On September 24th, the Minnesota Vikings sank to 0-3 in the 2023 season, losing to the Los Angeles Chargers after a hurried final redzone pass attempt gone awry.
Vikings fans and NFL media savaged head coach Kevin O’Connell for the playcall, letting the clock tick down with hopes that then-quarterback Kirk Cousins could deliver a dagger touchdown pass to pretty much walk off the Chargers.
Kevin O’Connell Went from Dumb Hotseat Chatter to Coach of the Year Candidate
Had the play worked, O’Connell would’ve been lauded as a genius. But tight end T.J. Hockenson couldn’t haul in the catch, the pass was picked off, and Minnesota was suddenly and embarrassingly 0-3.
Then came the absurd hotseat chatter.
To that point, O’Connell’s Vikings were 13-7 on his watch, but some semi-credible websites decided the young head coach was on the NFL’s feared hotseat. You can’t make it up.
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.”
The site essentially said O’Connell is on the hotseat, but actually he’s not.
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 after Week 3 of 2023 was 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.
Well, since the Pro Football Network and Fansided poppycock, Minnesota has busted off a 5-1 record and is suddenly in the NFC’s driver’s seat for a wildcard playoff berth. O’Connell and Co. are also 1.5 games out of first place in the NFC North.
Wouldn’t you know it? O’Connell now has the fourth-best odds to win the 2023 NFL Coach of the Year award, according to FanDuel.
Through nine weeks, these are the frontrunners to grab the COTY honor:
- Dan Campbell (DET) = +210
- DeMeco Ryans (HOU) = +400
- Mike McDaniel (MIA) = +450
- Kevin O’Connell (MIN) = +1400
- Robert Saleh (NYJ) = +1400
- Nick Sirianni (PHI) = +1400
The moral of the story? Putting any second-year coach on the hot seat three games into his second season — after he guided his team to a 13-4 record the year before — is moronic.
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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.