Vikings to Hire Ram's OC Kevin O'Connell as Their New Head Coach

 

Image Courtesy of USA Today

Last week, I wrote about the Vikings hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their new general manager, the feelings of excitement I had about that, and a variety of different topics pertaining to their interesting offseason full of turnover and difficult decisions. When writing that, I had hoped and even assumed that they would make their head coaching decision the following week so I would be able to write about that. Thankfully, that ended up happening for me, as it was announced that the Vikes plan on hiring Rams Offensive Coordinator Kevin O'Connell as their new head coach. O'Connell was originally a third round draft choice by the New England Patriots in 2008 and was one of Tom Brady's backups for a few years following that. He spent time in San Francisco and Washington (as Kirk Cousins' Quarterback's Coach for a year) for a bit of time before being hired to be the Rams Offensive Coordinator in 2019 under Sean McVay.

O'Connell had plenty of worthy competition to fight off in order to win this job, as the finalists for it were him, Rams Defensive Coordinator Raheem Morris, newly-hired Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham, and University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Most Vikings fans and the NFL world expected Harbaugh to get the job; he had by far the most experience, has been a winner everywhere he has been, and had a lot of success in his years with the 49ers, leading them to three NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl appearance. In fact, there were reports coming out that Harbaugh's second interview with the team was actually just a "formality," and that the job was basically already his. However, after his interview on Wednesday he called Michigan and told them he is staying with them for the foreseeable future, and that same the Vikings called Morris and Graham to tell them that they did not get the job.

Although it seemed that many Vikings fans wanted Harbaugh to be the new coach here in Minnesota, I personally am really looking forward to seeing what Kevin O'Connell has in mind for this Vikings team. Instead of going with the older, experienced option, the Vikes instead decided to follow what a lot of NFL teams are doing and went with the young, offensive-minded head coach. O'Connell is only 37 and is yet another guy from McVay's growing coaching tree to get a head coaching job. So far, McVay's tree has done pretty well: Matt LaFleur has led the Packers to two straight 13-3 seasons, Zac Taylor is currently in the Super Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals, and Brandon Staley narrowly missed the playoffs in his first year as the Chargers coach. Even though most of us fans do not know much about O'Connell, the fact that Minnesota's front office felt strongly enough about him that they seemed to prefer him over Harbaugh says a lot, especially considering he has never even been a play-caller before, let alone an NFL head coach.

Minnesota fans desperately want to see the Vikings hoist the Super Bowl trophy. If they got this hire right, O'Connell should be around for a really long time since he is so young, and maybe he will be the one to finally lead the Vikings to the promised land and bring it home. Right now, he has a lot of talented players to work with, such as Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, and Adam Thielen, just to name a few. It will be interesting to see if the Vikings attempt to rebuild on the fly or fully blow it up and trade some of their big names. The Wilfs have been on record saying they want to field a competitive team, and with the division potentially being more open than usual, I have a feeling they will look to re-tool and have a go at the division title this season. Only time will tell if the new duo of Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell will lead to a team that is competitive for years to come, or just more initial optimism filled with disappointment for Vikings fans.