The Minnesota Tim Podcast#508: NUMBERS PROVE Minnesota Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell is elite
Minnesota Tim discusses the Minnesota Vikings' current success under head coach Kevin O'Connell, emphasizing his winning record and the importance of game scheduling. The conversation highlights O'Connell's coaching impact, statistical achievements, and future prospects with quarterback J.J. McCarthy, ultimately showcasing the Vikings' potential for continued success in the NFL.
The Minnesota Vikings are an eight and to football team and winning has been a part of what Kevin O'Connell just does while he is a part of the Minnesota Vikings organization, and there are numbers to prove it and to back it up that he just wins for the Minnesota Vikings during the regular season.
However, there is some news to share ahead of.
The real discussion on this podcast, and it was shared that the Cardinals Vikings game in Week thirteen.
That was.
Possibly going to be flexed to either Sunday Night Football Monday Night Football is staying put on a Sunday noontime week thirteen, so Vikings stay at noon, which is the optimal.
Time play a football game if you're a fan.
Hey, watching a football game at seven thirty getting over at like ten thirty, ten forty five on a Sunday night when you gotta work the next day, when you're starting your week, you wake up groggy, you wake up tired, you wake up a little cranky. Watching games in primetime is the most overrated thing ever. You know, the schedule comes out and you see how many primetime games each team has, and of course most teams are offended by the amount of lack of primetime games that their team has, and I don't get it. I'd rather have a noon game than a primetime game any day, every single day of the week. It just makes the most sense timing wise. And I don't want to have to stay up till eleven o'clock to watch a Sunday night or Monday night football game. Like I can count on one hand just how many primetime games I've watched this season and stayed up till the end of it. You know, the Vikings Rams games. I stayed up for that one. Did the Vikings have another Monday night football game? I feel like they did earlier on in the year. Maybe not, but.
Vikings I'll stay up for.
And the other game would have to be really, really, really really good and I got some good energy to stay up for it. Primetime games suck. Noon games are fantastic works in the schedule, Go to church, eat some lunch, kids are napping, watch a little football record the pod right afterwards versus ten thirty finished game. It's like, Wow, I want to be in bed an hour and a half earlier than that. So great news from that front, But I want to dive into what makes Kevin O'Connell a fantastic head coach on the Minnesota Vikings. And there are some statistics that were pulled from Twitter by Phil McKie and by Will Reggitts. He's of Bring Me the Sports. It's a good website to check out and follow if you're a sports fan, and these guys pulled some good nuggets about Kevin O'Connell's head coaching career on the Minnesota Vikings. First, let's check out this tweet by Phil McKie. He says, twenty twenty two head coaching class. It runs through all the coaches that were hired that year and Kevin O'Connell is the top of the list with a twenty seven and sixteen record a point six to eight winning percentage. Next on the list is Miami Dolphins head coach with Mike McDaniel a twenty three and twenty record. Next on the list is Todd Bowles with the Buccaneers a twenty one and twenty three record. Fourth on the list is Doug Peterson a twenty and twenty four record.
Fifth is Brian.
Dable a seventeen, twenty six and one record, and next is Matt Eberfluse with a fourteen and twenty nine record. Then you go down the list of fred fired head coaches. Dennis Allen fired from the Saints, Josh McDaniels fired from the Las Vegas Raiders, Lovey Smith fired from the Houston Texans, Nathaniel Hackett fired from the Denver Broncos. The Minnesota Vikings picked the best head coach in twenty twenty two to be their guy, and you could argue that Mike McDaniel's a better head coach.
I don't think so. He's a good head coach.
He's better than everybody else on that list, except for Kevin O'Connell. But I think we take for granted just how good of a head coach cover O'Connell is. And this is what we do as fans. No, not me, but this is what most people do as fans. They see a play call, it doesn't work, and you're so quick to say that, oh, this guy can't coach. Oh, this guy has no idea what he's doing based off one play call or one bad game. Minnesota Vikings lose to the Rams to the line, Oh Kevin O'Connell can't coach, Oh he has no idea what he's doing. The Minnesota Vikings were never going to go undefeated.
Nobody does.
Well one time in the history of football that's happened back in like the nineteen seventies. So Kevin ol Candle is not going to go undefeated either. And just think about what he has done during his Minnesota Vikings run so far. His rookie season, he gets Kirk Cousins to play at a level that he's never ever played at before in his NFL career. His second season, you know, they start off zero to three, but then they go on a hot streak and he literally gets Josh Dobbs national media attention because of Dobbs sanity, and then he fell off the face of the earth.
But with Dobbs, Jaren Hall, and.
The backup Nick Mullins, the Minnesota Vikings were a competitive football team. And then this season he has Sam Donald QB one on his fourth team with an eight and two record. Okay, the guy can coach. And here's another graphic posted by Will Raggittts that I was talking about earlier, and I'm gonna share the screen with my YouTube wadgers and I'll do my best to describe the tweet to my podcast listening audience. The tweet says, thirteenth time in Vikings history that they've had at least.
Eight wins through ten games.
