Tall McVay, Long May He Reign

[JustinTime18™]

The Vikings are planning to make an offer to Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell to become the team’s next head coach, a source confirmed to The Athletic.

This comes on the heels of the news that Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will be staying with the Wolverines after partaking in an all-day formal interview for the Vikings' job on Wednesday. Harbaugh wasn't offered the Vikings job, according to a source.

O’Connell, 36, can’t officially accept the job until after Super Bowl LVI, but the expectation is that he will be announced as head coach shortly after the Rams-Bengals matchup wraps up next weekend. O’Connell would replace Mike Zimmer, who the Vikings fired shortly after the 2021 regular season ended after the team missed the postseason the past two seasons,

O’Connell has served as Los Angeles’ offensive coordinator for the past two seasons. He spent the previous three seasons with Washington where he steadily moved up the chain from quarterbacks coach (2017) to QB coach/passing game coordinator (2018) and offensive coordinator (2019). He spent time coaching current Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins as his position coach in 2017.

He also spent time in the NFL for a few years after being the Patriots’ 2008 third-round pick. But he only played in two games his rookie season despite bouncing around until 2012.

Zimmer, 65, spent eight seasons in Minnesota compiling a 72-56-1 record, with a 2-3 postseason mark. Zimmer guided the Vikings to two NFC North titles (2015, 2017) and three trips to the postseason. But Minnesota has only made one trip to the playoffs since the Vikings signed Cousins to a fully guaranteed contract in 2018.

One of O'Connell’s primary tasks will center on helping the team improve defensively, as Minnesota finished 30th in total defense in 2021 and 27th in 2020.

This will also make O'Connell the fourth current NFL head coach stemming from the coaching tree of the Rams' Sean McVay: O'Connell, the Bengals' Zac Taylor, the Chargers' Brandon Staley, the Packers' Matt LaFleur.

(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

What went into the Vikings deciding on O’Connell?Chad Graff, Vikings beat writer: The Vikings came away from their Monday interview with O’Connell incredibly impressed. He arrived to the sit-down with extensive knowledge on their roster and scheme, and had ideas on how to improve it. He was the frontrunner entering Wednesday’s arrival from Harbaugh, and at that point, it was just a matter of how the interview with Harbaugh went.
What happened with Harbaugh?Graff: The Vikings made it clear with Harbaugh that he was coming to town for a true formal interview like any other candidate, not one arriving as a formality with an offer already on the table. By Wednesday evening, people on the Vikings’ search committee still had reservations about hiring Harbaugh, according to a source, and the team decided that O’Connell better aligns with their stated goal of seeking continuity and collaboration.
What will O’Connell bring to the Vikings?Graff: He’s a complete change of pace for an organization that is doing a 180 from the previous regime. O’Connell, 36, is an upbeat, innovative coach to replace Zimmer, the 65-year-old intense defensive guru who held the position the last eight years. He’ll probably bring an under-center, play-action-based scheme to the Vikings, which works well with what Cousins does.

[Guest]

The above article is probably the closest to the truth of anything we've heard to date. 

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Photo might be slightly distorted.

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On Thursday, the Broncos continued their search for the team's next head coach, as George Paton and the search committee met with Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell.
While Rams head coach Sean McVay is the de facto leader of the offense given his background and that he is the play-caller, O'Connell has a significant and expansive role that perhaps is overlooked by outsiders.
To learn more about that role and what makes O'Connell an exciting candidate, DenverBroncos.com spoke with the Associated Press' Greg Beacham.
Ben Swanson: What is it about Kevin O'Connell that makes him an intriguing head-coaching candidate for teams like the Broncos?
Greg Beacham: "The thing about Kevin O'Connell is he's been at the controls of the Rams' offense in almost every way, except actually calling the plays, for two years, which makes him a guy who's seen what Sean McVay does and what makes the Rams so successful over the last five years. And there's only a handful of guys in the world who can say that; three of the other assistants who can say that are currently head coaches of their own teams, and two are still in the playoffs along with Sean McVay, so the pedigree is impeccable. There's no doubt that Kevin is the next guy in that lineage."

