There’s a Vikings Bet You Should Explore
Through two weeks of the 2024 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings are rolling — in a season when oddsmakers initially believed the club would win just six or seven games.
There’s a Vikings Bet You Should Explore
Led by head coach Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings have started the season 2-0 — rather unexpectedly — defeating the New York Giants on the road by 22 points to start the 2024 campaign, along with an impressive six-point triumph over the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers in Week 2.
And if one is into sports wagering, now is the time to explore O’Connell’s Coach of the Year candidacy.
Heading into Week 3, O’Connell has +1000 odds to win COTY, trailing Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers (+600) and Mike MacDonald from the Seattle Seahawks (+700). For new bettors, the +1000 moneyline means a wagerer would win $1,000 if she placed $100 on O’Connell to take home the COTY trophy.
Why O’Connell? And why now? Simple — the young skipper has engineered a marvelous start to the season without his rookie quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, and Minnesota is missing players like T.J. Hockenson, Mekhi Blackmon, and Dalton Risner, among others. One of O’Connell’s rookies, cornerback Khyree Jackson, also tragically passed away in July. O’Connell has seized the moment every step of the way and led.
Too, his club just chipped off the 49ers by six points, a game where Minnesota was supposed to lose by four or five points. And if the Vikings could somewhat easily dismantle San Francisco, well, it can reasonably beat or compete with any team in the business, though the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs still reign supreme.
Unrelated to the COTY bets, the Vikings could be on the cusp of extending O’Connell’s contract for the long term. KSTP’s Darren Wolfson mentioned this week that an O’Connell extension could arrive sooner rather than later. “I’m telling you, it’s coming,” Wolfson said on SKOR North airwaves this week.
Wolfson added, “It’s just a little weird to me, based on what took place in Miami with Mike McDaniel, that it hasn’t happened yet.”
Minnesota parted ways with former general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer in January 2022, hiring general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell shortly after. On the tandem’s watch, the Vikings have the NFL’s seventh-best win-loss record at 22-14 (.611).
Fresh off the 2-0 start — with no imminent downturn on the menu, mainly because Minnesota’s wins haven’t seemed fluky — now would be the time to wager on O’Connell’s COTY odds. It won’t be weird one bit if his team finishes 10-7 or better and COTY voters take the plunge.
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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. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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