EAGAN, Minn. — Aaron Jones was ready for the worst. The Minnesota Vikings operating again had simply dropped a pitch from quarterback Sam Darnold, leading to a misplaced fumble and the type of jog to the sideline that soccer gamers dread.
Coach Kevin O’Connell was ready. It was the Vikings’ fifth first-quarter turnover in 10 video games, probably the most within the NFL on the time, and the difficulty had been addressed repeatedly in staff conferences.
What Jones encountered, nonetheless, was O’Connell’s secret sauce. He was “stern” however not indignant, Jones recalled.
“He simply needed to know what occurred,” Jones stated. “He did not increase his voice. He did not cuss. He did not make you tuck your tail. We defined it, and he stated to us, ‘It’s OK, guys. We’re good. You’re each professionals. I do know you will get it fastened, so let’s let it go.'”
Both Jones and Darnold rebounded that day to assist the Vikings to a 23-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans, one among their 14 wins in O’Connell’s wildly profitable third season in Minnesota. They had profited from a training fashion — a mix of empathy and confidence-boosting, well-suited for right this moment’s NFL — that has come to outline their coach past his repute as a quarterback whisperer.
Utilizing an strategy he admits is a product of his personal failed enjoying profession as an NFL quarterback, O’Connell has the Vikings positioned because the NFC’s No. 5 seed, starting Monday evening on the Los Angeles Rams (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC). He is the betting favourite to win Coach of the Year, and the Vikings are more likely to provide him a serious contract extension after the season.
“Coaching, in my view, is about what you do in these moments to assist ensure that your staff improves and gamers enhance,” O’Connell, 39, instructed ESPN. “And then doing it in a manner that by no means ever alters their confidence to go get their job accomplished.
“If we’re solely going to function the way in which we would like when issues are going effectively, that is a tradition that has nothing to do with what we’re making an attempt to construct right here. And fortunately, as a result of I believe we now have nice gamers and we now have nice folks in our locker room and our teaching workers, folks have adhered to that being our manner of doing issues, and it has proven up.”
O’Connell set the tone in 2022 throughout his first coaching camp when he shocked gamers by refusing to use among the conventional instruments of soccer teaching. Former receiver Adam Thielen stated he was left questioning: “Is he not going to tear us?”
Since then, at the very least one participant — defensive sort out Harrison Phillips — has inspired him to make use of harsher ways throughout staff conferences, Phillips instructed ESPN.
But O’Connell has largely maintained his strategy, to nice success, whereas dismissing insinuations it is delicate or too delicate.
He is the fifth coach in NFL historical past to realize a number of 13-win seasons in a three-year span, and his 26-9 profession report in one-score video games ranks second in league historical past (minimal 25 video games). His work to raise quarterbacks, from Darnold to Kirk Cousins to Josh Dobbs, is among the many most extremely sought attributes for NFL coaches, however folks inside and out of doors the Vikings group ascribe his success to a wider talent set.
“He’s not only a quarterback man,” stated former Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley, who coached with O’Connell when each had been with the Rams and has spent this season with the San Francisco 49ers.
“He’s not simply an offensive coach. He’s a whole coach. He has the innovation and the soccer thoughts, and that is vital. But there are numerous good soccer coaches who can draw and design actually good performs. But while you’re a head coach, you’ve gotten to have the ability to join with folks, and he is acquired that capability.”
O’CONNELL DISPLAYED THOSE instruments in Week 9 when he consoled Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson after a 21-13 Vikings victory. Richardson, the No. 4 choose of the 2023 draft, did not play as a result of he had been benched the earlier week. In a scene captured by NFL Films, O’Connell instructed Richardson: “You’re a nasty dude and you are going to play a very long time on this league.” He added: “I nonetheless consider in you. I do know these guys do, too.”
Two weeks later, Richardson was again within the Colts’ beginning lineup. “For him to present me these phrases,” he instructed ESPN, “it was simply one other increase that I wanted for myself simply to let me know, ‘OK, all the pieces’s going to work out the way in which it ought to,’ and I simply acquired to maintain working. Whenever you’ve got acquired different folks believing in you, which means you are doing one thing proper.”
“You’re gonna play a very long time on this league.”
Awesome to see Kevin O’Connell encouraging Anthony Richardson 🙏pic.twitter.com/P41jbYzglZ
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) November 7, 2024
O’Connell downplayed the interplay, saying: “I’m only a huge fan, and when you’ve got one thing to say to uplift someone else, you would possibly as effectively say it and never preserve it to your self.”
His former boss with the Rams, coach Sean McVay, noticed it otherwise.
“That’s what makes him particular,” McVay stated. “He has a coronary heart for folks. He has such unbelievable, genuine emotional intelligence. … That’s why his staff loves him. That was a cool, genuine second that’s actually perception into what makes Kevin a particular individual above all the pieces.”
A number of weeks later, O’Connell approached Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams after the Vikings’ 30-27 additional time win at Soldier Field. According to Williams, O’Connell instructed him he could be powerful to compete going ahead within the NFC North and to maintain pushing by a troublesome season. “You hear these encouraging phrases,” Williams stated, “they usually’re vital.”
