O’Connell on Murray: We wanted to elevate the room
Kevin O'Connell joins Mike Florio and Chris Simms to discuss adding Kyler Murray to the Vikings' roster, when he plans to make a decision on the team's starter and more.
Video Transcript
Here at the league meetings in Arizona.
Joining us now is a guy who is entering Is it already year number five?
Crazy, yep.
What?
Year five as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
Kevin O'Connell, welcome back.
And, you know, we were just talking to the guys- Whoo in the green jackets.
He's got the clean- Oh, yeah purple- Yeah Vikings suit.
Yeah.
It's awesome.
He knows his team colors.
I needed a Now I Competition committee, I You know, there's a point in the meeting where I gotta go sit at the, the head table, and I didn't want there to be any confusion on, on who I was representing, even though I wasn't sitting with the other Vikings- the Vikings folks.
Yeah.
So no, it's, it's funny, man.
You, you come to enough of these, and you're Like, I- whether it was Jeff Hafley or even Mike LaFleur, I, I he asked me a, a wardrobe question about, "Hey, what do you wear to this or that?"
Sure.
And I'm like, "Dude, ask your brother."
Yeah, yeah.
He knows.
Right.
He knows.
He's been there.
Yeah.
But, but no, you start to learn, it's, it's not an easy trip to pack for with the, you know- You got the amount of things you guys got you gotta have your, you gotta have your poolside stuff.
Yeah.
You gotta have your, uh- Yeah coaches gathering stuff, and then you got all the formal, formal things to do, so.
Well, d- what's it like being here?
L- like, compared to your first year- Yeah to, to now, right?
You know, how do you kinda view the owners meeting experience?
Well, I think it's a It's probably the best time a year for us, 'cause not everybody goes to the combine anymore.
Yeah.
it's the best time for us as coaches to spend some time together, really talk about, you know, the, the journey itself.
We all go through adversity, we all go through different years, and, that camaraderie, that group has, has really grown through the years.
Yeah.
And, we do spend some time together while we're here.
And then I think there's a lot of important things, that, you know, that we're working through in regards to our game, player health and safety, rules, proposals, things that we're always trying to That's what I respect so much about the NFL.
We're always trying to make sure, that we're doing right by our players and doing right by our fans to, to protect the great game we have.
Yeah.
Sure.
You mentioned being on the competition committee.
How does that even come to be?
Is that something you wanted to do?
Do they just contact you out of the blue and say, "Hey, we got, we got something we wanna talk to you about"?
Yeah, it's, it's a A, yes, it, it's an incredible honor to be a part of it, but, there's not really a, a process of, of, asking your opinion on the matter.
It's more of- They tell you congratulations, welcome to the competition committee.
That's amazing which I, was very excited about.
And they ki- the committee itself right now, for me to join, not only getting to join with DeMeco, who's somebody, you know, kind of a former player that, that has done a really great job as a, as a on the defensive side, and that background, him and I kinda join from different perspectives, but, you know, trying to accomplish a lot of the same things and care about this game so much, and the player health and safety side of it.
And then you join a group with Sean McVay, Mike Vrabel, you know, Sean Payton, and, and coaches that you not only have great relationships with, but t- that you know it's really important to them for like-minded reasons- Yeah to continue, to, to be a resource for the league and, and, and try to help continue to You know, we wanna elevate our game, we wanna You know, there's a lot of aspects of technology that's coming at, you know, coming at us every, every which way, and we gotta continue to find the best ways to incorporate those things on a, on a righ- on the right scale, but also know that we're all trying to get the number one question answered of we wanna get things right.
Yeah.
And what that looks like year in and year out is, is, gonna be a process, and one that I look forward to being a part of.
Yeah.
That's cool.
It's cool that you enjoy it and embrace it that way.
Yeah.
Wou- would you say your, your closest out o- out of the head coaches, right?
Yeah.
Is McVay the guy- Yeah you're probably closest to?
Yeah, he's one of my best friends.
Yeah.
Closest friends.
I owe him so much from a standpoint of my own development.
you know, I'd been, you know We'd been really close even the years leading up to me going to LA, and then- Yeah, you were before that, okay and then just the way he You know, we talk so much about coaching and development and, and different coaches and diverse backgrounds having a chance to, to kinda grow in our profession.
