Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was drilled about the quarterback competition.
Dec 25, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell looks on in the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
The quarterback competition for the Minnesota Vikings is one of the more interesting storylines this offseason.
Kyler Murray is likely to be the starting quarterback, as the betting and prediction markets, as well as the consensus among the media. Even with the belief about Murray getting the job, J.J. McCarthy isn’t to be overlooked.
Kevin O’Connell highlights why the quarterback competition is so important
It’s an interesting idea to have a competition, because of the old adege “if you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” That isn’t the case with Minnesota, as head coach Kevin O’Connell has had to use multiple quarterbacks in two of his four seasons.
“In four years, the two years we had our starter play the whole season, we won 13 and 14 games,” said O’Connell on The Dan Patrick Show. “So we want to try to get back to the standard of having the quarterback position be a driving force behind us, winning by doing their job, by hopefully getting the great players they get to play with.”
“The two years we had our starter play the whole season, we won 13 and 14 games. We want to try to get back to the standard of having the quarterback position be a driving force behind us winning.”
– Kevin O’Connell (@KevOC7) on the #Vikings‘ QB competition. pic.twitter.com/XJKmlHvzHA
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) July 9, 2026
Patrick called him out for using so many coaching cliches during his interview, but that’s to be expected from O’Connell. He’s very political with his answers, and that was the same here.
Patrick pushed O’Connell to talk more about the quarterback competition and what it means. O’Connell opened up about it and made an interesting point.
“I think every day, every job, everything you do is an open competition. Why am I limiting that to my quarterback room? I’m not going to close it.
“They’re competitors, go out there and win the job. I’m not handing you the job. J.J. didn’t live up to expectations yet. Maybe he can learn from Kyler, [who] I think is going to have an incredible year inside on that turf in that division [with] me coaching him up, and I think we’re going to dominate the North. We’re going to win it, and I think we’re going to be a Super Bowl favorite.”
This goes against what the Vikings used to do with Kirk Cousins on the roster, as they actively went against having competition in the quarterback room. The words from O’Connell are going lead many to believe that Murray has the lead in the competition, with the positive comments being about him and not McCarthy.
This is going to be a wild ride over the next few weeks.
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