It's the Kevin O'Connell show now
With Adofo-Mensah fired, the white hot light turns to the head coach to solve what ails the Vikings
By Matthew Coller
The fallout from the Minnesota Vikings’ firing of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been about what you would expect.
There are questions abound. What happened? Why now? Is it because Sam Darnold made the Super Bowl? Is it his fault or organizational dysfunction? Oh, there are deep dives, think pieces, emergency podcasts, social media meltdowns and perplexed talk radio hosts galore. What a perfect story to hand the NFL world while it waits for Super Bowl week, huh.
But no matter what happened over the past few years to bring us down the winding path to this moment, the Vikings entire remaining organization will go to work at TCO Performance Center on Monday with zero playoff wins since 2019, quarterback uncertainty, salary cap issues, key positions to fill and a head coach with a hell of a lot of pressure on his shoulders.
Kevin O’Connell will arrive at work this week sitting in one of the most unique positions in recent memory in the NFL. How many head coaches are basically put in charge of an offseason in late January?
The goal of the Vikings’ ownership when they hired Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell was to create a “culture of collaboration” in which the front office and coaching staff worked hand-in-hand on building the best squad that money and draft picks (sore subject!) could buy. Even if the 53-man roster ended up as a pretty darn talented unit, things didn’t exactly work to plan by Year 4 and Mark Wilf declared on Friday that ownership was “uncomfortable” with the leadership dynamic going forward.
So O’Connell is now tasked, along with defensive coordinator Brian Flores and acting GM Rob Brzezinski, with leading the franchise through a pivotal offseason while also feeling the heat of the NFL’s pressure cooker.
O’Connell is a conundrum in himself. He has seasons of 13 and 14 wins, a Coach of the Year trophy on his mantle and years of NFLPA surveys grading him between an A and A+. Yet whoever said “what have you done for me lately?” certainly understood how the NFL functions. The quarterback that the Vikings let walk out the door is about to play in the Super Bowl and no matter how much of the criticism will land on Adofo-Mensah’s head, O’Connell doesn’t have an umbrella big enough to keep it from hitting him too if the Vikings watch from home sans a playoff appearance again next year.
O’Connell is both very powerful and very vulnerable at the same time. He is both deserving of having the biggest voice on what the Vikings should do at quarterback and highly questionable based on recent events. He is both the person who helped Darnold become a 14-win quarterback after a half decade of being considered a massive bust and the person who couldn’t get JJ McCarthy to throw on time or provide a workable cadence to his offense without the team committing eight false starts.
During his tenure, he has looked like an offensive genius when Justin Jefferson’s targets are flowing and he’s looked flummoxed by a newfangled concept in football called “the handoff.”
The point is that it’s really hard to know how ownership feels about a head coach who has helped several quarterbacks reach impressive heights and then also played an enormous role in one of the biggest quarterback-related blunders in history.
Any team can fail to pick the right QB in the draft and it’s totally understandable to see a team stick with a draft pick even if they have had some rough times but there are no examples of a team turning their back on a 14-win, 4,300-yard, 35-TD quarterback, only to watch him march into the Super Bowl the following season. That’s a biblical mistake.
Yet there is plenty of reason to think that O’Connell can turn things around based on his history. When the Vikings picked up Darnold, Vegas gave them a rousing over-under win total of 6.5 victories. They more than doubled it. So why would it be impossible that it could happen again? Throughout 2024, he orchestrated a highly-ranked passing game along with building a leadership group that was as impressive as you will ever see in the league.
The dichotomy between 2024 and 2025 is crazy. Though I guess if you are around long enough as a head coach in the NFL without Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, these things will happen. O’Connell’s predecessor was dubbed a genius after winning 13 games with Case Keenum and then quickly turned into the anti-QB whisperer the next season.
Nonetheless, we know one thing is clear: Whatever happens next at quarterback will decide the fate of the Vikings’ organization and O’Connell’s fate with it. And he is now the strongest voice in the room.
That leaves us asking: What does O’Connell want?
The easy answer to that question is McCarthy returning to OTAs looking like Joe Montana but after registering the 42nd ranked quarterback rating out of 45 qualifying quarterbacks in 2025, he would need to take a nearly unprecedented leap for a Year 3 QB in order for the Vikings to return to the top 10 in scoring.
There’s a rational part of the human brain that wants to suggest that the Vikings should let O’Connell try his best with McCarthy and then see where things stand after 2026 but with coaches (and GMs, apparently) being shown the plank even after winning seasons, it doesn’t seem to fit the dire nature of the scenario. It just needed to be said that it’s an option.