Kevin O'Connell's done it twice in three years, the previous twelve and it shows a list. In twenty seventeen, the Vikings did it. They had eight wins in the first ten games. Of course, Case Keenum, Mike Zimmer. The previous time was Brett Favre, Brad Children's two thousand and nine, and then the Vikings went on a run in ninety seven, ninety eight and two thousand, of course with Dennis Green, and then the previous time that they did that was nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy, nineteen seventy one, nineteen seventy three, nineteen seventy five, nineteen seventy six, of course, the years with Bud Grant. So you think about what Kevin O'Connell has done, and you see outlier years like the case Keenum here and Mike Zimmer two thousand and seventeen, Brad Children's Year two thousand and nine, Brett Favre.
There's years like that where it's like.
Okay, well, Tim if you're saying that kevinial Collin can coach, well, then it proves that Mike Zimmer and Brad Childrens could coach two and he wanted them fired. It's completely different because there can be an outlier year. There can be years where you know, the team just goes off on a run.
And that's what you see there.
You see two thousand and nine and twenty seventeen just an incredible season, incredible run. They never did it again as a coach. You know, twenty twenty two, Okay, Cavic Kala had a good year. Great for good for you, but he's doing it again. He's being consistent with it. He wasn't just having a one off and that's what Childress and Mike Zimmer had. Dennis Green didn't have one offs, Bud Grant didn't have one offs, but Brad Childress and Mike Zimmer did. They had one year and their head coaching careers with the Minnesota Vikings where they were elite.
Their team was good.
They had a legitimate chance at making the Super Bowl because they made it to the NFC Championship Game and he won that game. He win the Super Bowl and Kevin O'Connell his first year with the Vikings, they go thirteen and four. Well, already in his third year with the Vikings, they're eight and two, and last year because of a kirk Cousin's injury, it basically halted any potential run at a super Bowl or the momentum that they had after kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense found fire, decimated the Green Bay Packers on the road, and the same game kirk Cousins ruptures his achilles. So Kevin O'Connell has proven that he is a more than capable head coach. So I want to challenge you not to see a play call and then react so quickly and say, oh he can coach. Oh terrible, Because I can react to a play call and say that was a bad play call, But you can separate the two. You know, the reverse against the Jacksonville Jaguars wasn't a good play call, but he's.
Still a good coach. The run.
Or the play action on third and one when Sam Darnold threw three picks, run the damn ball. Aaron Jones was playing pretty good that game, get a yard, finish it off. I can say that was a bad play call, but I can separate the two. Kevin O'Connell can coach his butt off and players respond to the voice that he has in the locker room. You know, eventually, I'm sure he's gonna get fired for the Minnesota VIKA.
It just happens. Happens to every single coach. You know.
Someone once said there are two kinds of coaches, the ones who have been fired and the ones who have been hired. So you think about Kevin O'Connell's future. Of course, he's gonna get fired eventually, because that's just the nature of the business. But he can coach, and for now, he's gonna get a contract extension this offseason and he deserves it. And the big askue or the most anticipated thing right now for Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings is how JJ McCarthy gets inserted into the starting quarterback position.
Because is he going to be QB one to start next year?
I don't think it's a guarantee. He played one preseason game against the Raiders. He played well, there's a one preseason game against the Raiders. Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be QB one to start the year next year. But eventually, when he does play, Is he going to be the guy that makes Kevin O'Connell a coach on the Minnesota Vikings for ten to fifteen years, Because I mean, he's good, that's gonna be the case. If JJ McCarthy is a top five quarterback in the league, top ten evin, Kevin O'Connell will be on the Minnesota Vikings as the head coach for a long time. If he stinks well, then you could probably expect Kevin O'Connell to be fired in the next year or two following JJ McCarthy's inability to play. So really, ultimately he's proven he can coach, but his long term success for the Minnesota Vikings really depends on the success of JJ McCarthy because he's proven he can coach, he can do it, but can he take JJ McCarthy to that level because he's the investment. He's the guy that they've poured their stocks that do He's the guy that they're pouring in a efforts and belief into it and getting the fan base heights about and talking to the owners about. Well, if he sucks, it's probably the acts and that's where you get hired, then you get fired. Kind of comes in. But as for now, his first three years in the league, Kevin O'Connell as the best head coaching record among twenty twenty two HighRes. He has made the Minnesota Vikings a relevant football team every single year, even last year they collapsed at the end of the season, but every single year the Minnesota Vikings have been vying for a playoff spot and are going to be a playoff team this year. There were his rookie season. Last year they weren't, but they're competing for one. They had at one point and eighty four percent chance of making the playoffs until the tail spin at the end.
Of the year. But I just want to remind you that the list.
Of twenty twenty two head coaches include four fired ones and Matt Imberflues Doug Peterson are about to get fired, Bryan da Ball might get fired. So out of the twenty twenty two head coaching class, only three head coaches might make it into the twenty twenty five season, and Kevin O'Connell is one of those guys. Mike McDaniel, Todd Bowles, Kevin O'Connell. You maybe briand Able gets another year with the Giants, but everybody else on that list is gone fired. They're getting the acts. So just think about that for a minute. Pondered that thought, Realize just how good the Minnesota Vikings have it with Kevin O'Connell as head coach.
