Tag: Kevin O’Connell

Kevin O’Connell sheds light on Sam Darnold situation after NFL Honors

Kevin O’Connell shared his thoughts on Sam Darnold’s future after winning Coach Of the Year.

Kevin O’Connell won the NFL’s Coach Of the Year award on Thursday. The win was unsurprising, as O’Connell and the Vikings exceeded preseason expectations by going 14-3.

The preseason projections were low because the Vikings had to replace Kirk Cousins and start either rookie J.J. McCarthy or Sam Darnold.

Although McCarthy missed the season with a meniscus tear, Darnold had the best season of his professional career. He threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns en route to a Pro Bowl. However, he was only signed for one season, leading to questions about whether he will return to Minnesota or sign elsewhere.

After winning the Coach Of the Year award, O’Connell clarified earlier comments that speculated about Darnold’s future. The Vikings coach spoke with the local media and gave the following statement:

Look, you guys know how I feel about Sam. He is a guy that we identified last year as somebody who could come in and be successful. And really, no matter where he was at before he arrived in his quarterback journey, it was about maximizing our time together. And I think we did that and I think it was a very special year for Sam. And what that earned him is, everybody in our league now thinks he’s a bona fide legitimate starting quarterback in our league and can win a lot of football games. He won 14 of them. So he’s earned the right to be a free agent, but we will continue to have ongoing dialogue and discussions with him and his representation as well as being really excited about J.J. McCarthy and where he’s at in his rehab. He’s really hit the ground running as the true offseason has begun.

I’ve talked about it all season long, about the depth of that quarterback room this year. But now, we’ve got to see what that room is going to look like as we try to put together the best possible team for 2025. That’s really what the answer should have been, and probably it was closer to that, but that doesn’t take away from my feelings for Sam Darnold or what I believe he accomplished this year and how proud I was to be right alongside with him.

Thankfully, free agency starts next month, and we can finally get a resolution on the Darnold debate. If O’Connell’s quote tells us anything, Darnold will be playing elsewhere in 2025.

Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell wins NFL Coach of the Year Award

On Thursday night the NFL recognized it when they voted Kevin O’Connell the league’s coach of the year. 

The 2024 season for the Minnesota Vikings could have gone any way imaginable. From being projected to earn the top pick in the draft to winning 14 games is quite a stretch to overcome.

This season went well, and on Thursday night, the NFL recognized it by naming Kevin O’Connell the league’s coach of the year.

O’Connell did more than just win games. He had players at nearly every position have breakout years or overall productive ones. The biggest indication of how well he coached was what he was able to achieve for and with Sam Darnold.

The veteran quarterback went from journeyman to MVP candidate. The coaching job has Darnold set to be paid handsomely, and O’Connell is now in Minnesota for the long haul.

The Vikings coach beat out Lions coach Dan Campbell by 78 voting points for the award.

PFF tabs a Vikings player on offense to breakout in 2025

The team at PFF recently identified one player from each team as a breakout candidate in 2025. Their choice for the Vikings is no surprise.

Every season is filled with players who come out of nowhere to have stellar seasons and become “breakout” stars. This season, one of those players was none other than Minnesota Vikings‘ quarterback Sam Darnold. Darnold came from draft bust and relegated backup to having a career season and leading the Vikings to the playoffs.

Every year, the NFL is littered with stories like Darnold’s, and next season is likely to be no exception. There are a number of great candidates for “breakout” performer for next season, and the team at PFF have their eyes on one player in particular for the Vikings.

It should come as no surprise that that player is none other than quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The former first-round pick didn’t see any action in his rookie season thanks to a pre-season knee injury, but he’s likely to be the team’s starter in 2025, unless they decide to bring Darnold back for another run — which seems unlikely after the collapse he had to end the season.

All the parts are in place for McCarthy to succeed in much the same fashion that Darnold did this season. Minnesota still has star wide receiver Justin Jefferson in the fold. They still have an All-Pro caliber tight end in T.J. Hockenson, who will be well removed from his knee injury by the start of 2025.

Perhaps most importantly, McCarthy still has head coach Kevin O’Connell, who recently signed an extension with the team and took home Coach of the Year honors. O’Connell has gained a reputation for being a quarterback-friendly coach, so it’s no surprise that people are expecting big things from the former Wolverines quarterback when he does finally make it to the field.

Vikings coaching staff well represented in NFL Award nominations

Two Minnesota Vikings coaches are finalists for the Associated Press’ NFL awards.

The Associated Press announced finalists for its eight NFL awards on Thursday. A few Minnesota Vikings coaches are included after leading the team to a surprise 14-3 record in 2024.

