Kevin O’Connell had no NFL head coaching experience when he left the Super Bowl champions Los Angeles Rams in February 2022 to take over as the Minnesota Vikings head coach.
O’Connell, who had served as the Rams’ offensive coordinator under Sean McVay, fit what the Vikings were looking for after dismissing the defensive-minded Mike Zimmer. He was young (36 at the time), enthusiastic and, most importantly, his expertise came on the offensive side the ball.
He also had been the position coach for Kirk Cousins for one season (2017) in Washington, so he was familiar with the Vikings quarterback.
While there was optimism that O’Connell could get more out of the Vikings than Zimmer did in back-to-back non-playoff seasons, it surprised nearly everyone that the team won 13 games before suffering a disappointing loss to the Giants in the first round of the playoffs.
As the Vikings get set to open their second training camp under O’Connell let’s look at what he has accomplished to date and where there remains room for growth. We did the same for general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah earlier this week.
