Can everything and nothing be on the table at the same time? 🤔 I keep reading this stuff but nothing has happened. Now we're supposedly 'waiting on Monday's outcome'? Why? Is 7-1 so different than 6-2? Murray isn't even playing, so I'm also reading that 'the team plans to be patient with him'...ok, that's fine but what changes after Monday night, lol? This would also be a loss to an AFC opponent, less impactful.

JMO, but none of these talking heads knows shit. Toss enough mud on the wall, some will most likely stick.

Everything is on the table at quarterback for Minnesota up until 4 o’clock on Tuesday—everything.@danorlovsky7 pic.twitter.com/rewhC16owf

— UNSPORTSMANLIKE (@UnSportsESPN) November 6, 2026

StickierBuns wrote:

Can everything and nothing be on the table at the same time? 🤔 I keep reading this stuff but nothing has happened. Now we're supposedly 'waiting on Monday's outcome'? Why? Is 7-1 so different than 6-2? Murray isn't even playing, so I'm also reading that 'the team plans to be patient with him'...ok, that's fine but what changes after Monday night, lol? This would also be a loss to an AFC opponent, less impactful.
JMO, but none of these talking heads knows shit. Toss enough mud on the wall, some will most likely stick.
https://x.com/UnSportsESPN/status/2118692172933603381?a=zxLpjxaYEmiyHZRm2nw&s=2w

Yeah, I'm not sure I disagree with Dan here on his comments, but what I don't follow is his comment about Tuesday either.

I'm a big believer in KO as a HC. I truly think he is a good one as he builds the right people around him and he's quick to make decisions when things aren't working, right or wrong. He got the DC ship steering in the right direction very quickly, IMO. He gave up on McCarthy too quickly, IMO. However, he needs to relinquish the play-calling and get rid of Wes Phillips.

They are done with K1....no, they're going to be patient with K1.....they're trading for a QB.....no, they just want some depth at OL and DT...they want Jonathan Taylor....no, they don't have the cap space for him. 😑😒

Dan O on Kyler Murray: "They can't run their offense with him. They tried."

Kevin O'Connell was asked yesterday about the near future of the Vikings QB spot. He said "it's all about this week for our team" before changing the subject. https://t.co/V9tRIXALxb

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) November 6, 2026

IceRatz16 wrote:

Yeah, I'm not sure I disagree with Dan here on his comments, but what I don't follow is his comment about Tuesday either.

I'm a big believer in KO as a HC. I truly think he is a good one as he builds the right people around him and he's quick to make decisions when things aren't working, right or wrong. He got the DC ship steering in the right direction very quickly, IMO. He gave up on McCarthy too quickly, IMO. However, he needs to relinquish the play-calling and get rid of Wes Phillips.

I could see him moving on from Phillips in the offseason....I don't see KOC giving up play calling duty IMO.

JMO, but the odds of Minnesota trading for a starting QB on Tuesday are 0.0%. You pull the plug on the Murray Experiment 7 games in and sitting at 6-1 (maybe 6-2)? Seems impossible to blow up an offseason strategy so quickly UNLESS its an even worse shit show behind the scenes with Murray. That's the only way, but I haven't read anything like that.....

IceRatz16 wrote:

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-vikings-coach-kevin-oconnell-should-be-on-hot-seat/Why Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell should be on hot seat despite NFL-best 6-1 recordIt's wild to think that a 6-1 HC is on the hot seat.

The Minnesota Vikings (6-1) are in co-possession of the best record in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers entering Week 9, the halfway point of the 2026 season. However, head coach Kevin O'Connell should be on the hot seat. 

How could both of those things be true? Let's take a quick look at what is powering the Vikings' early-season success and then take a deep dive into why O'Connell's bungling of his quarterback position -- both in 2026 and years prior -- in tandem with wasting Justin Jefferson and a poor playoff record should be causing his seat to be increasing in temperature.

O'Connell is Minnesota's head coach and offensive play caller, but defensive coordinator Brian Flores' blitzkrieg defense is why the Vikings have won six of their first seven games. Minnesota's defense leads the NFL in the following statistics:

• Scoring defense (13.3 points per game allowed)

• Red zone defense (25% red zone touchdown rate allowed)

• Goal-line defense (37.5% goal-line touchdown rate allowed)

• Completion percentage allowed (56.2%)

• Touchdown-to-interception ratio allowed (4-8)

• Sack rate (11%)

• QB pressure rate (46%)

• Blitz rate (73.6%, the highest by any team in the 21st century)

However, O'Connell's offense is powered by 2022 NFL Offensive Player of the Year wide receiver Justin Jefferson, two-time Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson, former first-round pick wide receiver Jordan Addison, two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kyler Murray and an offensive line that is allowing the fifth-longest time to pressure (2.71 seconds) in the NFL this season. Yet, it has scored 12 touchdowns. That is the fewest touchdowns by a team with a 6-1 record or better through seven games since Washington in 1982. 

