Kevin O’Connell Was Totally Snubbed

Kevin O'Connell Resembled Dan Campbell in Loss
Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports.

Kevin O’Connell conducted the best first season by a head coach in Minnesota Vikings history, tallying a 13-4 record and an NFC North crown, the team’s first since 2017.

Before O’Connell, Dennis Green’s debut with an 11-5 record in 1992 was the best by first-year Vikings skipper, but O’Connell arrived from the Los Angeles Rams and upped the bar.

Kevin O’Connell Was Totally Snubbed

And that’s all it will be — a good first season for a young coach. NFL award voters didn’t even consider O’Connell for Coach of the Year, a head-scratching development because, well, the man won 13 games with a team that won eight games one year prior.

Was Totally Snubbed
Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports.

Associated Press Coach of the Year candidates were announced Wednesday, and these men got the nod for consideration:

  • Brian Daboll (New York Giants)
  • Sean McDermott (Buffalo Bills)
  • Doug Pederson (Jacksonville Jaguars)
  • Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers)
  • Nick Sirianni (Philadelphia Eagles)

Back in July, Bovada, an online sportsbook, assigned O’Connell the best odds in the NFL to win Coach of the Year, with a +1200 moneyline. This was around the time that Mike Kaye from Pro Football Network ranked O’Connell as the NFl’s worst coach, “Kevin O’Connell, despite being a former NFL QB and coordinator, is the mystery man among the head-coaching ranks. While the Vikings kept their roster mostly in place, O’Connell will clearly bring his own ideas to the table. O’Connell is a true wild card, for better or worse.”

Playoff Power Ranking
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.

While O’Connell probably didn’t deserve to win the Coach of the Year honor because his team flopped in the postseason to the Giants, a squad led by the aforementioned Daboll who was nominated, Minnesota’s new coach should’ve made the cut, perhaps over Buffalo’s Sean McDermott. The Associated Press list is solid, but it’s just confounding that a first-year head coach with 13 wins under his belt received zero recognition.

O’Connell’s Vikings tallied a mind-boggling 11-0 record in one-score games during his first season on the job, executed the largest comeback in the NFL history after erasing a 33-point halftime deficit against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15, and generally turned around operations from mediocre seasons in 2020 and 2021.

after revenge game
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.

Minnesota also had some warts, ranking sixth-worst in the NFL per defensive DVOA, 27th in time of possession, and it was wiped off the map in three games against the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers. Perhaps the porous defense and shellackings rendered by the Eagles, Cowboys, and Packers dampened all enthusiasm for O’Connell as Coach of the Year.

Overall, let this be a history lesson — wins alone by a first-year head coach are not enough to move the needle for end-of-season awards.


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,’ and The Doors (the band).

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.

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