Well, I could tell you the number one thing for me was being around a head coach of that caliber that was willing to allow me to be a part of things that maybe went above and beyond just the standard offensive coordinator role for him, and, you know, his plans for me.
you know, I don't wanna give him too much credit, but he said, "You're gonna come here, we're gonna win a Super Bowl, and you're gonna get a head job."
Yeah.
And all those things happened.
Wow.
and there was a lot of day-to-day, minute-to-minute that I'm so thankful for, for him, having such a impact on me and the coach that I wanna be.
Yeah.
You got a hell of a group of coaches in your division right now, though.
Yeah.
Between Matt LaFleur, Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson.
Holy crap.
Unbelievable.
And- It really is I mean, it's a fight.
And you guys, to your credit, it got dark, you win five in a row, and you sign the line to- Oh, wait, wait, wait, hold on.
Hold on.
It got dark.
You know how dark it got?
How dark did it get?
Do you know It got so- I, I know how, how dark it got for me.
Ooh, I know, but it got- How dark did it get?
it got so dark that somebody was starting to think green, and starting maybe to jump ship.
And I might be- Green?
Green yeah, you were gonna You were s- I'm up for- On Eagles I'm up for Eagles.
I'll, maybe I'll be an Eagles fan.
Oh.
That's how dark it got.
Yeah.
That's vital spot.
And I made, I made sure I told our team that ex- I said, "Hey, we're about to lose, uh- LaFleuria we're about to lose LaFleur here- Wonderful so we better wake up right now."
A half century.
We've been, we've been stomping on his heart for a half century.
Yeah.
We can't lose him now.
Yeah.
So.
But it was great, it was great resilience.
Yep.You know, how much of that is gonna carry over when you have so much roster turnover?
'Cause I, I think there was a time where we would look at what you guys did to finish the season and say, "Man, they're the team to watch next year," but you got turnover.
How do you make what happened last year affect this team this year, given it's a unique combination of guys?
Yeah.
So the, the, the way I talked about it a lot in the moment, 'cause when you're four and eight and you're a team that, we have high standards for ourselves, we have high standards for every season we get the chance to play.
but I remember vividly telling our guys, like, what we do in these moments, we will remember maybe a year from now, maybe two years from now.
and what I think we were able to do, Mike, was we were able to apply, some things to our overall toolbox of how we're gonna win games.
You know, we made a decision as a team.
I joke, you- I joke with those two guys you just had on, or Sean, or- Yeah you know, maybe I don't get invited to the smart guy table, by, you know, playing a certain kinda style where we ran the football, we were not gonna turn it over, and we're gonna play great defense, and we won five games in a row.
So what I told our team at the end of the year is, "Let's not forget the fact that we just learned maybe some new ways to win."
A new way to win, yeah.
maybe we'll need to, to, to, you know, really call upon that in, as it starts to rain here in beautiful- Yeah Arizona.
Maybe we'll need to call upon it late in December in a bad weather game of, hey, it's not gonna be a throw it all over the yard kinda game.
Sure.
It's gonna be this kinda game, where we, we don't turn it over, and we run the football, and we play field position.
Those, those types of games still win- No doubt in our league.
And can we apply that to every game we play?
But also know that if we need to play a certain game that way that Sunday to win, we learned we could do it.
Yeah.
And, you know, I'm excited about moving forward 'cause we've, you know, we've won games a lot of different ways in my four years, but I think we've learned a lot about what it's gonna take to build our team throughout the off-season program, training camp, and then just the week-to-week adversity that you face, whether it's injury, scheduling, whatever it may be.
We've kinda handled a lot of those things with grace- Yeah and, and come out better for it on the other side.
Now it's time to go win football games as consistent as we possibly can.
Right.
It's kind of a lost art, losing, like winning games ugly almost, you know- It's- 'cause we're in the quarterback guru- Yeah throw the ball, let's be sexy era.
There's no doubt.
And, and even for me as a, you know, I'm still trying to learn and get better every single, every single day, every single year, learning different ways to call games, learning different ways to, you know, try to motivate the team to, to play a certain style- Sure that might not benefit you, Justin Jefferson, personally, but I walk in the locker room after we win that fifth game in a row and we got him to 1,000 yards, but Justin cares more about the win than he did any individual stat, and that's unique.
Yeah.
That means you got unique players.
Justin's as unique of a player and a superstar that I've ever been around.
