Kevin O'Connell will be next Vikings coach

[VikingsVictorious]

I have not posted in quite sometime, but I needed to come out of retirement to vent.

I think I have finally reached my breaking point supporting this team. You have Jim Harbaugh in the building for 9 hours and you decide, "nope, Kevin O'Connell is better." How can anyone with some level of football knowledge truly believe a 36-year old OC who DOESN'T CALL PLAYS is better than Jim Harbaugh? What is the point of hiring a GM to make decisions if a minority owner is going to have more say on the matter than the GM? What the hell kind of message is that? If ownership and the team role-players have more decision-making capacity than the GM, why bother having a GM in the first place?

The Wilfs blew an amazing opportunity to generate fan and NATIONAL buzz in the team. Can you imagine how much revenue this team will lose out on because they chose not to hire Harbaugh? Ticket sales would have been through the roof. The team would have easily had more prime-time games. My interest in the team has decreased over the years. I, for one, would have been all-the-way back in with the Harbaugh hiring. Harbaugh was perfect for this team. They needed a strong leader who was able to mend fences and bring strong developmental traits to help many of these young players reach their potential. Harbaugh is all about winning. I can no longer ever take the Wilfs seriously again when they say, "we are all about winning." No, you are not. If you were, Mark and Zygi, you would have hired Harbaugh.

This O'Connell hiring will blow-up in Minnesota's face and the team will be on the lookout for a new coach again in 3-4 years. I guarantee O'Connell is not ready to be a head coach. I guess the Wilfs found their 'yes-man' candidate at least.

Great post calling it like it is.

[VikingsVictorious]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

[fiestavike]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

He's young and innovative and successful! (his team is in the Superbowl!)

[vikeinmontana]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

I mentioned this before but there have been other successful head coaches who didn't call plays as offensive coordinator prior. The most recent example is Zac Taylor who wasn't even an offensive coordinator, but the QB coach. He seems to be doing ok.

With all that goes into offensive strategy and game planning all week, and all season for that matter, I think fans tend to put too much emphasis on the play calling aspect.

Take the Rams for example. McVay is never going to give up play calling duties. Does that mean that anyone who decides to be his coordinator isn't qualified to call plays? I certainly don't think so.

[fiestavike]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

I mentioned this before but there have been other successful head coaches who didn't call plays as offensive coordinator prior. The most recent example is Zac Taylor who wasn't even an offensive coordinator, but the QB coach. He seems to be doing ok.

With all that goes into offensive strategy and game planning all week, and all season for that matter, I think fans tend to put too much emphasis on the play calling aspect.

Take the Rams for example. McVay is never going to give up play calling duties. Does that mean that anyone who decides to be his coordinator isn't qualified to call plays? I certainly don't think so.

McVay is a raging dork.

[4mnvikes1982]

Athletic article on it this AM:
-----

From Jim Harbaugh to Kevin O’Connell: An inside look at a shocking day amid the Vikings’ coaching search

By Chad Graff and Jon Krawczynski 27m ago 23

As the sun rose over TCO Performance Center in Eagan on Wednesday morning, the winds of change whipped through the frigid February air.

The Minnesota Vikings had spent weeks interviewing candidates and mulling a replacement for coach Mike Zimmer, fired in January after missing the playoffs for the second straight season and suffocating the organization with a hardass approach to leading. After newly hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah joined the organization two weeks ago, the coaching search had shifted into overdrive. The last candidate slated to be interviewed was the most high profile, and polarizing, of the finalists.

Jim Harbaugh arrived at Vikings headquarters early in the morning brimming with his trademark confidence. He hoped to complete his journey back to the NFL where he’d again chase his dream of a Super Bowl after seven years at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

An electricity rippled through the building upon his arrival. For all of his eccentricities and concerns about people skills or leadership style, the 58-year-old Harbaugh has an undeniable presence about him, one that fills any room he enters, be it a conference room where the Vikings set up shop for the NFL Draft or the sprawling indoor practice field. It is a different kind of energy from the other three finalists, 36-year-old Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, 43-year-old New York Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and 45-year-old Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, all younger up-and-comers, though Morris did have previous head coaching experience in Tampa Bay and Atlanta.

