Five Takeaways From Kevin O'Connell's First Press Conference as Vikings' Head Coach
On Sunday, Kevin O'Connell was on the sidelines at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, helping coach the Rams to a Super Bowl victory. On Wednesday, he was out in the streets of LA, celebrating said victory with the rest of the team during their parade.
On Thursday, he was in Minnesota being introduced as the tenth head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
Talk about a whirlwind week. A whirlwind month, really, when you consider that O'Connell had to prepare for and attend multiple interviews with the Vikings, then work on tasks like building a coaching staff once he landed the job — all while focusing primarily on the Rams' four-game playoff run.
"It was one of the more challenging months of my life going back to when the playoffs first started, but probably one of the most rewarding," O'Connell said. "I can tell you that my number one priority was always winning that next game, winning the next game. But it was challenging because you know this great opportunity that's out in front of you, and that's where I really relied on the collaboration with Kwesi and the rest of the organization here to carry out the vision that we started talking about during the interview process."
O'Connell knocked his introductory press conference out of the park, just like general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did three weeks earlier. He laid out his vision for the franchise and took on every question with a confidence and presence that made it easy to see what drew the Vikings' search committee to him during the interview process.
Now the work begins, and O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah have a ton to do.
Once they finalize a coaching staff, O'Connell will begin working with that staff and implementing his systems so they'll be ready when players return for offseason programs in April. O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah will lead the process of evaluating the team's roster as they prepare for free agency and the draft. Along with Rob Brzezinski, they'll dive into the decisions they have to make on various players in order to clear up cap space. And in a little over a week, they'll head to the NFL combine to have conversations with other teams and draft prospects.
The big decision is what to do with polarizing quarterback Kirk Cousins, and I wrote about O'Connell's comments on that front here.
Now let's dive into five additional takeaways from O'Connell's first press conference as the Vikings' head coach.
He's the exact opposite of his predecessor
NFL teams tend to go in the complete opposite direction when changing leadership, and the Vikings did exactly that in replacing Mike Zimmer with O'Connell. Not only did they go from an old defensive coach to a young offensive coach, the two personalities are different, too. O'Connell's outgoing, talkative style was a stark contrast from Zimmer's terse pressers, particularly near the end of his tenure.
It's no secret that the Vikings had problems with their culture in recent years. If there's one thing O'Connell will focus on, it's building an inclusive, collaborative culture where everyone's voice is heard. Like Adofo-Mensah, he's all about communication and everyone working in lockstep towards the goal of winning a Super Bowl.
"I think we'll set a tone and create a culture here where players will want to be around us," O'Connell said. "They'll want to be around their coaches. They'll want to be in the building. This special, special facility is only special if there's players inside it working on a daily basis to have the success that we're going to help them have. I've talked with a handful of players already, and I cannot wait to get started with these guys when the rules allow, but I can tell you that these guys are excited to get going."
He's going to call the offensive plays
It didn't come as a surprise when O'Connell confirmed that he'll be calling the Vikings' offensive plays going forward. When you hire an offensive-minded head coach, that's typically the expectation — but it's not a guarantee considering how many different responsibilities head coaches have during games.
This will be O'Connell's first full season as a play caller, but he does have experience in that department. He called plays in Washington in 2019 after Jay Gruden was fired. And in addition to calling some preseason games with the Rams, O'Connell had to prepare like a play caller during every Rams game so he could help Sean McVay with a call whenever it was needed.
In a way, he's been preparing for this ever since he stood on the sidelines during his playing career. A third-round pick by the Patriots in 2008, O'Connell attempted just six regular season passes in the NFL.
"I've used this joke before, but my career as a player provided a great platform for me as a coach because I did spend a lot of time watching games from the sideline," he said. "But I will say that with that comes the ability to see the game in a way that I feel very prepared to call the game. I feel like I've been around one of the best play callers in the NFL over the last couple years, and obviously the system we run here will have a lot of characteristics of what we did in Los Angeles, the ability to have that attacking mindset, the ability [for the quarterback] to utilize our offense at the line of scrimmage."
He has a vision for the defense, too
O'Connell might come from an offensive background, but now that he's a head coach, he's going to be overseeing all three phases of the game. And although defensive coordinator Ed Donatell will be calling plays and leading things on defense, O'Connell will be involved in implementing his vision on that side of the ball.
"I definitely have a vision of what I want the defense to look like and play like," he said. "First and foremost, the core characteristics of playing good defense, which is guys flying around, a great tackling group. We're going to force turnovers with how we play from a scheme standpoint, but that's an effort thing. That's playing with great effort, sustaining that, finishing plays, making it about the football."