And, he's ascended into such a leadership role in our organization.
You feel great knowing you've got a player and players like that on your team that can help shepherd this thing moving forward.
Yeah.
You know, the thing the fans are most concerned about's the quarterback position- Mm-hmm.
Yep with the addition of Kyler Murray.
I guess my curiosity is what was J.J. McCarthy's reaction to the fact- Yeah that the number one overall pick from 2019, a guy who was a Pro Bowler, a guy who got the big contract, is now there with him on the depth chart?
Yeah, his reaction, so one of the ways that I, I, you know, I coach in general, is to try to always make communication and, and transparency when you can be of the utmost importance.
And so the conversations at the end of the year with J.J., we, you know, the, the good thing is we've got 10 games of, of inventory on, on where he's at right now.
Sets a really good course for the off-season for him to continue to improve.
He's already having a great off-season between some of the work he's done on his own.
He's back in Minnesota now working as well.
but I was honest with him.
I said, "We're going to, you know, elevate the room-" Yeah as a whole," because we have enough data now to show 2022, Kirk Cousins plays the majority of that season.
We win 13 games, get an opportunity in the postseason.
2024, obviously, with Sam Darnold, he plays the, you know, every snap but I believe two that year.
Mm-hmm.
and we win 14 games.
When we have a standard and a consistency at that position, we've won a lot of football games.
You couple that with learning that, you know, we're 35 and four when we break even or better on the turnover margin- of the game.
There's some s- there's data to tell us we need to build our team a certain way.
And in regards to our quarterback room, whether it was bringing in, a talented player like Kyler Murray at a really unique time in his career, where I think he's motivated, I think he's experienced- Yeah I think he knows where he wants to go with his career.
We wanted to bring in a player and give him an opportunity, to not only compete, but, you know, see where he could take this thing.
And then getting a guy like Carson Wentz back, I mean, Carson came five days before the season last year.
He didn't get an off-season program.
He didn't get a training camp, and three weeks later, we had one of our better performances offensively of the season playing against the Cincinnati Bengals at home, and Carson looked, it, it was effortless for him to seamlessly transition into our offense.
So in a year where a lot of reps are gonna be going to Kyler Murray, a lot of reps are gonna be going, to J.J. McCarthy, I know Carson Wentz can play at a high level in our offense- Yeah maybe without the need for- The, the reps the reps- Yeah, yeah at this point in his career.
And, and Carson knows how much I personally enjoyed coaching him.
our building loves him.
Our locker room loves him.
So we have that veteran presence in that room now, when called upon, can go win football games.
And, we know that there's a standard to that play and that position that we need to, through a competitive environment, get all of our quarterbacks to play to that standard, and when we do that, we're gonna win football games.
So true open competition there at quarterback right now?
Yeah.
I would, I, what, what I would say is this.
Okay.
We're gonna go through the off-season program.
Yeah.
I've always looked at that as kind of the learning, teaching phase.
There's a lot of individual player improvement plans being activated all over the field, trying, whether it's technique, fundamentals, continuing to gain kinda that mastery of- Yeah of the system.
But at the same time, for our team as a whole, 2026, our offense may look different.
We, you know, I, I believe if you're not evolving in this league with the level of coaching, not only on the other side, but you mentioned it, in our division, y- you're gonna fall behind.
Yeah.
So we've got to evolve.
We gotta, you know, try new things.
We gotta continue to incorporate the principles that we think are really important.
But it might look a little different.
It might be, you know, a little bit more of this and that, and our players need to respond to that in a really competitive situation.
Everybody's gonna get an opportunity, and we're gonna allow these guys to hopefully elevate their own personal, level of play.
For a guy like Kyler, can we get him to, you know, he's had some really, really great moments in this league.
It's gonna be about where can he go at this point in his career in a pretty good system around some great players- Yeah to throw the football to.
J.J.'s played 10 games.
We now have at least some inventory of information of what it can look like.
Yeah.
And then it's just gonna be about consistency being the truest measure of performance there.
and I think you find that as you get to year three of your, your NFL journey- Sure year three of your rookie deal.
w- we've lost out on some time.
Mm-hmm.
There's no doubt.
10 out of a possible 34 regular season games.
Yeah, it's tough.
So now we need to, you know, where those words once existed, like development and making sure we were shepherding, kind of, th- that all still exists.