Harbaugh was batting cleanup in the interview order, which, coupled with coaching the San Francisco 49ers to three NFC title games and a Super Bowl appearance in four seasons and fresh off leading his Wolverines to a long-sought conquering of rival Ohio State, put so much more attention on his turn than the previous three relatively anonymous candidates.

But while many Vikings fans salivated over the possible addition of a big name with a big resume and a bigger personality, and with some media reports painting Harbaugh’s interview on national signing day as nothing more than a formality, the Vikings made it abundantly clear to Harbaugh that he was coming in to compete with the other three men for the job, sources told The Athletic. There were some in the organization who wondered if his hard-driving ways, which had been known to grind on those around him in San Francisco and Ann Arbor, would fit in Minnesota after the Vikings had just extricated themselves from the tension-filled end of the Zimmer-Rick Spielman regime.

Harbaugh knew there would be questions. He knew of the perception that he was a coach who was difficult to work with, and he spent the days leading up to the interview preparing to address all of their concerns. In the end, he is one of the winningest football coaches of the last decade and the owner of a 44-19-1 record in the NFL. He believed that after some time with the Vikings’ decision-makers, his resume and gumption would win over Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, CEO Andrew Miller and Adofo-Mensah (with whom he worked in San Francisco) and inspire them to bring forth a lucrative contract.

But that offer never came, sources said. On a whirlwind day, the Vikings opted against offering Harbaugh a contract and instead turned to O’Connell. A deal with the Sean McVay disciple can’t become official until after the Super Bowl, but O’Connell is expected to become the franchise’s 10th head coach.

For outsiders intoxicated by Harbaugh’s accomplishments and pedigree, it was a stunning result. For many Vikings insiders, however, it was the logical conclusion to a deliberate process aimed at reshaping how things are done in a franchise that has straddled the line between mediocre and contender for too long. It was an exhaustive process that included marathon interviews, Harbaugh professing his desire to return to the NFL and conversations that didn’t go as planned. The Athletic spoke with multiple sources to understand how the Vikings arrived at hiring O’Connell when everything seemed pointed toward Harbaugh.

When the Vikings interviewed candidates for their vacant general manager job, they asked each contender to name three coaches they’d potentially want to work with. Because they did not want to fall too far behind in the coaching carousel, while they were interviewing candidates to replace Spielman after 16 years of leading the front office, a committee of Vikings executives set about interviewing a group of coaches that intrigued them.

When the 40-year-old Adofo-Mensah was hired two weeks ago, he was known to be a fan of Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who was among that group of eight coaches to have interviewed with Vikings brass. But Hackett was hired by the Broncos on the day Adofo-Mensah was introduced, so Adofo-Mensah provided the Vikings with three coaches he liked: O’Connell, Graham and Harbaugh.

The Athletic reported earlier in the winter that Harbaugh, who led the Wolverines to the Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff, was itching to get back into the NFL. His connection to Adofo-Mensah from their days together with the 49ers made it easy to connect the dots.

Shortly after he became the team’s GM, Adofo-Mensah led virtual interviews with Graham and Harbaugh. Graham impressed the search committee with his smarts and Ivy League background. He became a finalist, along with O’Connell, Morris and 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. Then Adofo-Mensah called Harbaugh. Adofo-Mensah and Harbaugh share a circle of friends and Adofo-Mensah was curious if one of the most recognizable coaches in America was truly interested in returning to the NFL. Harbaugh insisted he was.

So Harbaugh became the Vikings’ fourth finalist. When Ryans withdrew his name from the running, speculation swirled that he knew something, perhaps that the job was being steered toward another candidate. The Vikings’ search committee flew to Los Angeles and interviewed O’Connell and Morris on Monday. Both conversations went well, but O’Connell “blew them away,” according to a source. He had studied the team’s roster from the previous season. He came prepared with ideas on how to improve the team and was able to offer a nuanced review of quarterback Kirk Cousins, whom he coached for three seasons in Washington.

O’Connell quickly became the favorite of the search committee, which was looking to overhaul the working environment at team headquarters, prioritizing leadership, inclusivity and collaboration after the front office, coaching staff and roster fractured under the pressure on Spielman and Zimmer’s watch. O’Connell seemed to fit that style and mesh well with Adofo-Mensah’s measured approach. Leadership also believed O’Connell’s offensive background was more in line with where the game is going.

But the Vikings knew the search was not over.

