Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Hiring Kevin O'Connell over Jim Harbaugh shouldn't be controversial

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated discuss Vikings fan freakout over the team not hiring Jim Harbaugh and instead picking Kevin O'Connell to be their next head coach. Will the Vikings keep any assistant coaches? Is it a concern that O'Connell didn't call plays? What does it mean for Kirk Cousins? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

hello welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here and joining me covers the vikings for sports illustrated will raggetts making a return appearance what is up will uh you look uh you look exhausted like you've been up 47 straight hours covering harbaugh watch um the vikings broke you in their coaching search and finally landed on kevin o'connell how are you i'd say that's a fairly uh fair act that's assessment of where things are at but But now I'm fired up. I haven't been this excited to do a podcast with you in a while. We got a lot to break down.

A lot of very meaningful, big picture stuff going on here. I know. And so maybe you could just start off with giving your reaction to how this whole thing played out. After talking with some people this morning, just what I have ascertained is that the Harbaugh side believed that this was much more his job. And the Vikings did not see it that way very much from the start. Not that they were completely out on Harbaugh. You wouldn't fly him in, as I joked on Twitter, just to ask him about khakis. But Harbaugh was telling everybody on the Michigan side, as was reflected by the reporting that like this was happening,

but there was no reporting on the Viking side. And even when Ian Rapoport or Adam Schefter would come out with reports, it was kind of like like we don't really see this as necessarily happening until he was actually at the building and then it seemed like it was gaining momentum that he that they wouldn't let him leave or whatever else but ultimately it seemed like Harbaugh got his foot in the door for an interview and they talked and it was not a match so they went with the guy that they probably would have gone with anyway in Harbaugh but they caused lots of drama and excitement with the fans yeah no I I was kind of guilty of of falling victim to that there was a report from a Michigan guy that Harbaugh planning to sign with

the Vikings and um well once I actually thought about that a little I'm like how does this guy know what the Wilfs are thinking I mean he doesn't and there's no way to kind of know that nothing could change over the course of of wednesday uh throughout a day-long interview and all the questions that are going to come up about harbaugh's time in san francisco and and valid concerns that they have i mean i i was super just interested in in this idea, this whole possibility, because on the one hand, it's a candidate like that with a track record that he has at the NFL level, at the college level, but specifically at the NFL level.

I mean, that doesn't come around very often. Like the last guy who was available with a proven winning record like that in the NFL was Andy Reid probably, and that worked out pretty well. So with Harbaugh, you're talking about one of the most well-known coaches winning record like that in the NFL was Andy Reid probably and that worked out pretty well so with Harbaugh you're talking about one of the most well-known coaches uh of the past couple decades and I think that just got people really excited about the possibilities and like oh we we could get we could get Jim Harbaugh like the former Bears quarterback who they didn't even talk to and um who the Dolphins kind of wanted reportedly. But there was also always going to be risks to it for a variety of reasons.

I mean, Harbaugh is kind of an insane person, and that can still lead itself to winning football games, as he's shown. But maybe there would be conflicts with the front office or with over-roster control or things like that, or he would just kind of wear on players in a similar way to the way Mike Zimmer did. And we'll never know the answers to these now, obviously. But there were also questions about the fit with Harbaugh coming in.

It is a win-now move. I mean, I don't think he's going to want to put that 44-19 record and be okay with going 4-13 this year and getting a top draft pick. So me and you have talked about how the Vikings might need to enter a rebuild, and that might be the smart move that they've been putting off for a couple years. And I think going with Kevin O'Connell, as we'll get into, maybe makes that more of a possibility just because of the ages here. And you're starting with with a GM and a head coach who are doing this for the first time and they're I think they'll

be willing to kind of build from the ground up and uh well all that that entails but yeah it I mean it was just a whirlwind few days I remember the uh report on Saturday came out that they were interviewing him and then like a couple later, he was seemingly the favorite. So it was, it was all happening really fast. And then the, the Adam Schefter bomb that he's going back to Michigan, just kind of sent it all crashing down.

But now we go forward with, with KOC. Why there was no helicopter over top watching Harbaugh come out of the building and go back to his hotel. I'll never know. I think a failure of our media. Maybe we don't have helicopters, do we? I mean, we don't have enough traffic to have traffic copters.

Side note, did you see the Washington Commander's nickname was broken by a station in D.C. that had a helicopter and they could see in the windows of the building that it said commanders? And that's how I didn't. Yeah, that's how they broke the building that it said commanders and that's how i didn't yeah that's how they broke the story that that's what the team name was going to be so we weren't able to do that we weren't able to have helicopters show um you know harbaugh leaving angrily from tco performance center but somebody said to me this morning that is uh fairly in the know that harbaugh would have completely cut off quasi's.