The only team that has scored fewer touchdowns than the Vikings in 2026 is the winless Los Angeles Chargers with nine. Both the tanking Miami Dolphins (13 touchdowns) and the Deshaun Watson-led Cleveland Browns (13 touchdowns) have found the end zone more often than O'Connell's unit. 

That's embarrassing, and it's grounds for a potential coaching change come the offseason if things don't improve.

Kyler Murray's fit in Kevin O'Connell's scheme 

The problem Minnesota has this season is that Murray isn't fitting well in O'Connell's scheme. Murray's -0.11 expected points added (EPA) per dropback is the fifth worst in the entire NFL, ahead of only Cam Ward (-0.12), Tanner McKee (-0.13), Daniel Jones (-0.19) and Justin Herbert (-0.22). 

O'Connell's offense thrived with Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold heaving the ball deep down the field to Jefferson and others over the middle of the field. Murray entered 2026 ranking 40th out of 45 qualified quarterbacks in throws of 10-22 yards (intermediate throws) between the numbers (over the middle of the field). That's why his connection with Marvin Harrison Jr. failed in Arizona. 

Murray much prefers throwing to the sideline with underneath completions to stay in rhythm. Just 10.7% of his throws in 2025 with the Cardinals traveled 10 or more air yards downfield, which ranked third among 42 quarterbacks with at least 150 passes last season. This season playing for O'Connell, 34.4% of Murray's throws are traveling 10 or more air yards, which is the 10th-highest rate in the NFL. 

That's why he is failing in Minnesota: Murray isn't a scheme fit, but O'Connell chose him anyway. However, the Vikings head coach is publicly in denial about how things are going with his squad, which ranks as the league's sixth-worst scoring offense (20.0 points per game). 

"It's going back through it. Any of the inconsistencies, really dive into the why. I don't necessarily believe it's going to be one tell-all thing," O'Connell told reporters postgame Sunday. "I think it's how we continue to put together the plans of where he's most comfortable in his alignment and then marrying the offense from there. I think we've done a good job of that."  

Despite 10th overall pick J.J. McCarthy ranking dead last in the NFL in completion percentage (57.6%), touchdown-to-interception ratio (11-12) and passer rating (72.6) in his first full season as a starting quarterback in 2025, the Vikings offense was actually more efficient than it is now. Minnesota's playmakers know what the issues are. Jefferson left the locker room after the Week 8 loss without speaking to media members while Addison offered a direct assessment.

"It's not really about finding ourselves; it's just making routine plays," Addison told reporters postgame Sunday. "When you turn on the tape, we got guys open [in the pass game]. Running the ball, we got gaps that are open. We just got to execute honestly."

O'Connell's handling of his quarterback position

You know what would be an ideal situation right now? If O'Connell had the chance to sub in McCarthy for a struggling Murray to see if the former top 10 pick takes a leap after another year of season in his system. Instead, Minnesota chose to trade him away to the New York Giants in exchange for a bag of peanuts -- a 2027 fifth-round pick. 

Instead, all O'Connell has is a washed-up iteration of Carson Wentz and undrafted veteran Max Brosmer, a player with no touchdown passes and four interceptions across his seven NFL games. It took O'Connell and the Vikings a few years to make enough missteps to end up in this position. One could argue the merits of letting a 36-year-old Kirk Cousins walk in free agency. But Minnesota ended up pulling a rabbit out of the hat with Darnold a year after Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers rehabbed the 2018 NFL Draft's third overall pick while making him Brock Purdy's backup. 

Darnold piloted a Vikings offense that ranked No. 9 in scoring (25.4 points per game) as he threw for a career-high 35 passing touchdowns, the fifth-most in the NFL in 2024. Minnesota went 14-3 in the regular season but lost the de facto NFC North division title game in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions. Just a few weeks later, Darnold absorbed an NFL playoff-record nine sacks in a wild card round defeat against the Los Angeles Rams, souring O'Connell's perspective on his new Pro Bowl quarterback. 