They returned home on Tuesday and spent nine hours with Graham. He had only been a defensive coordinator for three years, but the Vikings weren’t deterred throughout the process by a lack of coordinator experience as long as the candidate impressed with his leadership and willingness to work with others. After all, in the early days of the Wilf family ownership, they watched a young coach named Mike Tomlin join Brad Childress’s staff, spend a year in Minnesota as the defensive coordinator and then leave to become a championship-winning head coach for the Steelers.

For those who believed this was all a show with a scripted ending that had Harbaugh in purple, the length and thoroughness of the interview with Graham seemed to indicate that they were taking their due diligence seriously. While Harbaugh had the most impressive resume and certainly would’ve qualified as the biggest swing for the team, it was also a signal that this process was far from a done deal.

In words and actions, the Vikings made it clear that Wednesday was not going to be merely a coronation and a celebration of Harbaugh’s return to the NFL. The Vikings also knew that Harbaugh was notoriously unpredictable. There was no way they could assume anything when it came to a coach so … unconventional.

Harbaugh was going to have to interview like anyone else. He was going to have to earn it.

But it is not clear Harbaugh saw it that way. When he left Ann Arbor for the Twin Cities, reports out of Michigan were that it felt like goodbye. The parents of recruits were quoted as saying Harbaugh had warned them that he was “definitely looking” for an NFL job.

Besides, the Vikings’ search committee wasn’t 100 percent sold on Harbaugh. The coach had clashed with leadership in San Francisco, and even though many place more of the blame at former GM Trent Baalke’s feet, the way an incredibly successful run came to such a quick and flammable end was cause for concern. Some in the Vikings organization wondered about his leadership style and how that would align with their new goals in the post-Spielman/Zimmer era. They had just endured and been weighed down by a volatile head coach’s moody nature and a GM’s inability to find a way to make it work.

Mark Wilf and linebacker/team leader Eric Kendricks spoke about the need to reconnect players and franchise leadership, to feel supported. And now they were looking at Jim Harbaugh to do that?

Others liked the idea of pairing a proven, veteran coach with an inexperienced general manager and thought Harbaugh, with his track record for winning, was the perfect candidate for a team that doesn’t want to rebuild. With Cousins under contract next year and an aging defense, the ability to make big roster changes quickly will be challenging. Mark Wilf said in January that he didn’t think the team was far away from contending and did not want to tear it down and start over. Harbaugh has proven time and again that he can take rosters that accomplished less under previous head coaches and get them to perform better. He has done it at the University of San Diego, at Stanford, with the 49ers and at Michigan. Why couldn’t he do it here?

Adofo-Mensah’s interest in Harbaugh was considered a statement as well. Adofo-Mensah was in San Francisco in those last, ugly days of Harbaugh’s tenure. So if anyone knew enough to stay away from the coach, one figured it would be Adofo-Mensah.

At first, the interview seemed like it was going well. Harbaugh saw the Vikings’ gleaming new practice facility and the team started to see some of the coach’s most redeeming qualities.

A buzz reverberated through the building. Is this really happening? Are we really going to hire Jim Harbaugh?

Harbaugh started to feel it, too. He left Ann Arbor believing he was not coming back, and as the process got rolling, it started to look like he would be in Minnesota to stay.

But the Vikings had some hard questions to ask. They wanted to know more about his style and ability to work with others. They wanted to know more about how things ended with the 49ers. They wanted to hear his vision for leading this team back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1977.

Sometime around 3 p.m., for reasons that are not exactly clear, things started to take a left turn. The tenor started to change, and if there was any momentum at Harbaugh’s back as he tried to secure the job, it disappeared.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN first reported that Harbaugh called Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel to tell him he was coming back to the Wolverines for the 2022 season and beyond.

The reason had nothing to do with money or a contract because the Vikings did not offer Harbaugh the job, sources said. There do not appear to be any hard feelings on either side — just a realization that this was not the right fit.
Kevin O’Connell is expected to be the next head coach of the Vikings. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

After that, the Vikings turned their attention to O’Connell. In reality, their attention never left him. Harbaugh would have been the headline-grabbing hire, but the Vikings kept coming back to a guy who was drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round in 2008, backed up Tom Brady for one season and also had short stints with the Jets, Dolphins and Chargers. He had left a positive impression on the entire search committee in a way that Harbaugh hadn’t. He had the makeup and the coaching connections to make the Vikings believe that he would be the perfect partner for Adofo-Mensah.