You know what I'm saying from the very start. And I think the number one reason to like O'Connell over Harbaugh, if you put all the hype aside, if you put the past record aside is to form a bond between the GM and the head coach to build together like that. To me, it's hard to beat that if you're making an argument for both sides because the the one-sided loves Harbaugh

is going to say but look what he did before look what he did in San Francisco and it's like right and look at the San Francisco roster and tell me if this looks like what the Vikings have right now it doesn't and this is not a roster that's ready to go to the NFC championship as the one Harbaugh took over. So what do you have to do? You have to build that roster. You have to build it together. You can't just have Harbaugh take over your franchise and expect to win right away. Like circumstances are different. And I ran through a list in an article that I did of all the coaches who teams thought this guy's had success in the past and let's bring him in and he'll just win for us. And it didn't work. That doesn't mean nothing ever

works with someone who's a retread. It just means that past results don't guarantee future success. And I think that you're, you're much better off with someone that okay people have heard of less although he's in the Super Bowl folks uh they've heard of less but is going to be on the same page with the general manager yeah and I I saw some people in my mentions saying that like Harbaugh is going to come in and oh Kellen Mond is going to become Colin Kaepernick and it doesn't it doesn't really work like that he's not just going to magically turn certain players on the roster and make them instantly better like players that he had in San Francisco. But, yeah, I agree with you.

I think if you kind of take a step back from just the hype of it all, which I completely got caught up in too. I wrote a bunch of words about Harbaugh and what that would mean. The Vikings stated when they were coming into this process that they wanted the collaboration and communication. And we were expecting that they would kind of do what you do when you're making new hires and go the opposite direction from their previous leaders. And they absolutely did that with Kweisi. Harbaugh would not have been that from Mike Zimmer. He would not have fit that collaborative

kind of reset mold. I mean, it would have been different. He's not Mike Zimmer. He would not have fit that, that collaborative kind of reset mold. I mean, it would have been, it would have been different. He's not Mike Zimmer, but there are some similarities there in terms of just their intense demanding personalities. And I think O'Connell is a guy who's going to be able to just kind of grow and learn and try to build this thing into a contending window in a couple of years. And yeah, it'll be, it'll be fascinating to see how that plays out just this off season and then going into the, this season. You ever heard of a concept?

Did you ever take philosophy in college? Yeah, I took a, I took a philosophy course or two. Did you ever hear of the original position concept? You could say, no, this was probably... Well, for you, this wasn't that long ago, so you should remember this from class. So this always stuck with me, though. I was paying attention the day they presented this.

The original position idea is how would you design something if you knew nothing else of how things were actually working? So if everything was just all complete reset. So if you completely reset your mind and don't include Harbaugh at all, how would you feel if the Vikings hired quasi Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, who again is coordinating the offense in the Superbowl? Like the people who are in my mentions this morning on Twitter upset about Harbaugh. It's like, if you hadn't heard Harbaugh as a part of this, how would you be talking about Kevin O'Connell

right now? And I think we know the answer is people would be over the moon that the Vikings hired exactly the guy that so many Vikings fans were talking about in terms of a profile of a coach that you wanted from day one that they fired Zimmer and Spielman. He checks every box that everybody would have wanted. Is he the opposite disposition of Zimmer? Yes. A former player who can understand how a locker room works better from a player perspective? Yes. Offensive guy? Yes. His offense throws to the number one freaking receiver all the time? Yes. Can this guy help you pick your next quarterback if that's the route you're going? guy yes his offense throws to the number one freaking receiver all the time yes like can this guy help you pick your next quarterback if that's the route you're going yes like all those things

are the things that you're looking for and works for another coach who's had just insane success in the nfl since taking over the rams like it's really hard to find a downside except for harbaugh was more exciting for people to talk about. And there's always this too. And we run into this with the cousins debate. If, if you've seen someone do something, it's hard to imagine necessarily what the next person will do. So there are people who want cousins to stay as the quarterback because it's

hard to imagine, well, what if another quarterback comes in? Can he have more success than Cousins, right? I think you run into like, but I know what Cousins is. And there's a feeling, I know that Harbaugh's had success before, but I think there's a lot of those boxes that don't get checked with Harbaugh that do with O'Connell. Yeah, I think, I mean, there's inherent risks when you make any hire. If you're, they would have hired Jim Harbaugh like I've gone over already there would have been risks there there's also risks

in not hiring Jim Harbaugh and going with Kevin O'Connell who is unproven hasn't been coaching for that long kind of the and I like a lot of things about Kevin O'Connell but kind of his resume is like he's coached under Sean McVay for two years. And that's a big part of it. And he was a quarterback's coach for a couple of teams and he seems really smart and he's also tall. But if it works out with Kevin O'Connell, no one is going to, I mean, we'll look back and laugh at this whole Harbaugh saga and like, Hey, remember that? That was, that was kind of, that was kind of fun. But I mean, if it doesn't work out that, I mean, people will have the hindsight questions like were the Vikings was, was their brass kind of scared to make this move? And, um, would, would Harbaugh have been the choice and just kind of jumping in with the, with the proven option?

