Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell‘s “welcome to the NFL” moment came at the expense of one of the all-time greats, Randy Moss.
Selected in the third round of the 2008 draft by the New England Patriots, O’Connell fumbled through the play calls as a rookie quarterback at his first practice, which led to clear frustration from the Hall of Fame wide receiver.
“I would say it was the first practice, I can see it just like it was yesterday,” O‘Connell said. “I walked into the huddle and I stuttered through about 3, 4 play calls. And Randy Moss decided he wasn’t gonna take any reps with me. He said ‘ah, [expletive] no’ and left the huddle.”
While that moment was a sign that O’Connell was bound for a career in coaching, it truly has come full circle with O’Connell landing where Moss got his start in the NFL.
Currently 28-16 (.636 winning percentile) since becoming the Vikings head coach in 2022, O’Connell has carried his first taste of the NFL with hin.
“We’re getting real here on ‘Tell Us With Metellus,’ ” O’Connell said, referring to the weekly segment where safety Josh Metellus interviews his team. “That shaped my whole life ever since then. So those moments when I’m about to yell at you ‘Hey Josh!’ I remember that moment and I say ‘You know what, Josh? Let’s work through this together.’ “
Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell a Front-Runner for Coach of the Year
GettyVikings coach Kevin O’Connell and team captain C.J. Ham.
Through 11 weeks, O’Connell has the third-best odds at winning the NFL’s Coach of the Year award.
DraftKings Sportsbook has Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is the favorite with +225 odds followed by the Detroit Lions‘ Dan Campbell (+350) and O’Connell, who has +400 odds to win the award after steering the Vikings to an 8-2 start.
The award doesn’t just come down to wins and losses and usually has a narrative element to it where a coach helps a team overcome adversity.
O’Connell has a strong case to make considering he’s taken a quarterback who was once a punchline and turned him into a winner.
Sam Darnold is on pace to throw for 4,058 yards passing and 32 touchdowns — both career highs. He is one of only 10 quarterbacks who have a passer rating of 100.0 or higher through 10 games played this season.
O’Connell Shares Insight Into Coaching Up Sam Darnold
GettyVikings coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterback Sam Darnold.
Early in the season, Darnold was playing at an MVP-caliber level, leading the league with 11 touchdowns en route to NFC Offensive Player of the Month honors.
But after a 5-0 start, Darnold’s past struggles with turnovers flared up. Ten of Darnold’s league-leading 14 turnovers have come in his past five games.
Darnold recovered last week against the Tennessee Titans just seven days removed from throwing three interceptions against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He completed 20 of 32 throws for 236 yards and no interceptions.
O’Connell didn’t change anything during the week’s preparation. He merely encouraged Darnold to do what he does well and called a game that accentuated those traits — throwing the ball accurately and using Darnold’s athleticism.
“I think we went back to you know a lot of those really highlighting a lot of those things throughout the week and kind of putting it on Sam to get to that standard every single snap of doing his job,” O’Connell said in a November 18 news conference. “He played great. Hopefully, it’s something consistently that we see moving forward because when he plays like that… we’re going to make enough plays to give our team a chance to win the game.
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