In the grand view, they thought, what better way to usher in a new era of collaborative, innovative Vikings football than with a 40-year-old general manager willing to delegate and a 36-year-old coach ready to run a modern offense.

The success of past McVay assistants Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and Brandon Staley with the Chargers was a positive for O’Connell as well.

The Rams leaned heavily on 11 personnel this season with wide receiver Cooper Kupp posting a record-setting season. It was easy for the Vikings to envision O’Connell deploying something similar with Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson. Plus, as questions swirl at quarterback, who better to make a judgment on Cousins than O’Connell, his coach for three years in Washington and a former quarterback himself?

O’Connell only attempted six passes in an uneventful four-year playing career. He entered the coaching ranks in 2015 as the quarterbacks coach in Cleveland, and his rise has been swift. After a year working for the 49ers together with Adofo-Mensah in 2016, O’Connell spent three seasons with Washington, then joined McVay as the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2020.

Success has followed and brought O’Connell and the Rams to the Super Bowl, prepping for a matchup against the Bengals. That, of course, is the end goal for the Vikings as they undergo this transition from Spielman and Zimmer to Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell.

O’Connell will not be officially announced as the new head coach until after the Super Bowl.

If Harbaugh would have been considered a risk, O’Connell certainly constitutes one as well. He has never been a head coach and did not call plays for the Rams. But the NFL is trending younger with its head coaches, and the Vikings are the latest team to go in that direction after saying goodbye to the 65-year-old Zimmer.

What this means for the direction of the team is not immediately clear. Was Harbaugh the “win-now” coach? Does the younger O’Connell represent an openness to rebuilding? Not necessarily. The 42-year-old LaFleur has won the NFC North in each of his three seasons and taken the Packers to two NFC title games. The 36-year-old McVay has won three NFC West titles and is coaching in his second Super Bowl in five years.

Zimmer, on the other hand, won two playoff games and two division titles in eight seasons in Minnesota.

What we do know is it will most certainly be different with Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in charge.

Because on Wednesday evening, change came to TCO Performance Center. It just wasn’t the change many expected.

(Top photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

Great article

[CharVike]

I'll go on record and say I'm excited by this hire. I think the future is bright. It's a cautious optimism as I still don't know a lot about our new GM or our new HC, but I very much like what I have seen from both.

https://www.denverbroncos.com/news/he-s ... ap-s-greg-

Greg Beacham: "The thing about Kevin O'Connell is he's been at the controls of the Rams' offense in almost every way, except actually calling the plays, for two years, which makes him a guy who's seen what Sean McVay does and what makes the Rams so successful over the last five years. And there's only a handful of guys in the world who can say that; three of the other assistants who can say that are currently head coaches of their own teams, and two are still in the playoffs along with Sean McVay, so the pedigree is impeccable. There's no doubt that Kevin is the next guy in that lineage."

Part of my sanguine disposition towards these hires is that they match the messaging that the Wilfs gave upon firing Rick and Mike. Collaboration, communication, creating a positive, evidence-based/analytical culture. Harbaugh felt retrograde and a poor fit in that sense.

Collaboration that is used every time a guy is hired. That's an old buzz word that has been recycled around the Vikings because IMO Rick and Zim never communicated. No team will ever say we will work in individual silos. Of course Zim has a tear in his beer and claims him and Rick haven't talked in months. When you make a huge investment in a FA QB that cry baby Zim claims he never wanted and that Teddy was his guy just shows they weren't communicating. Teddy could have been claimed for nothing because no team really wants him as there starter. He's a show stopper. He's available every year and you can get him for a song and a dance. As a team we had to cough up big CAP space for Kirk because unlike Teddy there where other teams in the pipeline fighting for his services. I actually like this hire. But I am also so sick of Zim's early 70s style of football that they could have brought back Childress and I would have been happy. In Zim's view the worst thing to do in a football game is put the ball up. You need to keep the attempts below 20 and ideally below 10 just like Shula's early 70s teams. Otherwise you have very little chance of winning. Play great D and ST while running the 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense. Zim never built a dominate D and his ST were always crap. Never had a clutch FG kicker. This year PATs were impossible to make and FGs?. What is that? I like this choice more so than Harbourgh.