Yeah.
But the word competition, needs to be heavily involved in it- Right for all of us, and that's what I'm gonna challenge our whole team, not just our quarterbacks, to really engage in, and, and really try to thrive in that en- environment.
Yeah.
Not that it matters, but just, like, like who takes the first rep at OTAs?
Yeah.
Like, how do you balance that out?
I know it doesn't matter, and I know it's a media question, but it's also, I'm interested in how you kind of approach that.
Like, 'cause it, it is delicate- Yeah to the player.
You know.
You were an ex-player.
It is a little bit like-Okay.
I'm, I'm starting practice today- Yep right?
So, how do you kinda go through that and, yeah, if I could put you on the spot and you could tell me that- Yeah, that's fine right now.
Yeah.
No, I Here, here's how I see it.
Yeah.
A, the first time stepping on the grass, we're gonna be in phase two.
Yeah.
And you know that there's gonna be a quarterback throwing to Justin Jefferson on the right, and there's gonna be a quarterback throwing to Jordan Addison on the left, and then they're gonna switch- Yeah and we're gonna install- Yeah our offense and get all the, the throws and the techniques and fundamentals kinda practiced in that setting.
Eventually you get into phase three, and there's comp- there's, competitive reps against the defense that start to get sprinkled in there.
And what I would say is this.
The communication and the transparency, this is what it's gonna be today, this week, over the course of, our nine, OTAs and mini camp.
this is what it's gonna look like, and that's gonna set the table for what training camp looks like, and I just know as a former player, I wanna be communicated to in an honest way.
I want it to be something where I know exactly what I'm walking into every single day, and I wanna be challenged- Mm-hmm to, to not only make my reps matter, but hopefully those reps will e- will equal more opportunity, if I show that consistency and that growth that we need all of our players, not just our quarterbacks, to show- Yeah this off-season.
You know, this may be a stupid question, and that's never stopped me before.
I assume you're gonna have a firm one, two, three on your depth chart.
Yep.
But could there be a scenario where this week this guy gives us a better chance against this defense than- No, I, I, I do believe that, you know, what we're looking for is somebody to, come in and, and Al- although the expectation is all of those players, even Carson at this point in his career knows he's hoping to improve and continue to add things to his game.
but, we're gonna have a starting quarterback, we're gonna have a, we're gonna have a depth chart and, and those guys, knowing that, with the rules that are provided now, I'm expecting to have three quarterbacks on our, on our roster.
I'm expecting to have, you know, three guys capable of winning games.
But we wanna find that guy that we feel like we can go into the year and hopefully get one of those seasons we've gotten, whether it's in 2022 or 2024, where we have one guy, you know, show the ability to maintain for 17 games.
We just now have plans in place, no matter how that depth chart ends up shaking out, where we're gonna have confidence in, in not only one guy, but hopefully three for sure, and then we still have Max Brosmer as well, who got a chance to start, two games.
Helped us win the Giant game last year, late in the year as well.
So, I, you know, I feel really, really good about our quarterback room, and that's going into, an off-season where all these guys are gonna get chances to really grow and develop.
Yeah.
All right.
So one I, I know I wouldn't wanna keep you forever, but I do, like, specifically about JJ.
Yep.
All right?
What He did some, had some good moments- Yep like you said.
He's gotta be a- available, also.
But where have you seen growth, and maybe where's an area you look at to go, "We could get better here"?
Yeah.
I think one of the things that really stuck out to me was, you know, from the beginning of the season towards the end, the We started to see some more consistency within the preparation- Yeah which is always gonna be a factor- for any young player.
Right.
I mean, you're going through an NFL season.
It's such a week-to-week league.
You could be playing against a totally different structure, defense, totally different schematics, where you've gotta really tap into different areas of the system, and your, your role in helping our, each and every play, have a, have the best chance to have success.
We saw some of those consistencies, and, you know, you look at the way he played in the Dallas game- Yeah in a big moment for our team.
And, and, and he went out there, and he was a driving force behind our offensive success, and our team success in that game, to go, to go on the road and win a game and, and with a lot of people watching.
And, regardless of who, what, when, where, and w- and, and, you know, who we played, how he played, there are things that as coaches and, and JJ himself, that I can't wait to continue to really look at and say, "Hey, here's the plan to how we get you more consistent.
