Kevin O’Connell is sitting on the NFL’s best record, and somehow the noise around him is getting louder.
That’s the strange backdrop in Minnesota right now. The Vikings are 6-0 in O’Connell’s fifth season as head coach, yet the conversation around him has taken a sharp turn, with Stephen A. Smith unloading on him Wednesday on ESPN.
“Let’s be very, very clear: Kevin O’Connell may be a big-time coach in the National Football League, because he’s widely respected, [a] quarterback whisperer and all this other stuff. He’s lucky he’s got a damn job,” Smith said.
The criticism centers on one thing: the offense. Since the start of last season, Minnesota’s attack under O’Connell has been mediocre over a stretch of 23 games, and Smith tied that decline to the quarterback situation and the people making the calls.
“[Adofo-Mensah] let Sam Darnold walk out the door and you handed the reins to J.J. McCarthy, who, in fairness, hadn’t even thrown an NFL pass.
We saw him win the national championship at Michigan. He tore his meniscus and was out his rookie year.
Comes back last year, before he throws an NFL pass, you hand him the reins. You cost Justin Jefferson and those boys a year of their career.
That’s what you did. Okay?
So the GM took the heat, but, damnit, I’m looking at the head coach, too.”
Smith didn’t stop there. He broadened the complaint to the ongoing quarterback issues, while making it clear O’Connell isn’t getting a pass.
“You know what, you had Sam Darnold there, you had J.J. McCarthy there, now you got Kyler Murray there and we’re still saying ‘quarterback, quarterback, quarterback is the issue.’
I’m looking at Kevin O’Connell and I’m saying to myself, ‘Where’s the boy wonder at? Where’s the guy that’s supposed to elevate your level of play from the quarterback spot?'”
“He has something to do with that,” Smith added. “He ain’t innocent in all of this.”
The national-media heat on O’Connell may only grow from here if Minnesota’s offense doesn’t find its footing, even with the Vikings still sitting on top of the league standings.
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