Can Kevin O’Connell Get His ‘QB Whisperer’ Reputation Back?

At this time last year, Kevin O’Connell was on top of the football world.

No, he didn’t win a Super Bowl — he coaches the Minnesota Vikings after all — nor did he even win a playoff game. Instead, he was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year and spoke about the bright future of his team at a press conference at the NFL Honors.

“Our goal is to win a championship,” O’Connell said via Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press. “And Sam Darnold is going to be a huge part of it when we do it.”

It was a totally believable comment until it was discovered that Birkett had misquoted O’Connell. Vikings fans pounced on the mistake and were furious that O’Connell would even think about sticking with Darnold after he had performed terribly in the final two games of the season. With O’Connell’s “quarterback whisperer” status, they would be foolish not to go with J.J. McCarthy and welcome the quarterback of the future that fans had been longing for.

One year later, Darnold is enjoying a bye week after leading the Seattle Seahawks to the best record in the NFC, and O’Connell will be watching it from home after McCarthy failed to live up to expectations in Year 1. Many pin the blame on McCarthy for a year marred by injuries and poor performance. However, O’Connell may have lost his “whisperer” label in the process.

Entering an offseason with many questions, the biggest may be whether O’Connell can get his reputation back and help the Vikings find stability at the NFL’s most important position again.

Like many fans, Kevin O’Connell must ask how the Vikings got here. In his first three years here, O’Connell propped up quarterbacks in a way that would make Dennis Green smile. After getting the most out of Kirk Cousins in 2022 and the first half of 2023, he did what he could with Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens, and Jaren Hall when Cousins tore his Achilles.

Then came the jackpot in 2024. O’Connell tabbed Darnold when Cousins left in free agency, and the move was met with heavy criticism. Even when Darnold stumbled in the middle of the season, fans wondered if McCarthy would have taken over for him had he not suffered a season-ending knee injury during the preseason. In the end, Vikings fans couldn’t argue with the results that included a 14-win season and a chance at home-field advantage entering the final week of the regular season.

Vikings fans may not want to admit it now, but there were a lot of people all-in on McCarthy going into the season due to Kevin O’Connell’s body of work. But instead of unleashing a weapon on the NFL, O’Connell’s season put a chink in his armor.

Part of this came from things O’Connell couldn’t control. McCarthy’s son was born during the second week of the season, and it has been referenced frequently, underscoring the importance of a full week of practice. McCarthy’s lost season also put him behind a year when footwork and other facets of his game could have been refined while Darnold led the team in 2024.

A slew of injuries muddied things even further, and McCarthy couldn’t stay on the field. Still, O’Connell didn’t do himself any favors with his actions.

The offense was a point of contention all season as O’Connell tried to jerry-rig his philosophies onto a developing quarterback. While it worked for established veterans like O’Connell and Cousins, it wasn’t a fit for McCarthy, who was trying to adapt to the NFL. When McCarthy got hurt, O’Connell tried the same philosophy with Carson Wentz, even as his non-throwing shoulder needed surgery after a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

In the one instance where he changed his offense to spark a game-winning touchdown in a Week 5 win over the Cleveland Browns, O’Connell grimaced like he had been told he had a cavity. He spent the bye week providing a footwork crash course for McCarthy and didn’t change his offense until Max Brosmer threw four interceptions in a game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Brosmer is another interesting data point from the past season. An undrafted free agent from Minnesota, O’Connell called Brosmer “as smart as any young player I’ve been around.” Coaches often say that about obscure players in training camp. Still, the hype train kept building, and by the time Brosmer prepared for his first start in Seattle, anonymous reports had fans thinking they had found “Purple Purdy” or the next Tom Brady.

The results weren’t pretty. Brosmer chucked four interceptions in his first start and finished his rookie season with a passer rating of 53. Still, it was the off-the-field stuff that was the strangest, including a trip to a Gophers game with Brosmer.

Kevin O’Connell has a friendship with Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck, and it could have just been part of his working relationship with the school. But in a season where McCarthy was scrutinized for his optics, it was strange to see O’Connell shoulder-to-shoulder with his backup quarterback as he openly critiqued McCarthy throughout his rookie season.

Because of this, O’Connell wasn’t just charged with one quarterback failure this season; he came home with two. There are also other instances, such as a refusal to run the ball in short-yardage situations despite averaging 4.5 yards per carry (tied for the 10th-highest in the NFL) and a staff that didn’t seem to have the answers until they had been eliminated from playoff contention.

It’s also to see O’Connell in a different light if defensive coordinator Brian Flores leaves this offseason. While Flores has transformed the defense into a top-10 unit, the Vikings have been a middle-of-the-road offense even at their best, with the Vikings ranking 11th in yards per play (5.6) and ninth in scoring (25.4 ppg).

So how can Kevin O’Connell find himself again? The most obvious is to find the right quarterback.

McCarthy showed flashes in his first year as a starter, but there were too many misfires and mistakes. This comes with being a young quarterback. Still, for a coach with no playoff wins in five seasons, urgency has set in.

The problem is that most of Minnesota’s options have already dried up. The Baltimore Ravens chose Lamar Jackson over John Harbaugh and will likely build around him when selecting their next head coach, and Joe Burrow’s trade candidacy lives on X and Reddit at the moment. Other options, such as trading for Mac Jones or signing Cousins or Aaron Rodgers, will look more like desperation than an actual solution.

It may also require sticking with the philosophical changes we saw at the end of last season, which included heavier personnel and a greater emphasis on the running game. But O’Connell hasn’t shown any desire to keep that moving forward. McCarthy threw the ball 23 times before leaving the season finale against the Green Bay Packers with a hairline fracture in his throwing hand.

Whatever the answer is, Kevin O’Connell needs to find whatever made him the “QB whisperer” fans made him out to be one year ago. Not only do the Vikings’ chances of winning in 2026 depend on it, but it could also determine his future in Minnesota.