So I don't know what the answer is. And, and, uh, they, they made the choice that they felt was best after that whole interview. And it may well have been a thing where both sides kind of realized it wasn't the right fit. If Harbaugh had certain assumptions about what type of control he was going to have and what the vision was for the franchise short and long term. And maybe that just didn't match up. But yeah, it was an opportunity to bring in a guy who would have instantly had the second best winning percentage among active coaches only behind Matt LaFleur. So it's yeah. And that's what made it such a big topic of discussion. And this guy is like this rock star head coach. But I do agree with you that if you step back and you ask people on January 11th, the day after they

fired Zimmer and Spielman, alright, the Vikings are getting Kweisi Adolfo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell. I think everybody signs up for that right away. I mean, there were periods where we had to go through Todd Bowles rumors and Jonathan Gannon, the coordinator of the Eagles' terrible defense. There were some times where people were worried about, about a lot more than missing out on Jim Harbaugh. There is a podcast that never saw the light of day on Todd Bowles. Um, unfortunately my friend who covers the jets, Joe Caporoso, we did a great show on all the reasons not to hire Todd Bowles. And then that disappeared and that never came out. Um, but yeah, if they had hired Todd Bowles. And then that disappeared and that never came out. But yeah, if they had

hired Todd Bowles, you talk about the lack of hype, that's what it would have felt like now. But yeah, the thing about the Harbaugh decision is it would feel like you bought a Ferrari and you'd have something very shiny and super fun to talk about. And I mentioned that for personal reasons and for this way for you too. I mean, the content would have been unreal. So for us, it would have been insane. But, you know, a lot of times it is smarter to buy a truck and have a GPS inside and take the slow, steady route than trying to floor it in the NFL. And it feels like the last couple of years, the Vikings have been trying to floor it with a bunch of signings or drafting guys

to fill in right away. And it hasn't really worked. So it's really hard for me to say that it would have been the right move when it doesn't check those same boxes. And, you know, the other thing to bring up with Harbaugh is the only other team that's been interested in Harbaugh since he went to Michigan has its owner trying to bribe the coach to tank. Right. So, like, that's the only other team that has even been rumored and did not interview Jim Harbaugh. So this is another. I think the Raiders were rumored, too. Oh, right. That's not really a model organization either. Well, that's what I mean. Like, right.

Their last head coach had to be fired for sending racist emails. Like, this is my point that, okay, I get the criticism of like, this guy's had success before, but no one else has even interviewed Jim Harbaugh. Like this guy is not, doesn't have just a couple of red flags. He's wrapped in a red flag. So I, you know, I, I, anyway, I've just seen, I'm seeing a lot of freak out and I guess I don't quite understand it in comparison to who they landed. If it was Todd Bowles, I would totally get it. Now I've got some questions from fans that are showing up in the Friday mailbag that I think are good discussion topics that I wanted to bring up. Someone asked if the Wilfs may have been influenced by Twitter and how much reaction was happening to the Harbaugh

interview. And of course, you know, I don't know that Mark Wilf is scrolling Twitter. It doesn't seem like the type of guy that is because maybe he would have noticed some things that were going on with the Vikings, with his own team inside the building if he scrolled Twitter more but do you think that there was any outside influence to this beyond just hey man you're just not really a fit we'd rather go with Kevin O'Connell yeah I can't I can't imagine there was although I was pretty entertained by like half of Vikings twitter uh changing their profile picture to some like warped jim harbaugh meme face and just constantly showing up in my mentions with ads so i couldn't tell who anybody was and i thought it was the same person replying to me

over and over but yeah i don't i don't think so i mean that it was just it was such a crazy cycle of of hysteria and it's and it's understandable like i've said like people see this shiny toy like that and and the possibility of it and just just the story that it would be and it would i mean it would have been the splashiest and and most surprising bold vikings move since they got brett farm in 2009 and that worked well for that season i mean that was just a one-year thing, obviously. But, yeah, I mean, people – I was guilty of it too. You see something super flashy and exciting and you're like, oh, this could work. This could be Jim Harbaugh has taken the Vikings to the Super Bowl.

So I get the disappointment from fans on that end. But I think the kind of reasoned, big-picture view of it is that hey you you gotta just you gotta trust that the the owners and the the search committee who i think found a really good gm in quasi trust that they they made the right decision to realize that this wasn't a fit it's better to realize that now than to like have those thoughts in your mind hire him anyway and have those thoughts be proven when it all burns down in flames in like two years because it's just not working here's another good question uh do we think some of the reason the vikings went for kevin o'connell over harbaugh's potential disagreement over what to do

with kirk cousins now there's no way for us to know that without having actually been in on the interviews i think that either way they were going with somebody who's a former quarterback, that's one, but the, the only disagreement I could see would be if one of the people thought I can work with Kirk and the other one said, I already worked with Kirk and I can't do that again with Kevin O'Connell. It is interesting that O'Connell worked with cousinsousins as a quarterback coach in Washington in Cousins' worst year where the Washington franchise burned to the ground. And at the end, Jay Gruden was publicly blaming Cousins for it. I mean, it is kind of interesting

that that happened. That doesn't necessarily mean that Kevin O'Connell feels one way or the other. But I do think that it would have been a huge part of the conversation as it pertains to win now versus maybe this is going to take a reset year before you could take the next big step forward. I think that that plays into it of, hey, should you keep Cousins for another year or should you trade him away right now? And how are you going to do that? Who do you want to draft develop like does Jim Harbaugh want to draft and develop someone or does he just

