Kevin O’Connell on Minnesota Vikings Preparing for Philadelphia Eagles in Week 7

Kevin O’Connell on Minnesota Vikings Preparing for Philadelphia Eagles in Week 7

All right, guys. Fire away. Do you expect Christian to be back to more of a full workload in the game? Yeah, I think um you know, last uh week with the high snap count coming out of the Pittsburgh game uh really two weeks ago now. Um you know, that was more of a uh just through the dialogue with Christian of that one individual game. But uh but yes, I I feel like he’ll be um in a good spot. Where where do things stand as far as your starting QB for Sunday? They stand in the same place they did Monday u when I answered that question. How are you handling practice in terms of reps and between Carson and JJ? Yeah, they’re both uh both going to get work, both going to get reps, and um very much looking forward to our whole team getting back out there. And Kevin, has Blake Brandell earned a longer look at center or do you want to keep that more as a reserve guard tackle? No, I think I think our goal is always, you know, especially navigating kind of the I think we’re up to 14 combinations of of guys. We’re just trying to, you know, as we navigate it, try to find the best five to have out there. And Blake certainly, um, played as, you know, as we kind of expected he would. And, um, any of the unknowns of just the experience of running the show and, um, kind of being in charge out there as a center were quickly answered um, in a really positive way. So, I thought he was big, strong, handled the communication really well um, against a really good defense and he’s going to, you know, get the opportunity to get work this week. Jurgs is back as well and and we’ll go with the best five we can. Kevin, what most do you want to see from JJ this week? I think the big thing is just getting him back on the grass in uniform practicing, getting real live uh reps of a pass rush and um you know, taking drops and applying some of the things that he’s worked really hard on as of late as he’s kind of gotten to that phase of his rehab. uh applying it and then when he does that, you know, instant dialogue about what he’s able to do and what it felt like and hey, let’s log that away and and then if he doesn’t, the same thing. It’s, you know, it’s going to be um I’m having a blast kind of coaching him. It started kind of last week when he was able to really uh start ramping up a little bit as he as he gets there. And and uh you know, that that one-on-one work and then obviously the work he does with Josh and Jordan um is going to be critical. So on on the mechanics thing too because he he you know has been here for a year plus now worked in training camp and stuff. When the mechanics start to break down, is that more of an in-game thing because you know you you’ve worked on those things before? Yeah. Just like does does the footwork sort of go astray during games or what what happened where you had to sort of go back to some of the fundamental mechanics that you’ve seen done well in training camp? Yeah, I think uh you know live football and real real reps of you know some of the things he did. It wasn’t just real football because he did some things in the Chicago game to help us win that game. Um demonstrating um a lot of a lot of real positives, you know, on the road in a in a pretty significant environment, crowd noise, first time out, a lot of a lot of really positive things. And then um it kind of circles back to it was our you know he’s been here the timeline you said but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s been um on the grass practicing doing the things that help you build a layer of consistency where you can not only take it to the game with you but then the es and flows of the position whether it’s you know uh you know the pocket breaking down or maybe it’s you know once the injury happened being firm on that back foot and what the combination of a lot of those experiences can do to your fundamentals are a very very normal thing for a young player. Um I think you can see examples of it around the whole league to uh at a lot of different different positions, not just the quarterback position, but it’s obviously the the easiest one for folks to be able to see kind of a plus or minus type of world that they live in. Um completion or not, first down or not, touchdown or not. Um there’s a little bit more that goes into it as each, you know, rep kind of tells its own story. So what you can do as a quarterback is hold the pen and at least control the controllables of doing your job. And I think uh that’s where uh the time on task is it’s you know easy to say like why wasn’t it like that every time he played. Um that was really a significant injury that he was playing through in that game and the that coupled with how the game had gone and the fact that he you know had about an hour and 20 minute practice on that Friday after leaving the hospital on Thursday sleeping there and showing up here. here. I mean, there was a lot of variables to that one performance that I know cuz he hasn’t been out there, we’re we’re, you know, taking a lot of um looks at probably continuously and I understand that, but uh there’s a bigger picture to playing quarterback and how I view the position and yeah. Is it more important for Carson Wentz to start against the Eagles or the Vikings? To for him to start against the Eagles or the Vikings? I mean, is it more important for him personally to Oh, yeah. We haven’t Yeah, I I see what you’re saying. We haven’t really We haven’t really talked about that at all. Um I think there’s, you know, been I don’t know if he’s even played them since he since he left Philly, but he’s played for a few teams since. But, you know, I think he’s just excited about getting back on the practice field and having a chance to play this week. and you know he’s working through his own um his own kind of plan for the week as well as we lead into it. What about the NIO defense or or this Eagles defense kind of requires the most time during the week in your game planning and Yeah, he’s really really good football