[Texas Vike]

Athletic article on it this AM:
-----

From Jim Harbaugh to Kevin O’Connell: An inside look at a shocking day amid the Vikings’ coaching search

By Chad Graff and Jon Krawczynski 27m ago 23

Great article

Agreed! Thanks, Makila, for posting it. If everyone took the time to read it, we would have a more informed discourse on this board! It clarifies a lot of what happened and why.

[VikingsVictorious]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

He's young and innovative and successful! (his team is in the Superbowl!)

He's on a team that's playing in the Super Bowl. Two words I checked. So if getting hired by a successful team is success he's got it. If it is in any way a result of him helping them get there I see no evidence of that.

[VikingsVictorious]

I'll go on record and say I'm excited by this hire. I think the future is bright. It's a cautious optimism as I still don't know a lot about our new GM or our new HC, but I very much like what I have seen from both.

https://www.denverbroncos.com/news/he-s ... ap-s-greg-



Part of my sanguine disposition towards these hires is that they match the messaging that the Wilfs gave upon firing Rick and Mike. Collaboration, communication, creating a positive, evidence-based/analytical culture. Harbaugh felt retrograde and a poor fit in that sense.

Collaboration that is used every time a guy is hired. That's an old buzz word that has been recycled around the Vikings because IMO Rick and Zim never communicated. No team will ever say we will work in individual silos. Of course Zim has a tear in his beer and claims him and Rick haven't talked in months. When you make a huge investment in a FA QB that cry baby Zim claims he never wanted and that Teddy was his guy just shows they weren't communicating. Teddy could have been claimed for nothing because no team really wants him as there starter. He's a show stopper. He's available every year and you can get him for a song and a dance. As a team we had to cough up big CAP space for Kirk because unlike Teddy there where other teams in the pipeline fighting for his services. I actually like this hire. But I am also so sick of Zim's early 70s style of football that they could have brought back Childress and I would have been happy. In Zim's view the worst thing to do in a football game is put the ball up. You need to keep the attempts below 20 and ideally below 10 just like Shula's early 70s teams. Otherwise you have very little chance of winning. Play great D and ST while running the 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense. Zim never built a dominate D and his ST were always crap. Never had a clutch FG kicker. This year PATs were impossible to make and FGs?. What is that? I like this choice more so than Harbourgh.

Collaboration equals triangle of authority. It wasn't successful then and I see no reason for it to be successful now.

[vikeinmontana]

I mentioned this before but there have been other successful head coaches who didn't call plays as offensive coordinator prior. The most recent example is Zac Taylor who wasn't even an offensive coordinator, but the QB coach. He seems to be doing ok.

With all that goes into offensive strategy and game planning all week, and all season for that matter, I think fans tend to put too much emphasis on the play calling aspect.

Take the Rams for example. McVay is never going to give up play calling duties. Does that mean that anyone who decides to be his coordinator isn't qualified to call plays? I certainly don't think so.

McVay is a raging dork.

That may be true. I don't know him. But if he is, he's a raging dork than he's a raging dork about to take his team to their 2nd Super Bowl in what, 5 years?

I'd take that raging dork 100 out of 100 times.

[J. Kapp 11]

Athletic article on it this AM:
-----

From Jim Harbaugh to Kevin O’Connell: An inside look at a shocking day amid the Vikings’ coaching search

By Chad Graff and Jon Krawczynski 27m ago 23

As the sun rose over TCO Performance Center in Eagan on Wednesday morning, the winds of change whipped through the frigid February air.

The Minnesota Vikings had spent weeks interviewing candidates and mulling a replacement for coach Mike Zimmer, fired in January after missing the playoffs for the second straight season and suffocating the organization with a hardass approach to leading. After newly hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah joined the organization two weeks ago, the coaching search had shifted into overdrive. The last candidate slated to be interviewed was the most high profile, and polarizing, of the finalists.

Jim Harbaugh arrived at Vikings headquarters early in the morning brimming with his trademark confidence. He hoped to complete his journey back to the NFL where he’d again chase his dream of a Super Bowl after seven years at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

An electricity rippled through the building upon his arrival. For all of his eccentricities and concerns about people skills or leadership style, the 58-year-old Harbaugh has an undeniable presence about him, one that fills any room he enters, be it a conference room where the Vikings set up shop for the NFL Draft or the sprawling indoor practice field. It is a different kind of energy from the other three finalists, 36-year-old Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, 43-year-old New York Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and 45-year-old Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, all younger up-and-comers, though Morris did have previous head coaching experience in Tampa Bay and Atlanta.

