Kyler Murray may have made controversial comments on Tuesday afternoon, but they didn’t phase Kevin O’Connell.
Mar 30, 2026; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell during the 2026 NFL Annual League Meeting at the Arizona Biltmore.
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
The quarterback competition for the Minnesota Vikings has been in full force, and we got to hear from both Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy this week.
We heard a lot of things about the competition, but this quote from Murray stood out.
“I think the toughest part is having to split reps. It’s me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps that you know you would typically want to, gotta get learning an offense. That’s probably the toughest part. Again, going back to the past, being in control of everything, understanding what we were already doing, because I was comfortable within the system. Now, [I] come to new system, learning on the fly, trying to play fast, efficient, and then let it loose while learning. That’s the toughest part.”
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray
Kyler Murray vs. J.J. McCarthy Competition
The Vikings made it clear it was a genuine quarterback competition between the two after they signed Murray in March.
During practices available to the media, members of the beat has consistently mentioned the aspect of Murray being much more talented.
Throughout the summer, both quarterbacks have been given relatively equal reps.
Those comments were significant in many ways. Some took Murray as complaining about having to compete, but the reality wasn’t quite that simple. He was stating the obvious about the situation. Head coach Kevin O’Connell didn’t read much into it.
“I know what he was intending, it was very similar to conversations we’ve had privately, and even as a group, with me in the quarterback room a little bit more, I would say this time of year, based by the rules and also how we handle it, it is a foundation to build off of. Every rep obviously matters, but this time of year, the beauty of not going full speed on a lot of reps is you can get a lot out of watching other guys’ reps as well, so I think that’s taken place. I think there’s been great learning that’s taking place.”
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell
O’Connell also talked about the context of what the offseason program can give you. Doing things not at full speed helps out with the learning process. Even though it helps, it doesn’t replace running the play himself. It also won’t matter a lot who gets what reps on a given day.
“With the different volumes of days, like some days will be those classic two hour, two and a half hour. There’ll be massive amounts of work where maybe it could be split, but I wouldn’t read much into who gets what on which days.”
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell
There will be a lot of discussion about the competition over the next few weeks, but the biggest aspect is that O’Connell won’t overreact to anything like this.
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