No hard feelings: Kevin O'Connell was forced to wait for a contract extension but that likely benefited him in the end
The Vikings coach reportedly wanted to get a deal done last offseason, but any rift between O'Connell and ownership was resolved Tuesday when he agreed to a multiyear extension.
If there was an undercurrent of friction between the Vikings and Kevin O’Connell when it came to his contract situation, that is now in the past and it’s safe to say the head coach got the last laugh.
Nearly six months after Mark Wilf said ownership wanted to wait and see how the season went before opening negotiations, the Vikings rewarded O’Connell with a multiyear contract. The length and compensation of the deal weren’t released, but it’s safe to assume the Vikings’ 14-3 regular season put O’Connell in position to get more than he would have had the franchise locked him up last offseason.
The fact the contract was completed just over a week after the Vikings’ season came to an end with a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams will provide ammunition for those who want to pretend there were never any issues between O’Connell’s camp and the Vikings.
But reporting by some plugged in NFL reporters says otherwise. FOX’s Jay Glazer reported on the Sunday of Week 18 that several teams were positioning themselves to make trade offers for O’Connell if an extension was not reached. O’Connell was under contract through 2025, but if he didn’t elect to sign with the Vikings, he could have made himself a coaching free agent and cashed in on the open market.
That possibility existed because, as ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reported, O’Connell was displeased after the 2023 season when Vikings’ ownership decided not to extend his contract, despite the fact Kirk Cousins was headed toward free agency and the Vikings were faced with having to hit the reset button at quarterback.
This is where it makes sense that O’Connell would have wanted added security, even though he had two years left on his contract at the time. O’Connell was hired in 2022 to replace the fired Mike Zimmer in large part because of his expertise when it comes to quarterbacks.
A college quarterback at San Diego State and a third-round pick by the New England Patriots in 2008, O’Connell bounced around the NFL but appeared in only two games in his career. He became the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach in 2015 and was the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Rams before being hired by the Vikings.
O’Connell acknowledged last year that he was known as the “quarterback killer” around the Vikings’ facility because of his high standards when it came to drafting a player at that position. He had done excellent work with Cousins, but now as the Vikings made J.J. McCarthy the 10th pick in last April’s draft, ownership decided to take a wait-and-see approach on the coach.
The Vikings were coming off a disappointing 7-10 finish in 2023 - Minnesota had gone 13-4 in O’Connell’s first season before being eliminated in a first-round playoff game by the New York Giants - but Cousins suffered a season-ending Achilles’ injury in the eighth game and O’Connell was forced to start backups Josh Dobbs (four games), Nick Mullens (three) and rookie fifth-round pick Jaren Hall (two).