Here's the plan, to how we get, you know, continuing that arrow-up growth that we feel that he's still every, every bit capable of doing."
And, now we just have a little bit of, a little bit of actual inventory to coach off of.
Yeah.
But we're still, very much looking forward to what he's able to do with that experience as he projects forward.
Any concern at all, though, if he's not the starter you may lose him?
That he may just check out, may want out- Well- any of that?
Yeah.
What I would say is that, you know, I've never gotten the, you know, any sort of indication in his makeup.
he's very competitive.
Totally.
You know, he obviously, I know more than anything, wants to be that guy that, you know, is at the top of that depth chart, and I know he's gonna compete, every single day to try to become that and try to be that.
so I have no indication to believe that, you know, JJ McCarthy's not gonna respond to this situation.
Regardless of the outcome, I'm very, very much more focused on the day to day, the minute to minute, what are we doing to help these players, and, and provide them with the tools and equip them to, to go find that success that they so des- desperately want.
and just the teammate he's been, the way he's viewed by his teammates in that locker room, I You know, I'm, I'm excited to watch JJ, attack this thing right along Kyler and Carson and Max.
Do you wanna go to camp already knowing who the guy is, or is this a decision that's gonna be made before week one?
Yeah, I think it's one of those things that's hard nowadays.
If, if you're running your off-season program the right way, whether it's, you know, preparing your players for, the best opportunity to have success in training camp, physically preparing these guys, to, to attack a, a grueling 17-game season the right way from a physical standpoint, it's hard to make some of those decisions, declaratively, you know, after an off-season program, if you're doing it the right way with the players' health and safety in mind, and all those things.
So there's a chance we might, you know, have a, a pretty strong feeling and, and, and maybe decide to, maybe decide to do that, or we're gonna let things play out and, and I think it's important that we don't try to make any of those decisions by any sort of, you know, historical precedent of when you do certain things.
It's gonna be, You know, I, I think I owe it to the players and our coaches and, and our- in our organization, to make the best decision, and when that comes, you know, we're gonna do it when we have the best feeling to do that.
And, also know that it, it's important to declare it, and it's important that the team knows the direction with clarity that, that we wanna go.
Well, it'll be here before we know it.
The off-season flies quickly.
I got one, I got one more.
You got one more?
He's not done yet.
All right.
I got one more.
I got a real football question.
Because your defensive coordinator- Yeah he's the man.
He is.
I mean, and sometimes I've been in places like that where you go against Is it a good thing sometimes, or is sometimes it is detrimental?
Can you be like, "Hey, can you stop doing all this crazy stuff?
I'm trying to teach my quarterback a few things, and you're blitzing everywhere."
So what's it like having to deal with him in like in a week-to-week basis in practice?
Well, that's what, that's what makes him so great.
Yeah.
And I've tried to talk about this before, is he, you know, he has mastery of what he wants to get done, and he can He also has been a head coach before.
Yeah.
He knows the greater good of the team.
there can be some ebbs and flows of, you know, how we prepare, how we put together practice plans.
I mean, him and I spend hours together talking about how we're gonna build into this phase of training camp, how we're gonna make sure we maximize the physicality- Yeah on certain days- Cool that we need to get it done, and we plan it all out.
There's sports performance involved in it.
There's schematics of, you know, installations and making sure we marry things up so that nobody ever feels, anything but a maximum competitive environment- Gotcha where it doesn't tilt one way or the other.
Yeah.
And just by the nature of it, there's always a, there's ebbs and flows when your defense maybe has a little bit more, you know, a little bit more in or a little bit more comfort- Yeah with what they're doing- Yeah depending on the experience level.
That's all part of it.
I will say, we've got some good plans in place, you know, schedule dependent for joint practices and, you know, some opportunities to maybe, you know, go against some other guys- Yeah, not to deal with him in a, in a controlled- Yeah.
setting that, you know, that allows us to prepare our team for week one.
Right.
Well, week one will be here before we know it.
Congratulations on your success so far, and all the best as the off-season unfolds.
Ahoo.
Ahoo.
Kevin O'Connell, Vikings head coach.
We'll- I'll try to keep him sane for you we will be back with more- All right.
Please from Arizona.
This is it.
We are done.
He's our la- We saved literally the best for last.
There we go.
We're done.
We'll see you soon.
Thanks, guys.
Thanks, man.
Thank you, man.