want to show up and have a quarterback I don't know the answer to that but I feel like timeline wise it is such a huge factor between these two candidates yeah I think that's one of the things that is the bigger selling point for Kevin O'Connell is that you can imagine that. I mean, people have said like, yeah, oh, he worked with Kirk Cousins for one year in Washington. He's going to want to keep him and extend him. And I don't think that's true for some of the reasons that you said, like he's seen what Kirk Cousins can do, that he's an accurate, talented throw of the ball, but he's also seen the bad, particularly in that year where Cousins stats weren't great. And I was at the year where,

where Jay Gruden had the quote where he's like, I can't get guys 30 yards open all the time. Cause that's one of my favorite Kirk Cousins related quotes. Yeah. Jay Gruden. Yeah. At the end of that season, Jay Gruden said our record was reflective of our quarterback play.

And they went seven and nine. Wow. Is right. I mean, wow. Like that. I J Gruden has not held back in sharing all the Kirk cousins dirt since he left Washington,

but that was actually in the press conference after the end of that season. That's what he said about, about cousins. Now that doesn't mean that O'Connell feels the exact same way. Sorry to interrupt your point. No, you're good. I think my intuition would be that O'Connell and Adolfo Mensah aren't going to want to hitch their wagons to Kirk Cousins, a guy who has been a starter in this league for, what, seven years now?

And the results from a win-loss standpoint just haven't been there. And so I don't know why you would want to come in and say, like, that meme. Like, did it work for those people? No. Could it work for us? Maybe. Like, no, it's probably not going to work for you. Even if you build this great team and Kevin O'Connell is this quarterback

whisperer that he may or may not be, I think they're going to want to trade him and handpick their own guy. And Kevin O'Connell will get to draft and develop that guy. And to me, if you're a young quarterback-focused coach, that's a more exciting challenge than coming in and saying, oh, maybe I can be the guy to get 12 wins out of Kirk Cousins, which nobody has ever done. So I think the O'Connell hire, to me, probably signals a greater chance of trading Cousins and maybe going into a slight rebuild for a year or two with a bridge guy or the rookie or killing mon, then, then Harbaugh would have folks want to tell you about hello fresh with hello

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unbelievably funny uh but the the meme is it says well did it work for those people no it never does i mean those people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might but it might work for us that that's i mean that's been a lot of things um with kirk cousins in his career just the vikings yeah in general over the past few years right i mean that's signing kirk cousins is like does it work to have the 13th best quarterback in the league at the most expensive contract no but it might work for us and then it didn't and even here there's a comparison that gets made that i just cannot agree with which is stafford going to la and winning there um i mean, for one, okay, show me your roster and tell me that it looks anything

like that with all these pro bowlers all over the field. And I keep bringing this up and I will continue to keep bringing this up. They have the sixth most players that they developed, that they drafted. So their drafts before they started trading, everyone got a lot of good players, including Cooper cup out of the third round, by the way. So you need also that. The Vikings don't have that. They don't have cap space to go get a bunch of pro bowlers. It's a totally different – you can't just say, oh, if you can make the most out of –

no, you're actually the Lions, so you can't do that. And people will disagree with this, but I still think that while Stafford and Cousins are similarly talented quarterbacks, that um and people will disagree with this but i still think that while stafford and cousins are similarly talented quarterbacks there's just something about stafford late in games that kirk cousins doesn't have and i know that's like people will say that's ridiculous and it's obviously it's not really quantifiable necessarily actually well it might be the late game stats but i just think there's a certain like clutch aspect that Stafford has. Well, the thing about Stafford is that he's number one in the NFL since 2018 in third down yards per pass attempt. And, you know, I think that that's a big factor that people talk about checking down to the fullback.

I mean, that's a real thing. That's a real thing that on third downs, a lot of times on third downs, we know this. The teams drop seven or they rush something confusing and create pressure. And a lot of times what you need is to make an off balance, throw, fire it into a tight window. Like these are things that just cousins doesn't have the arm for. One of the other things too, is that there's so many straw man arguments with Matt Stafford, where you'll hear nobody gave him credit when he was in Detroit like which is a

total opposite I feel like the entire time he was in Detroit to the point where I thought I was taking crazy pills was like Stafford's great but the Lions are bad the ceiling on Stafford was the dude throwing for 5,000 yards before anybody was throwing for 5,000 yards and I mean he had seasons where he won and put up huge numbers with his giant arm throwing to great receivers. Like these, this is not somebody who was just a middling quarterback. He was considered a top talent quarterback by most of the league. And then that's come to fruition when he's had this incredible team. I still think the guy will throw away games for you, but it just hasn't

mattered in the playoffs because the other team dropped the potential interceptions. That's aside from the point is that if you're trying to make that comparison, it just, I just don't think it works of like, oh, well he got the most out of Stafford. He'll get the most out of Kirk. Like you're not there in your timeline. You are probably two years from having a roster that would be ready for something like that. Yeah, no, I agree with you. And Stafford, the Stafford cousins comparison, we don't need to dive into that too far, but it's interesting because Stafford is, we'll make, he'll take a little more risks. And I think that that leads to more like head scratching interceptions. Like we saw against the Vikings with the one he threw right to Anthony Barr.

