Don’t Fall Victim to the Most Casual Take in the Vikings’ Orbit
NFL teams have terminated about eight coaches in the last couple of months, and Minnesota Vikings skipper Kevin O’Connell was not one of them — and he’s not going to succumb to that fate anytime soon. There’s a theory in Vikings fans’ orbit that the franchise should terminate O’Connell and promote his lieutenant, Brian Flores.
Yet, that’s just not going to happen.
Brian Flores is a hot name again, but the fantasy tradeoff ignores how Minnesota actually operates.
Flores is a fine ball coach and deserves a head coaching gig, but it will not be in Minnesota.
Why the O’Connell-Fired, Flores-Promoted Theory Doesn’t Add Up
The take is the sign of a casual fan.
The Theory: Fire O’Connell & Keep Flores
A handful of Vikings fans have suggested the idea — firing O’Connell to keep Flores.
One such account, @JJDEMARAY, has tweeted about the plan to retain Flores while sacrificing O’Connell about a dozen times in a row.
“The Minnesota Vikings can’t let the most important person in their organization get away just like Mike Tomlin years ago. Brian Flores must be kept at all costs including trading KOC if need be and promoting Flores. The Wilf’s can’t let this happen or the team will be bottom 5-7,” he tweeted this week.
He added in a separate tweet, “If you support Brian Flores being promoted to HC for the Minnesota Vikings and trading KOC, you have to be vocal. I don’t see anyway this team will be competitive without Brian Flores coaching this team.’
And this backdoor idea is prevalent on social media, especially among Facebook users. It’s not exclusive to @JJDEMARAY.
O’Connell’s Extension Hasn’t Kicked in Yet
While the idea might work in a video game, real-life implications make it impractical.
Minnesota extended O’Connell’s contract in January 2025, and the additional years have not kicked in. So, to make the theory come to life, the Vikings would have to terminate O’Connell, watch him immediately get hired by a head coach-needy team, and swallow millions stacked upon millions of lost money.
The Vikings’ owners perceive O’Connell as quite the catch. They’re not chomping at the bit to fire him. And if they did, they’d be on the hook for wasted money.
The 5th-Best Win Percentage on His Watch
Since O’Connell took over, his team has reached the postseason twice in four seasons. It also has the NFL’s fifth-best overall win percentage.
That does not grow on trees.
In fact, several other franchises would do evil things to obtain a coach who has fostered a Top 5 win percentage in the NFL. The Vikings may be the laughingstock of all sports, in general, if they canned the guy who won Coach of the Year 11 eleven months ago and also has a Top 5 win rate.
Flores, on the other hand, produced a 24-25 win-loss record (.489) in three seasons with the Dolphins.
Too, O’Connell could make some tweaks to his staff in the next few weeks. A to Z Sports‘ Tyler Forness wrote Thursday, “There have been discussions among analysts for months about whether the Vikings should fire multiple coaches, including offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and special teams coordinator Matt Daniels.”
“The Vikings have taken time to make their decisions in the past, and pushing the season-ending press conference back signals to me O’Connell has learned from that PR mistake, and is waiting to have the end of season press conference until he makes the right personnel decisions. By waiting, O’Connell will answer questions of the moves he made rather than answer questions on moves that could be made.”
It’s Just Not a Realistic Thing
Is it sad that Flores might leave for the Baltimore Ravens? Indeed. Is it disheartening that he could choose a Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator job over the one waiting for him in the Twin Cities? Absolutely — and even that scenario just doesn’t make sense.
If the Vikings employed a .500 ball coach who just could reach the team with his message, or if the 4-8 start to the 2025 season in late November had devolved into a 5-12 (or so) finish, firing O’Connell and keeping Flores would be fair game.
But neither hypothetical is real life. Minnesota won’t fire a head coach whose extension hasn’t kicked in to keep a guy with a 24-25 head coaching record, no matter how cool Flores might be.
Don’t expect it to happen because it will not come to fruition.
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