North Dakota, Meet New Viking Coach Kevin O’Connell!
Fresh off Sunday's Superbowl victory, former Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell has been named head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. I'm sure I speak for a great many Vikings fans that this is very good news indeed. Sure, the LA Rams didn't exactly light up the Super Bowl offensively, but they won the Super Bowl with quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Coach O'Connell was a quarterback for 5 different NFL teams.
Yes, Kevin O'Connell was a quarterback for five NFL teams in just the four years he was playing in the league. He was drafted out of San Diego State University in the third round of the 2008 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. Not ideal being on the bench behind Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer. So he was sent off to the Detroit Lions.
O'Connell played briefly for the team where quarterbacks go to die.
In 2011, Kevin O'Connell was traded from the Lions to the New York Jets. The Jets have crushed the souls and dreams of nearly every rostered quarterback since Joe Namath. Later in 2011, it was off to the Dolphins and then back to the Jets. Finally, in 2012, Kevin got a chance to return home as an emergency QB backup for the San Diego Chargers. His playing days would end that year.
O'Connell began his coaching career with the Cleveland Browns.
So no place to go but up! He was the Browns quarterbacks coach in 2015. Coach O'Connell was on the coaching staff of the SanFrancisco 49ers in 2016. In 2017 he was the quarterbacks' coach of the Washington Redskins where he would work with current Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. In 2020 he joined the Los Angles Rams as their offensive coordinator and was part of the Rams Superbowl winning season.
Seriously Kevin is only 36 years old. I've got underwear older than that.
Former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is 65 years old and an old-school defense guy. I liked Mike quite a bit but you can't squander talents like Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook missing the playoffs two years straight. Mike Zimmer's $2 million Minnesota house is up for sale. You can see inside by clicking here.
Welcome to the team Coach O'Connell!
Let's all drink a glass of grape kool-aid and SKOL!
There were some people that didn't think the coaching search was going to take this long. By "some people" I mean a dope like me that already had a Welcome Jim Harbaugh story in the can when Jim hopped on a bus back to Michigan. If you want to compare the two coaches' past careers feel free to read this darn story written by some darn dope. At least this time I waited