Nothing in anyone’s recent press conference suggests that they will use that option though. O’Connell was twice given chances to commit and would only say that he wants a “competitive” QB room. When Wilf spoke on Friday, the name “McCarthy” was never uttered. At last year’s owners meetings in Florida, he seemed almost giddy for the young QB to arrive as the starter.
Does O’Connell have something up his sleeve? He must have already spent many nights thinking about this already. Is there some crazed universe where they could put together a trade package for Joe Burrow? Probably not. So what then?
Does he feel that Kyler Murray could be the next Sam Darnold? Reporting on Murray’s contract has suggested that if he gets released then his next suitor could buy his services for the league minimum. But personality and locker room fit means a lot to the Vikings’ head coach.
Could he convince Malik Willis that Minnesota is a great place to earn yourself $100 million on the next contract? After all, Miami has nicer weather but it doesn’t have the guy wearing No. 18.
Is there any chance he gets Daniel Jones to come back?
Would he go back to Aaron Rodgers and convince him to go for one last ride? Did everyone else just hear the words “he can still sling it” in KOC’s voice?
Of course, there’s also Kirk Cousins. Old, reliable Kirk Cousins. Somehow saving jobs and putting coaches on the hotseat at the same time since 2015 Kirk.
Do they spend assets to get Mac Jones? Do they grab Geno Smith’s big old arm if he’s released by the Raiders?
Does the former NFL QB turned head coach want to play it safe or roll the dice? Is he really trying to win or just stick around? Does he have somebody in mind that we’re not thinking about?
We are going to find out soon. This time, there won’t be any debates about who’s call it was and who’s to be held responsible or who deserves adulation if they get it right. It’s in the head coach’s hands now.
That doesn’t mean he’s alone though. After a “very aggressive” effort to get Brian Flores to return, the mastermind defensive coordinator stands in KOC’s corner. He produced an elite defense in 2025 despite the offense ranking 29th in time of possession. Flores has also been brilliant in his assessments of pros, landing almost an entire defensive unit of free agent players who have mastered his moving-target scheme over the last two seasons.
Also while Brzezinski may not have standing as the head coach, he is highly respected around the NFL and has the ability to get deals done that may have been left on the cutting room floor in the past.
O’Connell also made a clever play with his most recent coaching hire, grabbing Frank Smith from Miami. Smith was part of two Dolphins top-five run games in yards per attempt over the last three seasons. Miami RB De’Von Achane averaged a whopping 5.7 yards per carry despite the Dolphins’ offensive line only grading 27th by PFF.
The head coach is clearly aware that whoever plays quarterback isn’t likely to drag the Vikings in Josh Allen style deep into the playoffs. It’s going to have to be a collective effort.
And he will have a lot more questions to answer in order to get there. Who’s in the backfield? What’s happening at center? Is Jordan Addison on the trade block? Can they keep Jalen Nailor? Will Christian Darrisaw be back to full strength and what’s the backup plan otherwise? Is Brian O’Neill getting an extension? Can they develop Donovan Jackson and get the most from Will Fries under a new offensive line coach?
Whew. At least they have a good kicker, am I right?
In Mark Wilf’s comments, he included that it was a very important offseason but did not offer much in the way of a long-term endorsement for anyone. While the Vikings ownership has always been top of the line when it comes to resources and the atmosphere created for players, they have not been willing to suffer long stretches of ineptitude.
Mike Zimmer missed the playoffs twice in a row and got the axe. Leslie Frazier was dropped after his team sunk from the postseason to 5-10-1. Brad Childress’s era came to an end in 2010 despite being one play away from the Super Bowl in 2009. Mike Tice and Adofo-Mensah have something in common: They were both fired after seasons above .500.
Is it possible that KOC is so respected that he could survive another season without the postseason? Sure. Is it right to change coaches every time there’s a year or two that don’t go your way? Probably not. But when the owners spend many, many millions and end up watching the 2024 quarterback play for the trophy that has eluded this franchise since its inception, well, you can understand why they might be impatient.
Fans are impatient too. They are looking at the QB gaffe, the GM firing, the lack of support from leadership for their player quarterback who started the season as the golden boy and ended the year as someone whose name is barely whispered and ask… how do we get out of this?
That’s a good question. It’s O’Connell’s to answer now.
Definitely going to be interesting to see how they handle free agency and the draft. Wouldn’t expect much FA wise aside from whoever they get at QB and probably a vet safety. Draft wise, I wonder if they will skew closer to the consensus boards than they did under Kwesi.
> grabbing Frank Smith from Miami
Definitely a good move.