Harbaugh was batting cleanup in the interview order, which, coupled with coaching the San Francisco 49ers to three NFC title games and a Super Bowl appearance in four seasons and fresh off leading his Wolverines to a long-sought conquering of rival Ohio State, put so much more attention on his turn than the previous three relatively anonymous candidates.

But while many Vikings fans salivated over the possible addition of a big name with a big resume and a bigger personality, and with some media reports painting Harbaugh’s interview on national signing day as nothing more than a formality, the Vikings made it abundantly clear to Harbaugh that he was coming in to compete with the other three men for the job, sources told The Athletic. There were some in the organization who wondered if his hard-driving ways, which had been known to grind on those around him in San Francisco and Ann Arbor, would fit in Minnesota after the Vikings had just extricated themselves from the tension-filled end of the Zimmer-Rick Spielman regime.

Harbaugh knew there would be questions. He knew of the perception that he was a coach who was difficult to work with, and he spent the days leading up to the interview preparing to address all of their concerns. In the end, he is one of the winningest football coaches of the last decade and the owner of a 44-19-1 record in the NFL. He believed that after some time with the Vikings’ decision-makers, his resume and gumption would win over Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, CEO Andrew Miller and Adofo-Mensah (with whom he worked in San Francisco) and inspire them to bring forth a lucrative contract.

But that offer never came, sources said. On a whirlwind day, the Vikings opted against offering Harbaugh a contract and instead turned to O’Connell. A deal with the Sean McVay disciple can’t become official until after the Super Bowl, but O’Connell is expected to become the franchise’s 10th head coach.

For outsiders intoxicated by Harbaugh’s accomplishments and pedigree, it was a stunning result. For many Vikings insiders, however, it was the logical conclusion to a deliberate process aimed at reshaping how things are done in a franchise that has straddled the line between mediocre and contender for too long. It was an exhaustive process that included marathon interviews, Harbaugh professing his desire to return to the NFL and conversations that didn’t go as planned. The Athletic spoke with multiple sources to understand how the Vikings arrived at hiring O’Connell when everything seemed pointed toward Harbaugh.

When the Vikings interviewed candidates for their vacant general manager job, they asked each contender to name three coaches they’d potentially want to work with. Because they did not want to fall too far behind in the coaching carousel, while they were interviewing candidates to replace Spielman after 16 years of leading the front office, a committee of Vikings executives set about interviewing a group of coaches that intrigued them.

When the 40-year-old Adofo-Mensah was hired two weeks ago, he was known to be a fan of Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who was among that group of eight coaches to have interviewed with Vikings brass. But Hackett was hired by the Broncos on the day Adofo-Mensah was introduced, so Adofo-Mensah provided the Vikings with three coaches he liked: O’Connell, Graham and Harbaugh.

The Athletic reported earlier in the winter that Harbaugh, who led the Wolverines to the Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff, was itching to get back into the NFL. His connection to Adofo-Mensah from their days together with the 49ers made it easy to connect the dots.

Shortly after he became the team’s GM, Adofo-Mensah led virtual interviews with Graham and Harbaugh. Graham impressed the search committee with his smarts and Ivy League background. He became a finalist, along with O’Connell, Morris and 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. Then Adofo-Mensah called Harbaugh. Adofo-Mensah and Harbaugh share a circle of friends and Adofo-Mensah was curious if one of the most recognizable coaches in America was truly interested in returning to the NFL. Harbaugh insisted he was.

So Harbaugh became the Vikings’ fourth finalist. When Ryans withdrew his name from the running, speculation swirled that he knew something, perhaps that the job was being steered toward another candidate. The Vikings’ search committee flew to Los Angeles and interviewed O’Connell and Morris on Monday. Both conversations went well, but O’Connell “blew them away,” according to a source. He had studied the team’s roster from the previous season. He came prepared with ideas on how to improve the team and was able to offer a nuanced review of quarterback Kirk Cousins, whom he coached for three seasons in Washington.

