put Kevin O’Connell on the Hot Seat
Think a 13-4 record for a first-year head coach would buy any grace?
Nope.
2 Popular NFL Sites Put Kevin O’Connell on the Hot Seat
Absolutely not, in fact, as two popular NFL-themed websites have decided to toss Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell on the hot seat, a curious development for an organization very much at the beginning of a competitive rebuild stage of team-building.
Pro Football Network and FanSided added O’Connell to “hot seat” lists this week after the young skipper has started his career with a 13-7 (.650) record. Wipe that smile off your face; they’re not kidding — the coach with the best first-year win-loss production in the history of the Minnesota Vikings is apparently on borrowed time.
Almost comically, Pro Football Network added O’Connell to its hot-seat roster but then claimed he wasn’t really in danger of losing his job. PFN’s Dallas Robinson wrote, “While the Vikings won’t fire O’Connell after he took the club to the postseason in his debut, Minnesota has to be disappointed with its 0-3 start. But O’Connell will likely guide the Vikings through their upcoming reset/rebuild.”
If you’re keeping score at home, that seems to mean O’Connell is on the hot seat — but he isn’t.
FanSided’s Luke Norris was next, explaining about O’Connell’s warm bottom, “No head coach can ever take all the blame for a loss, but O’Connell certainly has to take some heat for this one, as his clock management down the stretch was quite poor. Letting the clock run instead of getting in Cousins’ ear to tell him to spike the ball as precious seconds ticked away was inexcusable, and Vikings fans certainly weren’t happy about it on social media.”
The Vikings are foundationally amid a competitive rebuild phase, offloading numerous veterans last offseason, including Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, Patrick Peterson, and Dalvin Tomlinson, among others. Canning the head coach now would be nearly unthinkable.
“Kevin O’Connell’s seat might not be quite as hot as those of Matt Eberflus and Ron Rivera, but it’s certainly warming up with Minnesota dropping to 0-3,” Norris added.
The moral of the story? While O’Connell assuredly won’t be fired any time soon — PFN and FanSided theories be damned — if you, the Vikings fan, thought the coach had earned any goodwill for an impressive 13-4 rookie season, you were wrong.
Losing pulls pitchforks out of the shed, and at 0-3, that’s where national media veered.
New Blood on the Way for Vikings
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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