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BS: It seems like that a lot of people put a lot of weight in the play-calling aspect. What is it that he does in his role that makes him so impressive even without that part?
GB: "He is the most important part of the offensive brain trust that develops the Rams' game plans, designs their plays and then implements all the details necessary to make it work on Sundays. It's the biggest role on the offense that doesn't belong to Sean McVay. Kevin is in charge of making sure everything works, and Sean likes him in the role so much that he blocked Kevin from interviewing last year to be the Chargers' offensive coordinator when Brandon Staley moved across town. Not calling the plays is obviously what people hold against Kevin, but this offense is undeniably McVay's baby and it always will be, because he loves the competitive aspect of calling plays, making decisions. The counterargument to that is that Zac Taylor never called a play that mattered in his two years with Sean McVay; he was never even a coordinator with all the responsibilities that entails. But he picked up everything he needed to know to be a success in a job that took probably more top-to-bottom work in Cincinnati than probably is required with the Broncos. They're already a decent team with a decent roster. What other teams are looking for when they look at Rams assistants is someone who's intimately familiar with both McVay's offense and also the Rams' entire process of how they create that offense, how they innovate, how they manage to renew it, whether it's through new schemes, new personnel or getting the most out of the old personnel. And Kevin O'Connell has had a front-row seat of it for the last two years to the process of McVay restoring an offense that was the envy of the league in 2017 and 2018, took a pretty significant downturn in 2019 and 2020, and is now back up among one of the NFL's best. Kevin has seen every part of what Sean did to accomplish that, and you can really say nobody aside from McVay knows it better than him at this point."

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@JustinTime18™ said:
Photo might be slightly distorted.

Good, I was worried we hired Slenderman...

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BS: I read that Kevin was given play-calling duties during the preseason, and while it's well known that Sean rests starters during the preseason, were you able to get a sense for what his offense would be like if he had the reins?
GB: "I think for the amount that we know about that — like you said, it's basically a scrimmage for the Rams; Sean has decided he doesn't care about the preseason — but I get the feeling that they have a very similar mindset in terms of what's important and what's not. Sean is very, very concerned about getting a balance between the run and the pass, making the most of the players that he has and then figuring out new ways to use players that maybe they weren't used properly in the past with a different team or ways to get something out of somebody that you didn't see before. Sean came in and had Tavon Austin on the roster, turned him into a jet sweeper and made something out of a pick who was not very successful with the Rams otherwise. He turned Robert Woods from a possession receiver into a guy who was very dangerous with the jet sweep and also an overall just great pass catcher. He's been great. You've seen what he's done with Cooper Kupp; he's turned a third-round pick into the most-productive receiver in the NFL. Kevin seems to share a lot of Sean's philosophies; that's why they get along so well and they both came up under Jay Gruden, so they have a similar base of knowledge in terms of coaching. Putting that together, I wouldn't expect to see a lot from Kevin that you haven't seen from Sean, but that's part of what you have to grow into as a head coach. You have to find out what you do like and don't like once you have the finger on the button, so to speak."

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This hire makes way more sense to me than Harbaugh.  I think it's great the way the team explored several options, and hopefully getting O'Connell steers the Vikings the right direction for many seasons to come.  I'm so glad we don't have to deal with the crazy antics of Harbough on the sideline, and it sounds like the Vikes didn't have him as their first choice.
I think they got the the coach and GM they wanted.

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BS: The Broncos' GM has said that leadership is a priority for candidates they're looking at. Have you been able to get a sense for how Kevin works with players in his leadership style?

GB: "I will say that as reporters we haven't got to know Kevin in the same way we'd know most coaches because his tenure with the Rams has been during the pandemic, which limits the amount of time we get to spend in conversation with everybody, not just him. But I will say the Rams players seem to love him. They speak highly about his attitude, his communication skills and his ability to relate to them. Obviously since he was an NFL player — Sean McVay was not — Kevin understands whatever aspects of what it takes to play in this league that other coaches can't appreciate, in a certain way. I don't generally think that's a big deal because, you know, Sean McVay seems to have figured it out just fine and there's a lot of head coaches who didn't play in the league who seem to have figured it out just fine, but there's no denying that some players respect former players in a special way. O'Connell was even a backup for Matthew Stafford in Detroit for about a week while he bounced around the NFL as a backup quarterback, and Stafford told us today [on Wednesday] that O'Connell is a better coach than he was a player, so he's got that going for him. He still has his playing instincts, for sure. One thing that we do see from Kevin is he throws the ball around after almost every practice while he's working with the quarterbacks, the receivers, getting in a few reps on his own or just to stay ready. He enjoys being both a part of the guys and also a leader. I think that's a great vibe to have in the modern NFL."

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@HappyViking said:

This hire makes way more sense to me than Harbaugh.  I think it's great the way the team explored several options, and hopefully getting O'Connell steers the Vikings the right direction for many seasons to come.  I'm so glad we don't have to deal with the crazy antics of Harbough on the sideline, and it sounds like the Vikes didn't have him as their first choice.
I think they got the the coach and GM they wanted.

I do too.  Typically, the leading candidate in interviews goes first and both Kwesi and O'Connell were the Vikings first interviews during their GM/HC search. 

I don't think we missed out on Poles or Harbaugh (like some fans have alluded to here), I think it was more the Vikings doing their due diligence but Kwesi and O'Connell were the leading candidates all along.