O’Connell quickly became the favorite of the search committee, which was looking to overhaul the working environment at team headquarters, prioritizing leadership, inclusivity and collaboration after the front office, coaching staff and roster fractured under the pressure on Spielman and Zimmer’s watch. O’Connell seemed to fit that style and mesh well with Adofo-Mensah’s measured approach. Leadership also believed O’Connell’s offensive background was more in line with where the game is going.

But the Vikings knew the search was not over.

They returned home on Tuesday and spent nine hours with Graham. He had only been a defensive coordinator for three years, but the Vikings weren’t deterred throughout the process by a lack of coordinator experience as long as the candidate impressed with his leadership and willingness to work with others. After all, in the early days of the Wilf family ownership, they watched a young coach named Mike Tomlin join Brad Childress’s staff, spend a year in Minnesota as the defensive coordinator and then leave to become a championship-winning head coach for the Steelers.

For those who believed this was all a show with a scripted ending that had Harbaugh in purple, the length and thoroughness of the interview with Graham seemed to indicate that they were taking their due diligence seriously. While Harbaugh had the most impressive resume and certainly would’ve qualified as the biggest swing for the team, it was also a signal that this process was far from a done deal.

In words and actions, the Vikings made it clear that Wednesday was not going to be merely a coronation and a celebration of Harbaugh’s return to the NFL. The Vikings also knew that Harbaugh was notoriously unpredictable. There was no way they could assume anything when it came to a coach so … unconventional.

Harbaugh was going to have to interview like anyone else. He was going to have to earn it.

But it is not clear Harbaugh saw it that way. When he left Ann Arbor for the Twin Cities, reports out of Michigan were that it felt like goodbye. The parents of recruits were quoted as saying Harbaugh had warned them that he was “definitely looking” for an NFL job.

Besides, the Vikings’ search committee wasn’t 100 percent sold on Harbaugh. The coach had clashed with leadership in San Francisco, and even though many place more of the blame at former GM Trent Baalke’s feet, the way an incredibly successful run came to such a quick and flammable end was cause for concern. Some in the Vikings organization wondered about his leadership style and how that would align with their new goals in the post-Spielman/Zimmer era. They had just endured and been weighed down by a volatile head coach’s moody nature and a GM’s inability to find a way to make it work.

Mark Wilf and linebacker/team leader Eric Kendricks spoke about the need to reconnect players and franchise leadership, to feel supported. And now they were looking at Jim Harbaugh to do that?

Others liked the idea of pairing a proven, veteran coach with an inexperienced general manager and thought Harbaugh, with his track record for winning, was the perfect candidate for a team that doesn’t want to rebuild. With Cousins under contract next year and an aging defense, the ability to make big roster changes quickly will be challenging. Mark Wilf said in January that he didn’t think the team was far away from contending and did not want to tear it down and start over. Harbaugh has proven time and again that he can take rosters that accomplished less under previous head coaches and get them to perform better. He has done it at the University of San Diego, at Stanford, with the 49ers and at Michigan. Why couldn’t he do it here?

Adofo-Mensah’s interest in Harbaugh was considered a statement as well. Adofo-Mensah was in San Francisco in those last, ugly days of Harbaugh’s tenure. So if anyone knew enough to stay away from the coach, one figured it would be Adofo-Mensah.

At first, the interview seemed like it was going well. Harbaugh saw the Vikings’ gleaming new practice facility and the team started to see some of the coach’s most redeeming qualities.

A buzz reverberated through the building. Is this really happening? Are we really going to hire Jim Harbaugh?

Harbaugh started to feel it, too. He left Ann Arbor believing he was not coming back, and as the process got rolling, it started to look like he would be in Minnesota to stay.

But the Vikings had some hard questions to ask. They wanted to know more about his style and ability to work with others. They wanted to know more about how things ended with the 49ers. They wanted to hear his vision for leading this team back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1977.

Sometime around 3 p.m., for reasons that are not exactly clear, things started to take a left turn. The tenor started to change, and if there was any momentum at Harbaugh’s back as he tried to secure the job, it disappeared.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN first reported that Harbaugh called Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel to tell him he was coming back to the Wolverines for the 2022 season and beyond.