Vikings gamers acknowledged the tone and sentiment as effectively.
“I used to be listening to that some folks thought he was doing that for the cameras,” linebacker Jonathan Greenard stated. “It’s not faux in any respect. I assure you that what he stated in these conversations was no bulls— in any respect. He actually talks to you straight up.
“He’s been there earlier than himself. I’m fairly positive he handled numerous adversity in his profession. So that is why it means rather a lot to numerous gamers and lots of people. You by no means know what persons are going by of their lives, of their careers. For him to take a step again from teaching, going to the opposing facet and saying that, it simply reveals what kind of individual he’s.”
Similar tales abound from the Vikings’ locker room. Greenard recalled calling O’Connell to inform him his daughter was ailing and on her technique to pressing care. Greenard, who signed with the Vikings as a free agent in March after 4 years with the Houston Texans, stated he was frightened about lacking observe.
“Practice by no means got here up one time,” he stated. “Some coaches are soccer first, however he is like, ‘No, let’s make certain we get her taken care of. I do know you will maintain what you are promoting and be prepared for this sport.’ Just figuring out that behind my thoughts, it gave me peace, and it makes you wish to play even more durable for the man.”
O’Connell has grown significantly keen on operating again Cam Akers, whom the Vikings acquired in 2023 after he ran afoul of the Rams’ coaching staff. O’Connell developed an admiration for Akers when he performed in Super Bowl LVI 5½ months after struggling a torn Achilles tendon in 2021. This season, he corrected a reporter who requested what he appreciated about Akers.
“Love,” O’Connell stated. “It’s OK to make use of that phrase once in a while, man.”
Said Akers: “It’s a blessing to have the ability to have a coach like him, a personable coach like him, and I’m going to attempt to run by a wall for him each probability I get.”
One of O’Connell’s working philosophies is encouraging gamers to be “one of the best variations of themselves.” Veteran cornerback Shaq Griffin, who, like Greenard, signed with the Vikings this spring, stated his first assembly with O’Connell reminded him of the way in which former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll talked to gamers.
“The vibe he goes with is that he needs us to indicate our personalities and be precisely who we’re,” Griffin stated. “That makes it straightforward to return play onerous for a man like that. He’s not asking us to be one thing we’re not. It jogs my memory of Pete, and I believe you may title on one hand what number of coaches are like Pete Carroll.”
IS THAT TRUE for all gamers? Have generations of soccer coaches unnecessarily yelled, knocked over coaching tables and expressed fake (or actual) anger? Don’t soccer gamers at the very least often want motivation that matches the depth of the bodily sport?
Griffin acknowledged O’Connell’s strategy works finest for veteran groups which have realized to get themselves ready for the weekly combat. At the top of the common season, the Vikings ranked because the NFL’s oldest staff by snap-weighted age, with 19 of their 22 starters having at the very least 4 years of NFL expertise.
“Young guys want construction, and I get that,” Griffin stated. “They’re going to must have coaches yell at them to know you actually care about them getting higher. Older groups have the blokes that may deal with it and do effectively with a coach like Pete Carroll or [O’Connell].
“You need not remind them that they should get therapy, or they have to be on time, or that it is time to get critical as a result of we have got a sport. If they hadn’t realized to do this, they most likely would not have made it this lengthy within the league.”
The pleasure of O’Connell’s 13-4 opening season in 2022 light a bit after a 7-11 marketing campaign in 2023 that was marred by receiver Justin Jefferson‘s torn proper hamstring and quarterback Kirk Cousins’ torn proper Achilles. With an opportunity to qualify for a wild-card playoff spot, the Vikings misplaced the ultimate 4 video games of the season.
Afterward, O’Connell arrange offseason conversations with key veterans. Phillips, the defensive sort out who had signed as a free agent in 2022, stated he had skilled the same preliminary encounter with O’Connell as Griffin and it was “so highly effective to me.” But there are limits, Phillips stated, to the unrequited love a coach can specific.
“These final couple seasons, it was too comforting and he created too therapeutic and serving to of an atmosphere,” Phillips stated. “People may reap the benefits of that within the flawed manner. Young gamers, guys may go, ‘Woe is me’ and lean into a few of that pity virtually.
“And so I truly instructed him this offseason that Day 1 of OTAs, if I mess up, put it on the large display and name me out in entrance of everyone, simply so folks can see that we do have an ordinary.”
O’Connell did not go that far, Phillips stated. At least a part of the explanation was as a result of he had achieved a lot by giving key gamers reward in entrance of teammates — particularly in his elevation of Cousins.
What O’Connell did do, Phillips stated, was “tighten up his messaging” and implement staff guidelines extra strictly by way of participant fines. “If a elevate begins at 9 within the first couple of days, then it turns into 9:02, after which two weeks later that is 9:07, after which swiftly it is 9:13,” Phillips stated. “I’m like, ‘Hey, that is 13 minutes of a day the place the Packers are gaining that on us.’ And so I believe we have tightened up, and that was messaging to different stuff. Missing meals; earlier than, it wasn’t a giant deal. Now, it is a larger deal. Curfew; not a giant deal, now, an even bigger deal.