Instead of building upon Darnold's successful 2024 season, O'Connell decided to let the 28-year-old walk in favor of McCarthy. As mentioned earlier, McCarthy was the NFL's cellar dweller in several metrics in his first year as a starting quarterback at football's highest level at 22 years old last season. Meanwhile, in Seattle, Darnold quarterbacked the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title, throwing five touchdowns and no interceptions in his new team's three playoff games, with only six sacks. That's just an average of two sacks per game in the Seahawks' championship run. 

Just like with Darnold, O'Connell decided to throw McCarthy away after one season of failure. Meanwhile in New York, McCarthy became the first Giants quarterback with at least five completions of 20-plus yards in consecutive games since Daniel Jones back in 2019. The Giants have also remained the NFC East's first-place team through eight weeks with a 4-2-1 record. 

Playoff failures

Since becoming the Vikings' head coach in 2022, O'Connell is 49-26, good for the fifth-best regular-season record in football, along with the 49ers. However, that has translated to just two postseason appearances (2022 and 2024) and no playoff wins. The two losses were the aforementioned faceplant against the Rams in the 2024 season and a 31-24 home loss against the Daniel Jones-led Giants. The next week, that same Giants team lost 38-7 at the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC divisional round.

Two games isn't a massive sample size, but in both playoff games, O'Connell was clearly outcoached. 

Wasting Justin Jefferson 

Four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Justin Jefferson raced out to a historic start to his NFL career: His 7,432 yards receiving from 2020 to 2024 are the most in a player's first five seasons in league history. That production resulted in Jefferson averaging 96.5 receiving yards per game, which also ranked as the most ever in the NFL.   

Then, J.J. McCarthy happened. McCarthy wasn't ready for the speed of the NFL game, ranking dead last in the entire league in completion percentage (57.6%), touchdown-to-interception ratio (11-12), and passer rating (72.6) in 2025. His ineptitude led to Jefferson posting career lows in receiving yards (1,048) and receiving touchdowns (2) in 2025, which dropped his receiving yards per game average down to 90.2 -- the second-most in NFL history behind Puka Nacua's 95.3 average.

Now, Kyler Murray is a poor scheme fit, which has Jefferson averaging a career-low 55.8 receiving yards per game in 2026. That's brought his career average down to 88.2 receiving yards per game. Jefferson still has a pathway toward being an all-timer -- he still has 8,815 career receiving yards through his first 100 games -- but he can see that path narrowing under O'Connell the last two seasons. That's why he let loose a rare display of public frustration on the sideline on Sunday. 

* Pro Football Hall of Famer

Continued:

A potential reckoning is coming

O'Connell's and Murray's lack of offensive synergy wasn't fully exposed until the 19-15 loss at the Lions on Sunday. Five of their six wins to begin the year were against teams that are outside the playoff picture or had a starting quarterback injury in the middle of the game. 

The Vikings beat the Packers, a current playoff team with a 5-3 record, 39-22 in Week 1 before beating the Chicago Bears 9-3 in Week 2 after Bears quarterback Caleb Williams departed with a hamstring injury. The other four wins were against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (23-16), the Miami Dolphins (15-10), the New Orleans Saints (23-13) and the Indianapolis Colts (16-10). The best record of those squads, outside of Green Bay and Chicago, belongs to the 3-5 Buccaneers. 

Now, the Vikings' offensive issues stand to be majorly exposed over the next three weeks. Minnesota plays the Bills (6-1) on "Monday Night Football" in Week 9, at Lambeau Field against the Packers in Week 10 and at the 49ers on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 11. That's the toughest stretch of games in the NFL from Weeks 8-11. 

* Hardest schedule in NFL over span

The bottom line

Some team could soon be banging down Flores' door after the defensive masterclass he is putting together this season. That puts the Vikings in a spot where they may have to lose one of the best defensive masterminds in football next offseason. If Minnesota ends up missing the playoffs or fails to win a playoff game, wasting what is shaping up to be an all-time year from its defense, O'Connell would certainly face -- and earn -- heightened scrutiny.

Perhaps there's a chance O'Connell's job could go to Flores by promoting him to be their head coach instead of losing him to another team. Regardless, O'Connell's lack of success in evaluating his quarterback position, despite his reputation as a "quarterback guru," along with wasting Justin Jefferson and a lack of results in the playoffs, deserves plenty of skepticism, 6-1 record be damned. 

