playKevin SeifertSep 18, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseKevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsEAGAN, Minn. — Kevin O’Connell has produced one of the most unique résumés in NFL history.
He is the only head coach to deliver multiple seasons of at least 13 victories, as he did for the Minnesota Vikings in 2022 and 2024, without winning a playoff game.That distinction, via Elias Sports Bureau, neatly encapsulates the enigmatic nature of O’Connell’s tenure with the Vikings, which moved to a fifth season Sunday with a 39-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers.O’Connell has demonstrated many of the key attributes of successful NFL coaches, from his work with veteran quarterbacks to his empathetic personality to — most importantly — a clear aptitude for winning. Yet he has failed to translate those qualities into a serious run at the Super Bowl, failing to get past the wild-card round.In 2022, the Vikings allowed 431 yards and 28 first downs to the New York Giants in a 31-24 loss, leading to the firing of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell a week later. In 2024, the Vikings were overwhelmed on both sides of the ball in falling to the Los Angeles Rams 27-9.In either case, that bottom line looms over a series of unique circumstances he has encountered during that process.With two significant complications removed — the Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in January and demoted 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy to third-string QB this summer — will O’Connell take the step this season from a good coach to a great one?Can he do so after the inauspicious loss of new quarterback Kyler Murray, who suffered a concussion on the 11th play of his debut game Sunday and remained in the protocol as of Friday morning?
Or is O’Connell destined to become this generation’s Marvin Lewis or Jim Mora, two coaches who had long and successful careers without making a playoff run?Sitting in his office this summer, O’Connell said he felt “incredibly confident” about “how to be the best version of myself for this organization” after four years “learning different aspects of what it takes to win” and understanding how to maintain it.”I’m really excited about what a lot of those things mean for me personally,” O’Connell said, “but also for a building that I have so much confidence in from top to bottom — where we are now in 2026 from the team we’ve put together, getting a chance to work with [new general manager Nolan Teasley] and his staff and my coaching staff every day.”The numbers on O’Connell’s résumé are clear. His .638 winning percentage is the best in team history, and he is tied for the NFL’s fifth-most wins since 2022 despite using nine different quarterbacks. The four coaches ranked ahead of O’Connell benefited from using one primary quarterback over that period. One longtime AFC executive said: “He would have his pick of jobs if they ever fired him.”Speaking generally at training camp last month, Vikings owner/president Mark Wilf said “we try to be patient as an ownership” in pursuit of postseason wins but added: “Patience isn’t infinite.” O’Connell’s contract extends through the 2029 season, and Wilf said he is evaluated annually on the “totality” of his performance — not playoff success alone.”Coach O’Connell knows the expectations as well as anyone,” Wilf said, “and that’s to win, and win championships.
And we’re thrilled with coach O’Connell and everything he’s brought here, most importantly the culture he’s brought.”The historic binaries of O’Connell’s résumé, amid the circumstances that produced them, prompt further digging as he moves forward in his fifth season. Three aspects in particular merit closer inspection: his work with quarterbacks, the impact of Adofo-Mensah’s rocky tenure and the culture the coach has built.The quarterback whispererO’Connell himself flinches when he’s referred to as a “quarterback whisperer.” The moniker implies a Midas touch that elevates any quarterback he works with, a power that no NFL coach can realistically possess.O’Connell has coaxed a career year from Sam Darnold, elevated Kirk Cousins into a fourth-quarter marksman, suctioned two wins from journeyman Josh Dobbs and gotten 1,110 passing yards in three starts from career backup Nick Mullens. But his work with young quarterbacks does not compare favorably.Since the start of the 2023 offseason, the Vikings have drafted two quarterbacks and kept one undrafted rookie on their roster. Of the 97 quarterbacks who have started at least one NFL game since then, McCarthy, Jaren Hall and Max Brosmer rank No. 71, No. 90 and No. 94 in career QBR, respectively.An AFC coach suggested that it’s better to think of O’Connell as “a really good playcaller” who can give quarterbacks a decisive advantage if they understand and accept his concepts.ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said on “NFL Live” this summer that “the quarterback needs to let the star of the offense be Kevin O’Connell,” and further explained his point in a telephone conversation.”There are certain guys that just have a high-end level of play design, playcall and the setup of that playcall,” Orlovsky said.
“I played for one of them in Houston, Gary Kubiak. I had never been around a coach that could watch film, know exactly how the team and quarterback could attack the defense, but then in the game within a drive or two, know exactly what wrinkle might be needed and know how to get that wrinkle set up. I think Kevin has that.”Sometimes quarterbacks, because they are highly competitive and incredibly egotistical, think they can make whatever throw. For quarterbacks with this type of playcaller, you’ve just got to get into that rhythm of believing he’s got it.”In an interview this summer, Murray joked that O’Connell can coach “football for dummies” because of how clearly he articulates his concepts and provides answers.
That reputation was a factor in the months leading up to the 2024 draft, setting into motion a series of events that could be career defining for O’Connell’s time in Minnesota.Adofo-Mensah and the McCarthy sagaThe Vikings drafted McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft when Adofo-Mensah was still the GM. Five months later, as McCarthy was recovering from a season-ending right knee injury, O’Connell said on the “The Rich Eisen Show” that “organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations.”Four days before the Vikings opened the 2026 season against the Packers, O’Connell demoted McCarthy to the No. 3 quarterback position after Murray won the starting job, making McCarthy eligible to play only if both Murray and backup Carson Wentz were injured in Week 1.So did O’Connell and the Vikings fail McCarthy? Or was McCarthy destined to be a draft bust all along?ESPN spent recent weeks asking those questions. Publicly, the Vikings have not conceded McCarthy’s future.
Teasley has said that McCarthy’s story is “not written,” and O’Connell referred to him as “a guy that we want to pour into every single day.” But team and league sources produced this collective assessment:As ESPN has previously reported, the Vikings put the top of the 2024 quarterback class into two tiers. The first group included the top three picks of the draft in Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye — prospects they believed could elevate a roster and were worth giving up additional draft assets to acquire. The second tier — McCarthy, Michael Penix Jr. (No. 8) and Bo Nix (No. 12) — would need a more fulsome team around them to succeed. In the case of McCarthy, who was 21 at the time, the Vikings thought he might need multiple years before it was time to play him, sources said.O’Connell pushed hard to trade up from No. 1
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