Kevin O’Connell Starts Singing a Different Song with the Vikings’ QBs
At some point, reality needs to be acknowledged.
Kevin O’Connell has been doing his best to slowdown the effort to fully ignite the passer battle. In the spring, the focus rests on digesting the playbook, building comradery among teammates, perfecting technique, and so on. Class on the grass, a coach will say. But while that may be the focus, Coach O’Connell is at least now acknowledging that the competition has begun.
Kevin O’Connell Talks Vikings QB Competition
Consider, for instance, the conversation that Kevin O’Connell had with Mike Florio and Chris Simms of Pro Football Talk.
The former NFL passers — Simms and O’Connell — dug into the topic. Simms, God bless him, asked about Minnesota actually having an open competition. O’Connell swerves immediately, re-framing the discussion: “What I would say is this: we’re going to go through the offseason program. I’ve always looked at that as kind of the learning [and] teaching phase. There’s a lot of individual player improvement plans being activated.”
Not long afterwards, there’s a mention of working toward “mastery” of the scheme.
Journey forward into OTAs at the beginning of June, a key part of individual learning that O’Connell layered into his March prophecy. O’Connell doesn’t appear so shy about the prospect of a competition unfolding right now.
“I’ve been really happy with the way both those guys,” O’Connell explained, “J.J. and Kyler have kind of attacked it in their own individual kind of ways, knowing that they’re competing. Look, there’s no, it’s a competition, these guys are working everyday. They know that. But the greater good of the Minnesota Vikings and our team’s ceiling is the most important thing that’s clear to both of those guys.”
And then afterwards there was chatter about McCarthy’s now infamous “high school classroom” comparison. The key point, though, is that Kevin O’Connell didn’t appear shy about naming the competition a competition. So, what changed?
First and most obvious is the calendar. Real work (June) rather than imagined work (March) is ongoing at TCO Performance Center. Reps are being taken, meaning the two combatants are squaring off even if it’s just shorts and jerseys.
Similarly of note is that O’Connell does still try to bring things around to the priority. The team, not the individual passers, is what matters. But then there’s the other detail shoehorned in there: each guy working through an own individualized plan to become a better quarterback. There is, in other words, somewhat of a tension that’s taking place.
In McCarthy and Murray, the Vikings have two quarterbacks pursuing singular pathways to push each individual game higher. Well and good. But then there’s the pool that these two are swimming in. Whoever becomes the QB1 needs to elevate the team via individual performance. Such is life for a professional quarterback within the NFL.
Combined, the Vikings’ quarterbacks did poorly last season.
The 9-8 Vikings had the trio of arms offer a 61.6% completion rate alongside 2,834 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions. These are brutal statistics for a team boasting Kevin O’Connell as the head coach alongside Justin Jefferson at receiver.
Kevin O’Connell is moving into his fifth season as the team’s head coach. Quite possibly, a season that resembles the effort from last year will mean that O’Connell never arrives at a sixth NFL season in Minnesota, making the currently unfolding quarterback competition of the utmost importance.
Next up in the offseason program is mandatory minicamp. Slowly at first but then quite suddenly, the passer battle will grow in intensity.
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