As expected, Kevin O’Connell is among five finalists for the 2024 AP Coach Of the Year award. The third-year head coach helped Sam Darnold revitalize his career and had the Vikings one win away from winning the NFC North and hold the NFC’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

This is the second time O’Connell has been a finalist for the award. He was a finalist in 2022 after leading the Vikings to a 13-4 record in his first season. However, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll won the award after a 9-8 record in his first season.

Brian Flores is among five 2024 Assistant Coach Of the Year Award finalists. The Vikings defense was one of the league’s best, ranking fifth in points allowed and leading the league with 24 interceptions. This was done with talented but new starters across the defense.

The award winners will be announced on Feb. 6 during the 14th annual NFL Honors ceremony. FOX and NFL Network will air the event live at 9 PM ET.

Sean Payton might be a better Coach of the Year candidate than you think

The Broncos were projected to max out at five wins with the NFL’s “worst” roster in 2024. Sean Payton instead took them to the playoffs.

The Associated Press announced five finalists for the 2024 NFL Coach of the Year award on Thursday and Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton made the list.

Payton is not considered the favorite to win the award, but there is a strong case to be made for him. The other candidates are Dan Campbell (Detroit Lions), Kevin O’Connell (Minnesota Vikings), Dan Quinn (Washington Commanders) and Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs).

One could argue that Payton did more with less.

(Keep in mind that these AP awards are voted on at the end of the regular season, so postseason results are not considered.)

This offseason, expectations for the Broncos were lower than they were for the Vikings or Commanders (and obviously lower than the Lions and Chiefs). Denver was given an over/under win total of just 5.5 wins.

Before the season, Pro Football Focus ranked the Broncos’ roster as the worst in the NFL. Meanwhile, the Pro Football Network predicted Denver would clinch the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft with a 3-14 record. Few, if any, national media outlets expected the Broncos to accomplish anything this season.

After moving on from veteran quarterback Russell Wilson, Payton took on the largest dead money salary cap hit in NFL history. Payton then used his first-round draft pick to select quarterback Bo Nix.

Despite being hindered by the salary cap and starting a rookie quarterback, Payton went 10-7 and clinched the team’s first playoff berth in nine years. Nobody believed in Denver going into the season, but Payton got his players to buy in.

“It’s funny — we kind of doubled what a lot of people thought we were going to win,” Nix said after the team’s regular season finale. “[That] goes to show that [there was] a lot of talk preseason, but you don’t have to be what people say you’re going to be.”

That sentiment was echoed by veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton.

“It’s so funny hearing all the things of, ‘The Broncos are going to win four games, and three games, and two games,'” Sutton said. “‘This, and this and that… Have a rookie quarterback, blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, ‘Man, they had no idea what we had in this locker room and what we have in this locker room.'” 

The “worst” roster in the league produced five All-Pros, the second-most in franchise history. Surely, coaching matters.

The Broncos exceeded everyone’s expectations, largely thanks to Payton’s management of the team. That sounds like a Coach of the Year.

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Kevin O’Connell named 2024 NFL Coach of the Year by PFWA

On Thursday, the Pro Football Writers Association announced that Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell was their coach of the year. 

Kevin O’Connell is having quite the week for himself and the Minnesota Vikings. While he would rather be creating a game plan to compete against either the Eagles or Commanders in the NFC Championship, the second-best thing is happening for him.

On Thursday, the Pro Football Writers Association announced that Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell was their coach of the year.

The Vikings coach agreed to a contract extension on Tuesday. Despite the potential for teams to check in on his availability, the Vikings made sure to lock up their coach for the foreseeable future. Now, O’Connell will be able to do so by adding an award to his office.

O’Connell is also nominated for the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award, as well as Brian Flores for Assistant Coach of the Year and Sam Darnold for Comeback Player of the Year. There could be a lot of hardware on the way to the Vikings this offseason, all that is missing is a Lombardi Trophy.

Analyst makes bold prediction regarding the Vikings QB situation

ESPN analyst Benjamin Solak has an interesting take on what the Minnesota Vikings should do with quarterbacks Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy.

Arguably, the biggest storyline surrounding the Minnesota Vikings this offseason and heading into the 2025 season is how the quarterback position will shake out. Last offseason, the team signed quarterback Sam Darnold to a one-year deal, hoping he would be a bridge to the rookie J.J. McCarthy when he was finally ready to take the reigns.

While that may have been the team’s initial intent, plans changed quickly, as McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury in the pre-season, officially making it Darnold’s team for the foreseeable future. Almost nobody could have predicted just how far Darnold would take the opportunity.