StickierBuns wrote:

I could see him moving on from Phillips in the offseason....I don't see KOC giving up play calling duty IMO.

That would just be another dodging of any accountability for KOC if that is the case. I do like him as a head coach but have serious concerns about his lack of any sort of accountability in this mess. All I hear from him is talk of a lack of execution. While that might be the case, these players have all played at Pro Bowl levels before, so how about making some changes on your end to bring out the best in your players?

100% agree. One of my biggest questions about trading McCarthy was WHEN they did it - trading him at the first opportunity rather than letting his value develop organically as the trade deadline approached. https://t.co/VP6LVfjAco

— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) November 5, 2026

“I’m watching the #Vikings QB position. Especially when they have an all world defense that’s good enough to win a Super Bowl where they need the QB to play well. Where they need the offense to produce. Again, with everything going on, I’m watching the Vikings QB position.”

(Via… pic.twitter.com/YnD9bYDEzw

— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) November 6, 2026

StickierBuns wrote:

Can everything and nothing be on the table at the same time? 🤔 I keep reading this stuff but nothing has happened. Now we're supposedly 'waiting on Monday's outcome'? Why? Is 7-1 so different than 6-2? Murray isn't even playing, so I'm also reading that 'the team plans to be patient with him'...ok, that's fine but what changes after Monday night, lol? This would also be a loss to an AFC opponent, less impactful.
JMO, but none of these talking heads knows shit. Toss enough mud on the wall, some will most likely stick.
https://x.com/UnSportsESPN/status/2118692172933603381?a=zxLpjxaYEmiyHZRm2nw&s=2w

He's just saying that you can't assume we're not trading for someone until after the trade deadline, which I think is fair.

StickierBuns wrote:

They are done with K1....no, they're going to be patient with K1.....they're trading for a QB.....no, they just want some depth at OL and DT...they want Jonathan Taylor....no, they don't have the cap space for him. 😑😒
https://x.com/SeifertESPN/status/2118715011610837320?a=cFqmuWywVY46MGqhap8&s=20

No doubt they are moving on from Kyler. I believe he is their last resort now. Carson's comments about this "opportunity" says he was talked to about that as well.

StickierBuns wrote:

I could see him moving on from Phillips in the offseason....I don't see KOC giving up play calling duty IMO.
JMO, but the odds of Minnesota trading for a starting QB on Tuesday are 0.0%. You pull the plug on the Murray Experiment 7 games in and sitting at 6-1 (maybe 6-2)? Seems impossible to blow up an offseason strategy so quickly UNLESS its an even worse shit show behind the scenes with Murray. That's the only way, but I haven't read anything like that.....

Problem with that logic is applying that record to Murray starting. The results were inspite of Murray, not because of him. A realist looks at who weve played, and how the O has looked agaisnt those weaker opponents and realizes that if we are wanting to avoid wasting that start to the season, hard corrections need to be made and the sharpest turn is at the QB position.

JimmyinSD wrote:

Problem with that logic is applying that record to Murray starting. The results were inspite of Murray, not because of him. A realist looks at who weve played, and how the O has looked agaisnt those weaker opponents and realizes that if we are wanting to avoid wasting that start to the season, hard corrections need to be made and the sharpest turn is at the QB position.

Couldn't agree more, but I say that because I just don't feel the Vikings would admit already that Murray at QB1 was an epic fail.

I’m not convinced that we are fully moving on from Murray. I think it’s still 50-50 to me. It feels like it’s too early to hard move on from Murray. I feel like if you are benching Murray for performance, you are basically done with him, after one game that was optically bad. I said earlier that I though it would take 7-8 games for Murray to get up to speed in the offense. We’ve had like 5 games with Murray, so I don’t really feel like he’s got the expected amount of time to grow yet.

Asking Wentz to play the rest of the season … he may survive that. Do we want Wentz best to be used midseason or save it for the playoffs?

I think it’s more like Murray legitimately has some amount of hamstring injury. It doesn’t make sense to put him out there if he’s not able to really run (as that really limits his style to contain him to the pocket). I think it’s more just that with this opportunity, if Wentz balls out, he might not give Murray the spot back, but I think if Wentz looks like the Wentz we’ve seen, there’s a good chance they give Murray more chance to grow once he’s back to being able to run.

Kevin is on the hot seat at 6-1 because of his moronic decision making with McCarthy’s development and the sheer stupidity of the trade that sent him away. It isn’t just the trade decision though is it? It’s the fact he did it for a moldy cheese sandwich, while hamstringing his team by removing a talented player they could turn to if injury or poor play became a factor. There was zero rational reason for the action.