The reason had nothing to do with money or a contract because the Vikings did not offer Harbaugh the job, sources said. There do not appear to be any hard feelings on either side — just a realization that this was not the right fit.
Kevin O’Connell is expected to be the next head coach of the Vikings. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

After that, the Vikings turned their attention to O’Connell. In reality, their attention never left him. Harbaugh would have been the headline-grabbing hire, but the Vikings kept coming back to a guy who was drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round in 2008, backed up Tom Brady for one season and also had short stints with the Jets, Dolphins and Chargers. He had left a positive impression on the entire search committee in a way that Harbaugh hadn’t. He had the makeup and the coaching connections to make the Vikings believe that he would be the perfect partner for Adofo-Mensah.

In the grand view, they thought, what better way to usher in a new era of collaborative, innovative Vikings football than with a 40-year-old general manager willing to delegate and a 36-year-old coach ready to run a modern offense.

The success of past McVay assistants Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and Brandon Staley with the Chargers was a positive for O’Connell as well.

The Rams leaned heavily on 11 personnel this season with wide receiver Cooper Kupp posting a record-setting season. It was easy for the Vikings to envision O’Connell deploying something similar with Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson. Plus, as questions swirl at quarterback, who better to make a judgment on Cousins than O’Connell, his coach for three years in Washington and a former quarterback himself?

O’Connell only attempted six passes in an uneventful four-year playing career. He entered the coaching ranks in 2015 as the quarterbacks coach in Cleveland, and his rise has been swift. After a year working for the 49ers together with Adofo-Mensah in 2016, O’Connell spent three seasons with Washington, then joined McVay as the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2020.

Success has followed and brought O’Connell and the Rams to the Super Bowl, prepping for a matchup against the Bengals. That, of course, is the end goal for the Vikings as they undergo this transition from Spielman and Zimmer to Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell.

O’Connell will not be officially announced as the new head coach until after the Super Bowl.

If Harbaugh would have been considered a risk, O’Connell certainly constitutes one as well. He has never been a head coach and did not call plays for the Rams. But the NFL is trending younger with its head coaches, and the Vikings are the latest team to go in that direction after saying goodbye to the 65-year-old Zimmer.

What this means for the direction of the team is not immediately clear. Was Harbaugh the “win-now” coach? Does the younger O’Connell represent an openness to rebuilding? Not necessarily. The 42-year-old LaFleur has won the NFC North in each of his three seasons and taken the Packers to two NFC title games. The 36-year-old McVay has won three NFC West titles and is coaching in his second Super Bowl in five years.

Zimmer, on the other hand, won two playoff games and two division titles in eight seasons in Minnesota.

What we do know is it will most certainly be different with Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in charge.

Because on Wednesday evening, change came to TCO Performance Center. It just wasn’t the change many expected.

(Top photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

Fantastic read. Thanks for providing.

Chad Graff is such a solid reporter. He would not write those things on speculation. He never does. This tells me that KOC really knocked it out of the park, and Harbaugh was going to have to do even better to get the job.

The idea that the interview with Harbaugh started going south when the conversation turned toward his breakup in San Francisco makes it clear to me why he didn't get the job. If you can't navigate your way through that conversation, then you were never going to get the job. You KNOW it's going to come up, so you have to be prepared. Any arrogance, any reluctance or refusal to be accountable for your part in the problem, and you're going to send up huge red flags ... especially for an organization that just came out of a GM-coach relationship where they wouldn't even speak to each other. Of course, I'm speculating, so take that for what it's worth.

All we can do now is wait and see. I'm particularly anxious to see how they resolve the Cousins contract situation. It's never good to go into a season with a lame-duck starting quarterback. Something is going to have to be done. KOC was his QB coach for 3 years in Washington. If anybody knows Cousins, he does.

[J. Kapp 11]

We intend to hire an OC who doesn't call plays. Doesn't it seem that would be a prerequisite for consideration? What data did the Vikings have on him indicating he would be a good HC? NONE!

READ SOMETHING!

Go to Page 1 of this thread and read the article from The Athletic by Chad Graff. It answers that VERY QUESTION.

[StumpHunter]

If I worked with a guy for years like KAM had with Harbaugh, I don't need an interview with that guy to know whether I want to hire him or not. To me that means if KAM brought Harbaugh in, he wanted him to be the HC, over any other candidate. So could it be the Wilfs and other Vikings decision makers didn't like Harbaugh, and overruled their GM's HCing decision? Seems likely.

[Crax]

https://www.startribune.com/kevin-oconn ... 600142516/

Another article going over his journey. I guess he did some playcalling as interim OC in Washington(~11 games) and a few preseason games.