"The greatest defenses in this league not only stop people but they take the ball away, and that'll be a huge part of what Ed and our defensive staff tries to build from day one here. I think from a coverage standpoint, what really drew me to Ed Donatell was his ability to teach a system that I know is very hard to play against as a quarterback and as an offensive coach."
Things are going to look different from a schematic standpoint. For decades, the Vikings have operated a base 4-3 defense. But with Donatell — Vic Fangio's longtime right-hand man — coming in, they'll be transitioning to a base 3-4 defense.
However, that might not be as exciting as it sounds. In the modern NFL, defenses spend the vast majority of their time in nickel packages with a fifth defensive back on the field, so the Vikings will still be in four-man fronts during those situations.
"A big thing is being multiple with your fronts, because I know as an offensive coach, if we know where you're going to be, we know where you're going to line up, that makes it pretty easy at least to design things to attack angles, understand how you want to run the ball, how you want to protect," O'Connell said. "When you're changing that picture and forcing opponents to deal with multiple fronts during a game, during a drive in some cases, that can be a real weapon for a defense. Pairing that with some really good things on the back end, that's kind of what we're hunting.
He mentioned a few Vikings players, including a surprising one
Part of the interview preparation process for O'Connell was familiarizing himself with the Vikings' roster and having a plan for how those players can be maximized. In addition to all of the Cousins talk, he referenced several other current Vikings during Thursday's press conference.
"I see impactful players at all three levels, I really do, starting in the back end with Harrison Smith. I think he's the perfect player for the defensive structure we want to play from the standpoint of the coverage, how we want to make all things look the same. He's got great length. He's got great instincts. He's going to be a problem for people in the middle of the field and around the line of scrimmage. He really always has been, speaking from experience."
O'Connell has coached at U.S. Bank Stadium twice before — in December with the Rams and in 2019 with Washington — so he's gone against players like Smith before.
"With the linebackers, with Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr, those guys have long since been huge issues in this league for people defensively," he continued. "I think there's ways to use those guys and allow them to play with an attacking mindset while they're still responsible for the things that they're responsible for defensively."
OK, that's notable. Mentioning Smith and Kendricks is one thing. Mentioning Barr — an unrestricted free agent who has seemingly played his final game in a Vikings uniform — is another. Maybe it was an offhand comment about two players who have been mainstays for the Vikings at linebacker for seven years. Or maybe it was an implication that O'Connell is interested in bringing Barr back and having him play for Donatell. We'll see.
O'Connell is also clearly familiar with Justin Jefferson's talent and while he didn't mention Dalvin Cook by name, he did say this: "We've got a really, really good running back here that we've got to put him in positions to use his skill set and have a lot of success, and I feel really, really good about a plan to do that."
It doesn't sound like he's preparing for a rebuild
So far this offseason, the messaging has been consistent from every level of the Vikings' leadership: they plan on being competitive in 2022. The Wilfs have been adamant about it throughout the process of replacing Rick Spielman and Zimmer. Adofo-Mensah talked about the Vikings having a talented roster when he was introduced as GM, and O'Connell did the same.
"There's a very talented roster already in place here, a lot of really, really good football players that have played at a high level, and I'm so excited in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams, to get to work with these guys and help put them in the best possible situation to have success."
Part of the Cousins debate comes down to how you feel about the Vikings' overall outlook. If you think that with all of the aging veterans on the roster and some notable holes on defense, a rebuild is the correct course of action, you might be hoping for Cousins and some other expensive players to be traded. If you think that the Vikings have the pieces to be a contender but just needed better coaching, you're probably OK with Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell loading up for a playoff push in 2022.
O'Connell doesn't think the Vikings are that far away from being a Super Bowl-caliber team.
"I don't," he said. "I really don't. We've talked a lot about that. That's one of the things you look for when you get these opportunities is where is this current team at, and then obviously what type of plan can we put in place to go accomplish the goals that we want to accomplish.
"I think there's a lot of reasons on both sides of the ball that make me really excited about implementing the systems and the processes that we're going to implement, that these guys can then take and run with as players. Can't wait to see the leadership of this group. I think there's great leadership on this team already, but be put in a position hopefully to take this thing over, have that player-led ownership of a team, let those guys go lead the rest of that locker room and then I see us really growing this thing day by day together."
Now that the GM and head coach are in place, let the fun of the offseason begin.
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