I don’t remember ever being as angry with the Vikings as I am over this. It isn’t that I have astronomical expectations for McCarthy. It simply comes down to the sheer incompetence of the move. It’s embarrassing. If this team wasn’t 6-1 (100% thanks to the defense and special teams), my friends who are fans of other teams would be absolutely relentless after McCarthy went to the Giants and performed well in a manner of a couple of weeks.

Just how stupid was trading him simply from a football perspective?

Player 1:

year 1: 1 game, 0 starts

Year 2: 16 starts. 60.8% completions, 17 tds, 16 ints

Year 3: 11 starts. 57.6% completions, 11 tds, 15 ints

Player 2:

Year 1: 0 starts 2 games 0.00% completions, 0 tds, 2 ints on 4 total passes

Year 2: 13 starts 64% completions, 18 tds, 13 ints

Year 3: 16 starts 60.9% completions, 19 tds, 24 ints

Both these guys are in the Hall of Fame. There are plenty of guys drafted as the future who didn’t pan out or started off far better and fizzled out. However, that’s not the point. The point is it takes time for the majority of young guys and they have to be afforded that opportunity to learn through the good games and the bad. They have to get actual reps or what was the point of ever drafting them? These are examples of two guys where it took about 30 starts before they started “getting it”. If you go through NFL history of great QB’s, this is the norm, not the exception.

McCarthy started off the long winning streak towards the end of last season and individually drove that success. He showed legit flashes. Yet here we are. This is why I rail on about this. It’s the stupidest move I’ve seen the Vikings make in over 30 years. If I owned the team, Teasley would have had one of the shortest tenures as a GM in NFL history. He’d have been fired by me immediately. Kevin would have had the rest of the year, but unless he had a good one, he’d be gone. You simply cannot have that level of incompetence with personnel in the NFL. The difference between getting to the top and being poor is razor thin. It’s so difficult to find a good QB, you cannot give up on a guy after so few starts. It’s simply unacceptable and why KOC has earned his way onto the “hot seat”.

I really dont understand how coaches like McVay and KOC use their OC's?

Part of me wants to continue harping about letting Udinski go, but then would it have made a difference if we kept him?

I think in regard to McCarthy it might have.

I believe the K1 hammy injury is real - it explains why K1 didnt take off and scramble nearly as much as I expected in Detroit.

That said, if Wentz really sparks the offense? They wont be changing back any time soon.

KOC isn't on the hot seat, nor should he be. His playcalling over all is good. Sure he has some questionable calls at times, but for the most part, the plays are there to be made, he lacks a QB that can make those plays. I think you can be critical about his role in player acquisition as well as in game decisions and adjustments, and can question his flexibility with regard to scheme vs QB's strengths and abilities. Give him a better QB and he will do well. He's had a lot of scrubs and, at times, has helped some of them perform well.

KOC has room for improvement and is still learning. I don't see him getting fired any time soon.

StickierBuns wrote:

I could see him moving on from Phillips in the offseason....I don't see KOC giving up play calling duty IMO.
JMO, but the odds of Minnesota trading for a starting QB on Tuesday are 0.0%. You pull the plug on the Murray Experiment 7 games in and sitting at 6-1 (maybe 6-2)? Seems impossible to blow up an offseason strategy so quickly UNLESS its an even worse shit show behind the scenes with Murray. That's the only way, but I haven't read anything like that.....

I'm starting to get the feeling that all the rumors of Kyler not being a very good "student of the game" are true. If you add up the looks of frustration from Jefferson, Addison's comments, KOC essentially saying "we waiting to see it click" for Kyler, it doesn't seem like he's putting any effort into preparing and studying. I think they "hoped" it would be different here with Kyler being in a different environment, but maybe it's just a "him" problem.

I like KO but his offense sucks and it has for the better part of two years. It needs to be fixed or changes need to happen. Seeing what Wentz has to offer this week is a good start.

The running game sucks, and the coach can call a bone-head play now and then, but the main problem is the QB not executing.

Last year it was McCarthy (when he played) and this year it's K1. Is KOC not tailoring the offense enough for 9 or K1? I dont think it can be said definitively either way. But it worked well for Darnold and Wentz looked better in a short stint vs K1.

I suspect the offense will look like a real NFL offense this week as long as they are not having to play Brosmer.