coach. Has been for a long time. You know, they’ve got some really talented guys on their front, really good linebackers, and I I really like their young secondary. You know, they’ve got um a really good mixture of instincts and ball skills and then just flat out, you know, good football players. So, uh, he’s got the tools to to do what he’s always done in the league, which is it’s difficult to play against, uh, variety of fronts that they can get to with the versatile pieces that they have. Linebackers getting on the ball, forming five down, six down structures that, uh, require you to have a pretty good understanding of, you know, the plan and the play, but then the adjustments that have to take place amongst the players out there um, to find success. because really a lot of the defense whether it’s pre- snap and some of the things that they do stemming and moving around it’s similar to our defense in a lot of ways but then post snap similar to our defense they’re changing the picture you think it’s this coverage and you know it ends up being a a totally different you know kind of structure of the defense and uh that’s what he’s made you know so many so many teams and defenses so successful with and they’re doing the same types of things and we’ve got to have a good plan for it um and we’ve got to execute we got to really good execution on the early downs um to give us a chance to have some manageable kind of situations throughout the drive. See if we can get momentum and we’ve done well when we’ve gotten in the red zone. We’ve done well in the two-minute setting. We’ve got to be better on third down and kind of eliminate the the things we’ve talked about from a penalty or negative play uh standpoint to be able to stack positives together. Kevin’s shoulder being the left shoulder. Like are you confident from a physical standpoint that he’ll be available to you if you need him? Yeah, I mean we’ll we’ll work uh we’ll work through the the week, but um you know he uh he got some good work in Monday at least feeling u feeling positive from a from a health standpoint to to go through and throw as if you know he there he you know took a normal amount of throws. There wasn’t any throws he didn’t take because of it. Uh but there’s a layer of working through it even though it’s his non-throwing shoulder for sure. JJ kind of trusting the mechanics and driving it off the back foot. Is there a process when he’s coming off that injury to kind of learn I’m solid on this foot again and how do you go through that with him through his trusty? Yeah, even last week some of the dialogue of hey, you know, I felt it here or this type of movement uh made me feel it because this is you know a unique real injury where you know sometimes the hardest part is that trust level of getting that final stage of game-like movements and and and feeling. So, what we were able to do is uh kind of break it down to really start in the foundation of the base that we’re looking for and then kind of work backwards from the drop mechanics and things like that. But once uh you know, he had some real positive work, you know, feeling that body position and then the way he threw it, you know, once he was able to kind of work outward from there was really positive. Have they changed anything they do with Saquon and why his numbers have slipped? Well, I think obviously, you know, he’s one of the best players in the league and you’ve gota he he’s the you know, he’s the the starting point of what you have to try to limit from a standpoint of he doesn’t just run the football well and and kind of control the game. They’ve they’ve proven time and time again that if they have success running the football, they can time a possession, eat up clock, keep things manageable. Jaylen can make a bunch of plays on third down to extend drives and give them more opportunities to run it. But it’s also the explosive runs. I mean, the, you know, first and 10 at your own 30 and and he’s crossing the goal line. If you’re not exactly where you need to be, fitting the run, second level players showing up, setting edges, playing the cut back. Uh it’s it’s it’s one of those teams where they’re really good at the things that they do and you’ve got to be really good at some fundamental simple things on the chalkboard, but you got to you got to do them and you got to make sure that you consistently do them every play. Uh because he can change it in a heartbeat with one touch. Kevin, is last week with JJ the most hands-on you’ve been with that position since you coached it? Uh yeah, just with the the obligation of being the play caller, but also the head coach on normal practice days, you guys see I I like to get around all the positions and um this it it did feel like that in a lot of ways. um just the the true one-on-one work and then being out there with Josh and uh kind of being able to just kind of give real- time feedback after every throw, even before throws of, you know, hey, you know, see how your see how your foot’s here, you know, and incite some plays that we had watched together or things where maybe we were overextended or maybe we were, you know, kind of, you know, allowing kind of what was happening maybe in front of them on certain plays. um to kind of subconsciously have him extending some drops and reaching and with every reach there has to be an equal and opposite commitment to come back to balance um to be accurate and he’s an accurate passer and when we what I have learned about him is when he plays with that you know ideal base balance and body position you’re going to you’re going to see the ball come out with a lot of revolutions and it’s going to go where he wants it to go. So, um, yeah, but to answer your question, it did feel like that and, you know, definitely something I want to try to, um, continue to to do while wearing a few hats. So, thank you.

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media from TCO Performance Center ahead of the team’s Week 7 game against the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2025 NFL regular season.

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