But it also can lead to more big explosive moments. And I think that's kind of what you're hoping for with Kirk Cousins eventually if he's going to stick around is like just losing a little bit of that fear of throwing interceptions and just kind of letting it loose a little more. And I don't know if that's something that he's ever really going to have in him just because of the way his brain is wired and the way that he's come up and always thought about the game and thought about the quarterback position and what his approach and responsibilities are. So, yeah, what were we talking about before that?

I don't know. Hard to say. Let me ask you another – okay, go ahead. Finish your point. I was just going to talk about Kevin O'Connell. And one thing that has kind of stood out to me is just I think his approach and his demeanor are going to be helpful for this team and the collaboration. And I think he's going to be've talked about with various other candidates like Raheem Morris and other just kind of younger people who like are just going to be able to kind of like get along with the players and like the Brian O'Neill and Eric Hendricks things that they talked about with the culture. won't lead to to wins right away but if you have that environment where people are are feel empowered to to share their thoughts on something or uh give input on on a play design and things like that i just think that's going to be that's going to be really helpful for this team in the long run and what we've seen from los angeles is that their offense has kind of been a chameleon

this year that it started off a certain way and then defenses adjusted stafford had some struggles and then it kind of went back to some of the stuff they were doing with golf and you know they there's details to the rams offense that are just hard to explain on a podcast like route combinations that are common that defenses understand that they tweak ever so slightly to just throw off the assignments and take advantage like this is not exciting stuff but it's one of the reasons the cooper cup is open all the time other than he's great at football there's no i'm not downgrading him but these are the things that they can do successfully to pump up their quarterback but your point about uh the

the relationship with players the first thing that I heard about O'Connell, because I obviously started asking around anybody that I know that knows anything about him. It sounded very Stefanski ish. Like you remember with Kevin Stefanski, who's what does Patrick Peterson say? Fly at cruising altitude or something like all the things that Mike Zimmer did that frustrated players. That's not who Kevin

O'Connell is. Like I, we, the podium sessions with Zimmer could always go one way or the other. I mean, he could dunk on anybody's face at any time. That's going to change. Like we're not going to have a head coach who walks out and slams Kyle Slaughter or Anthony Barr or the number of other people, or defends a player tweeting and telling the fans to suck it. Like, come on. I mean, you're just not going to get these things. I think it's going to be a little more professional approach. I don't think Mike Zimmer ever fully understood that people were watching those press conferences.

I think that I really think Zimmer felt like he was in that room with us, and we were the only ones listening to that and never understood the whole world is taking this in right now. People on his team, like his players and other coaches. Like if you take a shot at them, they're going to find out about that. Right.

Instantly because they're paying attention and they'll get texts from everybody else. Did you hear what he just said? I don't think he ever really understood that Kevin O'Connell understanding the landscape, uh, being of kind of an age to be able to connect with players in that way is important and I think that when you're talking about going a 180

from where you were before like yeah this is an area you needed to go a 180 because it's the year 2022 and you can't treat it like it's the the old Jerry Burns thing in the media room or whatever I mean because these things blow up and they end up everywhere and everyone knows about them. When you say I have a bad defense, like people are going to take offense to that and get upset about that. And when you're hard on players 24-7, as Jeremiah Searles described on the show, like that's going to wear people down. That's not the environment that they have in Los Angeles. I think you want to bring that environment here. Another question that I think is a good one is,

do we think that the Vikings will keep anyone from their current staff? Now I already know Ryan Ficken is headed to Los Angeles and Andrew Janoko stays within a division. He's getting hired by the Chicago bears. So that's an underrated loss. I think because Janoko is coach receivers and QBs. And if Justin Fields becomes really good, So that's an underrated loss, I think, because Janoko is coach receivers and QBs. And if Justin Fields becomes really good, there's going to be some finger pointing like,

hey, maybe we should have kept that guy. Also, I read that they want to start running the boots and doing the Shanahan McVay. I mean, Justin Fields, I've always felt if he was a bootleg type of quarterback would be pretty scary. But the big question, I guess, is Andre Patterson. But I don't think anybody stays except for maybe Keenan McCardle. Yeah, I think he'd probably be smart to keep Keenan McCardle. I mean, we've seen Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, and the whole receiver room came out and kind of voiced their support for him.

And I think he did a really good job last year. We saw with K.J. Osborne, had a big season big season I mean I think Justin Jefferson probably would have had a great season no matter who his wide receivers coach was but Amir Smith-Marsad even showed some some progress over the course of the year that showed up late in the season maybe O'Connell's gonna have a guy he has in mind for that and I'm sure people will will move on and it would be fine but i can see just kind of wanting to to keep your face of your franchise happy like justin jefferson and and keenan mccard will have a really strong relationship so that's that's when i could see andre patterson is an interesting case because mate like would he go back from being a co-defensive

coordinator to just being a defensive line coach? I don't know. Maybe if he wanted to stick around and not have to relocate himself. I don't know. I don't know if that would even be an option. A couple others that I'll mention just as like possibilities would be Phil Rauscher, who overlapped with Kevin O'Connell in Washington, if I'm not mistaken, under Bill Callahan and who I think they should keep just because he's super entertaining. And when I was showed up at training camp and had an injury on my head last year, he like noticed and asked me about it.

