The Vikings had one of the best regular seasons in team history during Kevin O’Connell’s debut season as coach. However, a crushing playoff defeat prompted a desperate offseason.
On a wonderfully temperate August afternoon in Minnesota, the Vikings’ final joint practice with the Cardinals ended half an hour early. Kevin O’Connell was able to spend a little more time with his family in his office, which has a view of the four grass fields where the team recently wrapped up training camp.
At just 38 years old, O’Connell is the only coach in Vikings history to coach a playoff game before turning 40 and just the second coach in team history to win a division title in his first season. Overseeing a 13-win season that featured an NFL record 11 one-score victories, he set the tone for victory speeches about the unity that had got the Vikings through their most trying times almost every week. The Vikings are the most player-friendly team in the league, according to a poll conducted by the NFL Players Association among 1,300 active players. The survey praised the changes made during O’Connell’s first season and referred to the team as “a shining example of what is possible when a concerted investment is made in both staffing and facilities.”
O’Connell spends a few minutes playing with his children before bidding farewell to his wife, Leah, and their four children: their 9-month-old daughter Callie, who was born in Minnesota in November, their older daughter Quinn, and their sons Kaden and Kolton.
From a particular perspective, it looks like a vignette of a wealthy man, and O’Connell is quick to show his appreciation for the situation he finds himself in. “I care so much about the opportunity I have to coach the Minnesota Vikings,” he stated. Actually, the time is a break for a coach who isn’t planning to slow down.
The Vikings worked at a rate this offseason that indicated their 13-4 season did not fully satisfy them. After pushing for a more effective run game around Alexander Mattison, they traded for disgruntled pass rusher Za’Darius Smith, released Dalvin Cook, and dumped well-liked veterans like Adam Thielen and Eric Kendricks. Days after the Vikings’ NFC wild-card playoff defeat to the Giants, O’Connell sacked defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and hired Brian Flores to bolster one of the weakest defenses in the NFL. Scenes from training camp showed Justin Jefferson doing the Griddy in the end zone, while the Vikings offense, rattled by the Flores pressure look that had just defeated them, gathered to discuss. O’Connell and Flores appeared to see the creative conflict in similar ways.
