Kevin O’Connell has gotten the best out of Sam Darnold. Any chance the league has taken notice?
The evidence points toward a definitive answer: yes. After all, Daniel Jones recently ventured over to Minnesota to function as the QB4, a practice squad QB who is trying to become the QB3 before the season ends. What’s more, Kirk Cousins played the best football of his career under O’Connell’s tutelage. How does this help Minnesota moving forward?
Kevin O’Connell as a QB Expert
The topic was considered over on The Vikings Gazette.
The evidence is starting to become huge. Cousins played the best football of his career with O’Connell as his head coach, leading to the monstrous deal in Atlanta (one that’s not aging particularly well). Joshua Dobbs experienced some magic, though in a short time frame, with O’Connell calling the shots. J.J. McCarthy wasn’t shy about wanting to become a Viking, in no small part due to being able work with the head coach.
The crown jewel in it all is Sam Darnold, someone whom most thought of as a definitive draft bust.
Darnold is leading a 12-2 football team. If these next three games end in victory, then Darnold will very likely see his Vikings atop the NFC standings. An opening-round bye would follow and then U.S. Bank Stadium would function as the host for Minnesota’s playoff game(s).
Basically no one could dispute the fact that Darnold is playing like a top-ten passer in 2024. He has an excellent 67.6% completion rate to stand alongside passing yards that exceed 3,500 and a 29/11 TD-to-INT ratio. The cherry on top is the excellent work that Darnold can do with his legs. Poise and positive decision making have come to define much of Darnold’s recent play.
On PFF, Darnold is the 7th-best passer. At no point in his career has he ever been close to being a top option, so this is uncharted territory that Darnold is handling with aplomb.
Whether in Minnesota or elsewhere, Darnold is moving toward a major raise in the offseason. Wes Phillips said as much recently.
“I think we all know that Sam is going to be a sought-after type of guy,” Phillips notes, “from wherever that may be. Whatever his future ends up being, I know all of us in this building are going to be happy for him no matter where that ends up being. I don’t think he has to worry about that anymore; I think the worry might have been, ‘OK, this is my opportunity to play.’ Alright, he’s past all that, he’s proven the doubters [wrong]. And he’s proven that he can play in this league. Let’s just make this the best possible season we can have and starting this week.”
In other words, the $10 million that Sam Darnold is getting in 2024 will pale in comparison to the compensation he earns on his next deal. Even the coaches are acknowledging that reality.
The real clincher will be if we see Daniel Jones decide to come back as a backup. That’s the path that Darnold took last season with San Francisco. Go work with Kyle Shanahan for a year and then pick a favorable setup. Does Jones do something similar by being the QB2 with the Vikings for a season before then venturing onto greener pastures? If he opts for that path, then the reality about Kevin O’Connell will be clearer than ever.
During a recent game broadcast, Greg Olsen passed along this thought about Minnesota’s head coach: “If you’re starting a franchise and you need a great coach, play-caller, quarterback whisperer, he might be the guy.” Hard to disagree.
In his third season as the Vikings’ head coach, Kevin O’Connell is proving to be the guy when it comes to helping quarterbacks to succeed.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
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