So I like Phil Rocher a lot because of that. Carl Scott, I thought did a good job as, as the DBs coach. I mean, he's been here for a year. He's probably not staying. But I'm just throwing out some names that Kevin O'Connell could come in and say, oh, maybe we keep that guy. Kennedy Polamalu, the running back's coach, has been around forever and is really close with Dalvin Cook. I don't know.

I think Keenan McArdle has the best odds. It probably won't be many, and they're already losing coaches left and right over the last 24 hours folks we've got an even better offer to tell you about from soda stick if you use the promo code purple insider one word you can get 15 off your purchase that's right at sodastick.com your place for minnesota sports inspired apparel you can get 15 off just by using the code PURPLEINSIDER. I've told you about all the great football designs, but they've added a few more, including the Axe is Back for Minnesota football fans.

You can get that on a shirt, on a hat. And also, Randy Moss is the Goat, the Purple People Eaters, Bud Grant designs for the old-school fan. Plus, the hockey and basketball teams are both actually exciting this year and soda stick has you covered there as well go to soda stick that.com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com and use the code purple insider for 15 off i think kennedy palomalo is really good at his job um that he's not a guy that anybody knows he's not not a self-promoter. He's a pretty understated guy. I've interviewed him a few times. He's got a great attitude, but he is picking good running backs out of the draft left and right. cook or anything because delvin cook was insanely talented as a first round uh level talent but um you know kenny wong lu alexander madison has turned out to be a good player and i feel like

they're really good at that position i mean i don't know you can pick your own guys if you want to it's just that if anybody on the staff has an impact that we could sort of grasp onto it's probably him i mean keenan mccardle look, the thing you need to do if you're the receivers coach is just be boys with Justin Jefferson. Like that's, that's your deal. That's your job. Can, can you say to Justin Jefferson, Hey, let me help you out with whatever you need. Can I get you some coffee? Can I teach you a route? Like what, what do you need? You want to hang out, play video games? Let's do it. Um, and Keenan McArdle has that kind of, I played in the league. I know all this stuff that mentor type attitude.

I think that you really like, um, Rousher. I don't know. I mean, are we supposed to grade it by how the offensive line played? Because what, I mean, was he supposed to make only Udo into Will Shields? Like on an Alan Fanica? I don't think so. So I don't, I don't know, but yeah, that crossover is kind of interesting. Um, the, on the defensive side though, I don't know, but yeah, that crossover is kind of interesting.

On the defensive side though, I know that people really love Andre Patterson and Andre Patterson is a really good person who I think is good at coaching defensive line. But I think you want to hire a defensive coordinator that wants things done his way and not necessarily Andre Patterson slash Mike Zimmer's way. Patterson has always been teaching the Mike Zimmer way of pass rushing and everything else. I think you just want to totally reset on the defense, especially after the last two years have been really poor. I think that's fair. Yeah, it would, that would be like kind of keeping one of the, the biggest links to the Mike Zimmer era is like one of Mike Zimmer's good friends who they, like you said, they teach the same way and they have the same ideas of what they want in,

in their personnel and their scheme and things like that. So yeah, that, that probably makes, makes sense to just kind of revamp that. I will say one, one good thing about Kevin O'Connell is that he does not have any family members that he's going to be able to hire to his staff because he's 36 years old. And I don't think he's hiring. On his Wikipedia page, it says his dad is a former FBI worker. So I don't think he's coming in to coach cornerbacks or anything like that. But if they would have hired Jim Harbaugh,

he probably would have brought his son, Jay Harbaugh, to be like the special teams coordinator or something. So in that regard, Kevin O'Connell, great hire. Is it, it's John Gruden's son who was like the yoked strength coach or something. Yeah.

Yeah. I think, and we talk about trying to reverse all of the bad things about Zimmer and like, look, hiring friends and family was not beneficial to them. They got worse. The more friends and family that they put in prominent positions, although congratulations to Clint Kubiak going to Denver where he'll coach Aaron Rogers, I guess. Maybe

right. That's a real quick question as we just sort of bounce around here is do you think Clint Kubiak was bad at his job or that Mike Zimmer is just so tyrannical that it made Clint nervous or made his job more difficult where he couldn't call the plays he wanted to play? Like, percentage that for me. Yeah. I think it's... Oh, man.

I do think it's both. I just, I'm trying to decide which one I want to give more than 50%. I think it's, I'll go like 60%. Clint Kubiak wasn't very good at it and I'll go 40% like working under Mike Zimmer. It sounds like kind of a nightmare. There were just at first I was leaning towards, it was like the Zimmer thing and Oh, we got to run the football and all this.