Not only did Darnold prove to be a competent quarterback for the Vikings, he turned in a career year under head coach Kevin O’Connell and, at times during the season, was in the conversation for MVP. Darnold fell off at the end of the year and even further in the Vikings’ playoff loss to the Rams, but the season he turned in was stellar nonetheless.

So much so that a major talking point has become, “What do the Vikings do about Sam Darnold?” One NFL analyst believes the answer is to sign the veteran quarterback to a long-term deal.

Recently, ESPN put out an article outlining their thoughts and predictions on the 2025 offseason for every team, and analyst Benjamin Solak predicts the Vikings give Darnold a new deal in the off-season, saying:

I really, truly believe the Vikings will extend Darnold. They have the room for something in the Daniel Jones neighborhood — four years, $160 million is probably optimal, if they can get Darnold to sign that before another team in the free market offers him a whale of a deal. Depending on the size of the contract, they’ll either keep McCarthy or quietly look to trade him ahead of a bad quarterback draft class and see if a needy team takes the bait.

The idea that the Vikings might opt to sign Darnold and flip McCarthy for some NFL Draft assets probably had more legs before Darnold laid an egg against the Lions and Rams to close out the season. Still, for a team strapped for assets in this year’s draft, it may be an appealing option.

PFF names Sam Darnold as Vikings’ highest-ranked potential free agent

Despite being the team’s highest-ranked potential free agent according to PFF, quarterback Sam Darnold isn’t likely to be back in Minnesota.

Heading into the NFL’s offseason, it’s generally good practice for teams to try and keep their best players from hitting the open market. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. Whether that’s because of players retiring, relationships breaking down between a player and the organization, or teams wanting to go a different direction despite a player’s strong play.

That third scenario is the one the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in when it comes to their highest-ranking potential free agent according to PFF, quarterback Sam Darnold. Darnold revitalized his career in 2024 with the Vikings, turning in the best statistical season of his career in his first season in head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense.

Darnold set new career highs in yards, touchdowns, and had an incredible run of games with a quarterback rating over 100. For all that, Darnold earned himself an 80.7 grade from PFF. He also likely earned himself a pretty good payday on the open market — just not likely from the team with which he had so much success.

The Vikings are clearly of the mind that last year’s first-round draft pick, former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, is the future of the franchise, and they would like that future to start sooner rather than later. The plan was for McCarthy to take the reigns at some point last season, but a pre-season injury threw a wrench into those plans.

Now, ostensibly healthy, it seems like the Vikings are “all systems go” with the young quarterback, leaving Darnold to hit free agency once again. This time, however, there should be a more robust market for the journeyman quarterback after leading the Vikings to a surprise playoff appearance.

The final game of the regular season, and his abysmal playoff performance against the Rams, may hurt Darnold’s ceiling as far as offers go, but someone is likely going to be willing to take a chance at continuing his reclamation. It just won’t (likely) be Minnesota again.

Kevin O’Connell agrees to contract extension with Minnesota Vikings

Kevin O’Connell shall remain as Minnesota Vikings head coach

The Minnesota Vikings made sure head coach Kevin O’Connell wasn’t going anywhere.

The Vikings announced on Tuesday that O’Connell had agreed to terms on a contract extension with the NFC North team. He is 34-17 in three seasons as Vikings coach.

There were reports multiple teams were interested in trading for O’Connell.

In the end, the Vikings and their coach agreed to stay together.

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The Vikings went 14-3 in the 2024 regular season. They were knocked out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round.

In a bit of irony, Minnesota’s four losses came because of back-to-back defeats to the Detroit Lions and Rams twice.

Vikings, Kevin O’Connell reach agreement on multi-year extension

The result of the team and Kevin O’Connell’s focus is they have agreed on a new multi-year extension for the Coach of the Year candidate.

Coming off a 14-3 year, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was heading into a contract year in 2025. The team and O’Connell never let any noise enter the room this past season, or the few weeks we are into the offseason.

The result of the team and Kevin O’Connell’s focus is that they have agreed on a new multi-year extension for the Coach of the Year candidate.

Adam Schefter of ESPN first reported the news on Tuesday afternoon.

O’Connell was hired by the Vikings in 2022 during a hiring cycle that has not been kind to his fellow coaches. Of the 10 coaches hired, just three remain, Todd Bowles and Mike McDaniel being the others.

His record in three seasons with the team is an impressive 34-17 but 0-2 in the playoffs. He has thrived in creating a locker room culture that brings in free agents and develops their offensive weapons.

With this long-term contract now secured, his next project will be helping J.J. McCarthy take the next steps in his development after the team selected him 10th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.