“There must be boundaries. We can have full freedom inside that, but it surely must exist, and I believe he has realized a few of that. And good on him for doing that.”
O’Connell’s instincts towards empathy and his concentrate on constructing confidence, significantly in avoiding teamwide callouts, aligns with present sports activities psychology’s fascinated with the simplest strategies for teaching trendy skilled athletes, stated Dr. Brandonn S. Harris, the president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology and a professor of sport and train psychology at Georgia Southern University.
“It avoids alienating the person,” Harris stated, “and presents a possibility for progress and studying in case you name the individual in and assist them perceive why one thing is vital, why we do it this manner and why we want you as a member of this staff to execute higher. If you try this, and also you clarify the ‘why’ behind it, you are supporting their autonomy and permit them to strategy their job with extra confidence and understanding and extra dedication.”
O’Connell’s personal demeanor shouldn’t be all the time as sunny because the one he initiatives in public. “He’s a really intense individual and an especially aggressive individual,” security Harrison Smith stated. And twice throughout an interview with ESPN, O’Connell, with out prompting, drew a distinction between empathetic management and weak point.
“Sometimes folks confuse positivity and among the issues that we have talked about with ‘delicate’ or not having ‘grit’ or the issues that I believe make up what this constructing has turn out to be,” he stated. “Which is authentically a mentally and bodily powerful staff that builds one another up for causes that aren’t about ourselves. It’s in regards to the man subsequent to you.”
Later he added: “Nothing about what I’m speaking about is delicate or delicate. It’s not issues like that. It’s OK to care about folks, and it is OK to demand that they settle for the accountability of coming to this group and figuring out what’s vital.”
IN SOME WAYS, O’Connell is on a mission to avenge his enjoying profession. He lasted one season with the New England Patriots after they chose him within the third spherical of the 2008 draft, and he spent three extra seasons elsewhere as a backup. He remembers the day it began to crash — and the way a lot O’Connell the coach may have helped O’Connell the quarterback.
The Patriots had been enjoying Washington of their third preseason sport on Aug. 28, 2009. Quarterback Tom Brady and the remainder of the first-team offense left the sport sooner than scheduled, giving O’Connell an opportunity to guide the second staff in opposition to Washington’s starters — an ideal alternative to lock down the job as Brady’s backup.
Instead, he flopped. O’Connell accomplished 3 of 10 passes for 18 yards and two interceptions. The Patriots waived him the following day.
“My mindset was, ‘Don’t screw it up and do not be the explanation why,'” O’Connell stated. “And that was not the mindset it is advisable have in that second. So one damaging play changed into two, after which three, and it type of snowballed to the purpose the place I look again at that chance and say, ‘Did I actually even tackle the problem? Or was I so self-consumed with fear and doubt and the dangerous issues that may occur, and what it will imply for my profession?’
“I can vividly bear in mind being in my uniform with my helmet on and simply not being in the best headspace.”
While making clear he blames nobody however himself for the flip of occasions, he verbalized how, as a coach, he would have dealt with a participant in the same state of affairs.
“I might’ve actually stated, ‘Man, what a possibility,'” he stated. “I might have stated, ‘Hey, simply remember all of the issues that you have been engaged on. There’s going to be some good performs I name, and there is going to be some performs the place you bought to make me proper, and we’re on this collectively, and in the end we’ll make this a profitable alternative. And it doesn’t matter what occurs, we’ll just be sure you know that you simply aren’t on the market alone.’
“That’s how I believe you construct confidence.”
He insists he isn’t scarred by the result of his enjoying profession — “I haven’t got any deep-rooted issues happening there,” he stated earlier this season — and he has chided himself for being “narcissistic” in relating so a lot of his teaching selections to his enjoying profession.
But in talking to ESPN, O’Connell acknowledged that his teaching profession is constructed on serving to gamers navigate the type of shortcomings he skilled.
“I wish to ensure that our gamers, it doesn’t matter what, have a look at me and my teaching workers and the sources we now have for them on this constructing and perceive that each one we’re making an attempt to do is ensure that they’ll attain their potential as a participant,” he stated.
“I would like us to look again on it and say, ‘I do not know if we have ever had a participant right here say they wished they’d’ve gone some other place, that they made a mistake coming right here.'”
Few may argue that time when gamers and coaches gathered within the staff’s locker room after their Week 17 victory over the Green Bay Packers. Darnold hadn’t but joined them as a result of he was conducting media interviews on the sector, however the group determined to attend for him earlier than O’Connell started a postgame speech.
KO watching the tradition he is constructed 🥺 pic.twitter.com/KreKw1MCkv
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 30, 2024
When he arrived, gamers spontaneously showered him with water and lifted him up on their shoulders. Some of them sang “Many Men” by 50 Cent, one of many staff’s anthems.
As they celebrated, O’Connell stood in opposition to a wall, as far again from the gang as he may get. He held a soccer within the air — previous habits die onerous — and smiled.
The quarterback whisperer had accomplished greater than elevate Darnold. He had constructed a tradition in his personal picture.
ESPN workers writers Sarah Barshop and Stephen Holder contributed to this story.