But then the more I watched throughout the year and like these route concepts where like it's third down and they're sending a blitz and there's like all these long developing routes. And I'm like, what do you like? What are you doing? Like, this doesn't make a lot of sense. So I do think it was it was both. But I will be very curious to see if, if they get Aaron Rogers or Russell Wilson, or I don't, I don't know who, or Kirk cousins. And if, if Clint kind of gets back onto the path of becoming an offensive

coordinator again, maybe becoming a coaching candidate, a head coach candidate. I don't know if that's how it'll play out, but good for him getting to getting to go, go back home and probably end up working with a good quarterback, I would think. Or maybe Julak.

I think at the beginning of the season, he just didn't know how to adapt during a game, which is incredibly difficult, by the way. One of the things I remember I talked with Steve Beerline about Gary Kubiak, 90s fans, you're welcome for all of that sentence. But like one of the things Beerline said was Gary Kubiak was crazy good at watching how the defense reacted to things that he called and remembering it. And then later in the game, taking advantage of it. Like, okay, so we ran this play action or this run look and here's what this safety did and it might be something as small as took a step in one direction but Kubiak knew like okay if he's playing that this way I could take advantage of that later that's an art form

that takes years and that's why it never really made sense to hire someone that was so inexperienced like with Kevin O'Connell his inexperience right now I think is fine I don't think it's something you're terrified of oh he doesn't know how to head coach like well that's all right because I don't think you're you're raising a Lombardi next year so figure it out with you and Adolfo Mensah both of you learn on the job and figure things out with Kubiak it was hey everyone's about to get fired here but, can you just like have the most pressure from your head coach of anyone in the league and do this job for the first time? Yeah, go ahead. From the very beginning where Zimmer said, no, I sent him up to the booth, not on the sideline.

We were like, Oh, okay. Then this is not Clint Kubiak's offense. This is Mike Zimmer's. And the final straw being, we needed to run the ball more down 20 to three against the Packers like okay I mean the I think yeah I would go 64 I feel like 40 is giving a ton of a ton to that angle but I also think it's really hard to do your job like if you had an editor that every article you wrote was like why didn't you write about running the ball more why didn't you write about this why didn't you write about that it would be? Why didn't you write about this? Why didn't you write about that? It would be hard. You'd be afraid to turn in an article because you'd be like, what? Start getting in your head, yeah. Right, exactly.

Starts getting in your head. I think that that did happen to him. I've heard other people say that they think he's got real potential, but this was just a bad situation. Yeah, and let's get back to Kevin O'Connell. I want to address something that a lot of people say to me, that it just like kind of a basic level criticism of him and and or the higher and it's that oh he doesn't

call plays in in mcveigh calls the plays so what is this guy like why is he even a candidate and i think that's just such a like i don't know if people understand being an offensive coordinator is about so much more than just calling plays like he doesn't know if people understand being an offensive coordinator is about so much more than just calling plays like he doesn't even necessarily have to call plays in minnesota if he doesn't want to i assume he will um because he's an offensive guy and whatever but he can hire an offensive coordinator to do that like what what he is from what i've read is he's a really really great scheme guy and the the designing of plays and then the installment of those plays in practice and in meetings and just the general scheme. And he's bringing this whole knowledge

of the Sean McVay scheme that's so successful. And I think people should be excited about that, just from what we know about him. And I think they're going to go to more like 11 personnel, which the Rams run super heavily. And maybe that's not good news for cj ham or tyler conklin or whatever but i think there probably needs to be more of that and kind of a modernization of the vikings offense and their passing attack so um i mean you look at zach taylor who's coaching in the super bowl he didn't call plays under mcveigh before he got hired um i think matt lafleur had a little bit of play calling experience when he got hired with the Packers, but I mean, it wasn't a ton. This coaching tree has been very

successful. Kevin O'Connell, by all accounts, is a really, really bright guy. I don't want to sound like I'm saying like, oh, this is the greatest hire of all time. There are risks with a guy with his limited resume who hasn't been around the league for that long. But I just think that the criticism of he doesn't call plays is kind of simplifying it too much. And I think that's not going to be a barrier to him becoming a successful play caller. As it pertains to talking about O'Connell is the best candidate to hire here. I feel like all it is, is us staying on the same track that we would have been the last time we talked about what they needed, right. As you know, where you could get off track with a bunch of different things like

the Harbaugh situation, but realistically, these were the things we were talking about them needing. And when it comes to a play caller, it's sort of, now I understand why people wouldn't understand this because I didn't until I asked one. So there's a guy named AJ Smith who coached in the XFL, worked with June Jones that I had on the show once to talk about play calling and like how we criticize play calling and when it's right, when it's wrong, criticize play calling. And what he said is, as a staff, you formulate the game plan and you have plays for all the different situations, and that's how you put them in in practice.

