{"id":683022,"date":"2026-01-17T00:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/683022\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T00:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:47:16","slug":"kevin-oconnell-just-set-the-tone-for-minnesotas-2026-qb-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/683022\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin O\u2019Connell Just Set the Tone For Minnesota\u2019s 2026 QB Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin O\u2019Connell left no doubt that the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 quarterback room will look different in 2026. He didn\u2019t suggest that the Vikings are moving on from J.J. McCarthy<\/a>, but O\u2019Connell wants a strong quarterback room from top to bottom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely want a competitive situation in that room,\u201d O\u2019Connell said in his season-ending press conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell used some variation of the word \u201ccompete\u201d seven times in a two-minute period. He stressed that competition isn\u2019t solely about bringing in better talent, but also about elevating the players around that individual.<\/p>\n

When speaking about McCarthy, O\u2019Connell acknowledged the 22-year-old\u2019s development in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really encouraged by the type of football he started to play towards the second half of the season and finishing the way he did,\u201d O\u2019Connell said of McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think we all just tried to have a mindset on completions and how we could generate them. We started to see a little bit of that show up. We saw some explosive [plays] show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, O\u2019Connell stopped short of committing to McCarthy in 2026, citing a limited sample size in two NFL seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re still looking at a quarterback who\u2019s started 10 games, 10 out of a possible 34 in two years,\u201d O\u2019Connell continued. \u201cNot the ideal path for a young quarterback to develop on the field, but I thought he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a deep and talented quarterback room will only enhance his ability to [improve].\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were blunt but hardly out of line. O\u2019Connell is entering his fifth season with Minnesota in 2026, and the team has yet to win a playoff game. Putting his entire trust in McCarthy heading into the offseason after the Vikings had a bottom-five offense<\/a> would be negligent and a disservice<\/a> to the rest of the organization.<\/p>\n

However, his willingness to move off of McCarthy after 10 starts seems to contradict what O\u2019Connell said to Rich Eisen in September 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations,\u201d O\u2019Connell said on The Rich Eisen Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell uttered those words after a 3-0 start to the 2024 season with Sam Darnold<\/a> at quarterback. Darnold, the third-overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, was playing the best football of his professional career. His success<\/a> in Minnesota highlighted the failures of the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers in Darnold\u2019s first five seasons.<\/p>\n

That made McCarthy\u2019s underwhelming 2025 season hurt that much worse. He completed only 57.6% of his passes for 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in ten starts. Minnesota ranked 29th in passing yardage and tied for 28th in EPA\/pass (-0.24).<\/p>\n

The Vikings finished 9-8, one game out of the playoffs. Their offensive failures overshadowed a defense that ranked seventh in points allowed, third in yards allowed, and tied for fifth in EPA\/play allowed (-0.14).<\/p>\n

By O\u2019Connell\u2019s definition, McCarthy\u2019s stagnation reflects an organizational failure. That, in turn, kept the team out of the playoffs. For a coach known for his ability to maximize the passing game, it wasn\u2019t just a failure. It raised legitimate questions about one of his core strengths.<\/p>\n

But did O\u2019Connell tell Eisen that all quarterbacks are bound to succeed in well-run organizations?<\/p>\n

\u201c[Young quarterbacks] need the teammates around them,\u201d O\u2019Connell said, explaining his statement to Eisen. \u201cThey need the systems in place to ultimately try to maximize who they are and what their potential is because you\u2019re still drafting players rich off of potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, everything that happens from that moment to when that potential becomes a reality is really on the organization if you\u2019ve got the right guy that you\u2019re bringing in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe [there are] times where things just don\u2019t work out,\u201d O\u2019Connell continued, \u201cand [you get] a chance to kind of wipe the slate clean and get a restart while still using your previous experiences to kind of shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

That final statement was likely applied to Darnold reinventing himself<\/a> after leaving New York and Carolina. But someone could also use it to describe McCarthy, whose injuries have stunted his development and hampered Minnesota\u2019s development plan for him.<\/p>\n

In 2026, the statement about wiping the slate clean could be used to describe O\u2019Connell\u2019s approach to the quarterback room. No one will blame O\u2019Connell if he chooses to enter next season with another quarterback. If 2025 proved anything, it\u2019s that Minnesota\u2019s offensive system can elevate the play of many, but not all, quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

Now we wait to see who the Vikings bring in for the competition. Will it be a journeyman who provides a high-floor backup if McCarthy can\u2019t take another step in his development? Or will Minnesota go for a player who is a clear upgrade over McCarthy, signaling, at least temporarily, that the 2024 first-round pick isn\u2019t what the team hoped for?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell\u2019s declaration about organizations failing quarterbacks became a point of irony in 2025. How the Vikings address the quarterback competition this offseason will strongly affect how the 2026 season plays out.<\/p>\n

If Minnesota doesn\u2019t get significantly better results, then O\u2019Connell may not have another chance to get it right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin O\u2019Connell left no doubt that the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 quarterback room will look different in 2026. He didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,1519,6192,233,259,2529,6,1878,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-683022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","10":"tag-kevin-oconnell","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-vikings","13":"tag-minnesotavikings","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sam-darnold","16":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115907686889674919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}