Now, there are definitely spots where you're going to hear about, hey, Doug Peterson called Philly special when they had never practiced it before. They drew this one up in the dirt on the sideline. You're going to hear that, and that will happen. They pulled out out a play from six months ago and we all had to remember it okay you're gonna hear that for the most part the play card has the game plan developed from the head coach to the offensive coordinator to the quarterback coach to the office of line like they all formulate the game plan together and then in every situation the play caller is picking from those plays, those couple

of plays for each situation that they want. In fact, Bruce Arians in his book wrote about the third downs that I think it was every Thursday night. He got together with Carson Palmer or Peyton Manning, whoever he was working with Andrew Luck, and they watched tape and they picked out, he would give them like 20 plays for a third down and the quarterback would pick out his favorite 10. Like, so the play caller is calling one of the quarterback's favorite plays for third down and 10. So we can go at least the way it's supposed to work. I have no idea how it was working with Kirk, but if it's working the right way, the play caller is a function of the offensive mind. Who's setting forth the game plan. And the other thing too, I think it's really the head coaches about leadership and about operating an entire organization. You are now the front door,

Kevin O'Connell. And that's where, that's where we don't know. Well, we, we don't know how someone handles that. I've said that about crazy too. We don't know how you handle it. We know how you handle it when you're the football researcher. Sure. When your team loses three in a row, how do you handle it? When everyone's looking at you going, what's going on here? Why are we losing these games or why isn't this draft pick working out or anything else? I think that's the thing that Kevin O'Connell is not prepared for as no one would be as a first time coach, the play calling thing. It doesn't mean a thing to me. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, yeah, he's got to kind of come in and coach the entire roster and have a relationship with the defensive staff and the defensive players and

um all the little things that go into being like game management we don't know how how he's how he's gonna use his timeouts and his challenges and uh i mean that's kind of that's a that's kind of a minor aspect although it's a very front-facing one. But, yeah, I think, like, if you go back to when the Vikings set out on this search, that we've talked about this, like, they got their offensive guy, and a lot of fans wanted that. And what that means is he's going to have a relationship with the quarterback, whether it's Kirk Cousins, whether it's a guy he brings in and develops. He's going to have a really good relationship.

It's not going to take three and a, he's going to have a really good relationship. It's not going to take three and a half years for them to start watching film together. That's going to be happening right away. And they're going to have conversations. And I think there's just, just that relationship is going to be really meaningful. And at the same time, he's going to like tell, he's going to have these, these other coaches on his offensive staff that are going to come together and

they're going to build the game plans together. And they're going to have these these other coaches on his offensive staff that are going to come together and they're going to build the game plans together and they're going to uh it's it's not just going to be him from the the offensive perspective but you're also not going to lose your your your lead offensive mind every year to a head coaching promotion or being fired or uh resigning or uh have i covered all the ones that happened under Mike Zimmer? I think so. So, yeah, there's that continuity on the offensive side of the ball, which is important, is going to be big. The relationships with the quarterback. Obviously, they have to make the right choice at quarterback,

which personally I don't think is extending Kirk Cousins. I think you've got to try to find a guy in the draft, whether it's this year or next year. And that quarterback is going to more or less make or break the the O'Connell and Adolfo Mensah tenures but yeah can he can he do the job can both of them do the job and lead uh in this new world that they've never been in that's what that's what we're going to find out but from what we know about both of their pasts and just their interpersonal skills and how they get along with people and what they've done in previous stops, I think there are a lot of reasons to be excited and to think that this could work.

You think O'Connell will be showing up with a ring on his finger? Logically, I do, but I just can't i can't quit joe burrow that dude is just i mean he's just magical like he he got sacked freaking nine times against the titans and i i've picked them in this like picks league i've done every games i just keep picking them and so i think i'm probably gonna do it again because i mean that dude is the definition of like elevating people around him and just no matter no matter what the situation is like your offensive line they're all dead like you're your team you're in a bad situation you're down 21 to 3 to freaking patrick mahomes and the chiefs they they i have to imagine they never feel like they're out of it with joe burrow

like he's just the he's just the joe cool like he's just i don't know so i i think the bangles win well it's always possible that their defensive backs catch the interceptions that is that is always possible and so i'm i'm i have prepared myself mentally already for three stafford picks bangles win the Superbowl. And then everyone says, great. Now we hired the loser that only put up seven points in the Superbowl should have gone Harbaugh.

So, well, you know, that's just, that would be very Vikings. Well, another thing I saw was Kevin O'Connell is the Rams are going to win the Superbowl.

And he's going to say, Hey, I like winning like this. Why would I go to Minnesota? I'm going to stay here. Screw you guys. And then they're going to end up with like, they're going to have to completely pivot.

And I understand why Vikings fans feel scarred in a lot of ways by the on field results and by the whole Jim Harbaugh thing. But that's, that's not, that's not going to happen. That is indeed. Absolutely not going to happen. One of the reasons is Harbaugh thing. But that's, that's not, that's not going to happen. That is indeed. Absolutely not going to happen. One of the reasons is Kevin O'Connell.

If you live in LA and you make offensive coordinator money, you're like not rich. You live in like an average little house. You get stuck in traffic constantly. If you live in Minnesota and you make head coaching money, you can live anywhere you want, buddy. You,

you can, you can buy a snowmobile to go wherever you like in the winter, and you can have a ranch in Kentucky if you want. You build a whole farm with a hot tub, as Mike Zimmer once told us about. So, yeah, I think he'll be coming to be the head coach. How many opportunities in your life do you get to be a head coach? You have to take them. So, anyway,

follow Will on Twitter. Great follow at WillRagatz, R-A-G-A-T-Z and SI.com is where your work is located. Always great to get together, man. Appreciate the time. Yeah.