January 23, 2025 • 14 mins
Minnesota Tim discusses the journey of his podcast, the recent contract extension of Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, and the shifting expectations for the team moving forward. He reflects on O'Connell's performance, the challenges ahead, and the pressure to deliver results as the Vikings restructure their roster and aim for success in the upcoming season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome into this show today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you for making this podcast a part of your
day and for going on this podcasting journey with me.
If you're watching this show on YouTube, hit that subscribe button,
and if you're listening on Appler, Spotify, please rate, review,
and follow this show. Wherever you are listening to this show,
the podcast has really gone on an incredible journey in
the last year, almost four thousand subscribers doing a podcast
(00:33):
six times a week about the Minnesota vikings, and the
downloads and listens and follows and comments have been incredible
across all social media channels Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
So thank you for being a part of this journey
and for making this podcast a part of your day.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It's pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This podcast is percent honest, one hundred percent of the time,
and it doesn't really care about your feelings. And right
now I'm kind up battling something internally because before this
show started I really had to poop, and right now
I still kind of have to poop. But I'm trying
to make it through the show first so I can
put it together while i'm pooping, and then I can
(01:16):
go to Bible study afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So that's my plan. For the morning.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's my plan of attack, and hopefully I can make
it through this podcast as good as normal. My takes
are fresh, I'm feeling good, and I'm battling controversy. But
right now, you know, when you have adversity, not controversy,
you can fight through it and you're just stronger afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So that's my plan, and that's my plan of attack.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Kevin O'Connell signed a contract extension with the Minnesota Vikings
and it's reportedly around fifteen million dollars a year, and
it makes sense from a few different angles. One, it
makes sense to sign a contract extension after you figured
out what Ben Johnson made from the Chicago Bears. Maybe
it had nothing to do with it, but maybe it did.
(02:08):
When Ben Johnson chose his location, because let's just be
real about it, he basically had his free choice on
where he wanted to coach. I'm sure he had multiple
offers from multiple teams to come in and be their
head coach, and he got the free choice, which hardly
any NFL head coaches get, and he chose the Chicago
(02:31):
Bears over the Raiders, over the Jets, over the Jaguars,
which makes sense to the toughest division football, but tough
divisions changed so frequently, and that's not a decision that
should really hold.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You back because just a few years ago, the.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Toughest division in football is the NFC West with the
Seahawks and the forty nine ers and the Cardinals and
the Rams. That was considered the best division in football.
Then it switched and then become the NFC North and
the tough division and football thing changes every year or
every other year, So it's not a decision that you
should base your head coaching decision on. But the most
(03:13):
important decision is who or which team has their quarterback
in place. And he chose the Chicago Bears because Caleb.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Williams clearly has talent.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It needs to be figured out and his potential needs
to be exploited more than it was when Matt Eberfluss
or Thomas Brown with their head coach, and Ben Johnson
believes that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He can be that guy that does that. But it
makes sense that Kevin O'Connell signed.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It afterwards, because what you don't want is you signed
your contract extension, you get ten million dollars a year,
and then you find out that Ben Johnson gets thirteen
million dollars a year his first year as a head coach.
That doesn't make sense, and that would it makes sense
(04:00):
for anybody. So it made sense that Kevin O'Connell waited
to see what the market was for guys like Ben Johnson.
But as he's signed this contract extension, as you look
towards next year, in the year after for the Minnesota Vikings,
Kevin o'collumn now enters a dangerous territory because when he
(04:23):
signed on to be the Vikings head coach a couple
of years ago, his roster was what it was and
they didn't have much control over it. They entered a
situation with terrible cap contracts that were awful defensively and offensively,
guys that were paid way too much money for their age,
(04:44):
and it was a disaster of a situation, and they
made the most of it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They went thirteen and four.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Kirk Cousins had one of his best years of his career,
and they made it to the playoffs when it was
not necessarily expected. His second year, it was what it was.
They started out terribly zero to three, but then they
went on a hot run and kirk Cousins was playing
somewhat like an MVP candidate at mid season until Torre's
(05:10):
achilles seasons over after that, but it really wasn't because
Josh Jobbs came in.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We had the Dobbs sanity thing going for a while
and at one point the.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Vikings had an eighty percent chance of making the playoffs.
But then Dobbs sanity went away and he went or
reverted back to what he had been throughout his entire
NFL career, and Mullins and Dobbs and Jaron Hall just
not going to cut it late in the season when
games really really matter.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So you can't really blame Kevin o'connen for that one.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And this year, projected to win six and a half games,
takes Sam Darnold to fourteen wins and makes him an
MVP candidate until the final week of the year, in
which she was a disaster versus the Detroit Lyons. So
there's been a theme and Kevin O'Connell's first three years
in the NFL, he's taken a team that has not
(06:02):
had much expectation and he's made the most of it.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Let's just be real about that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
His first year with Kirk Cousins, no one expected the
team to win thirteen games. His second year was a wash.
Injuries deflated the entire year at the most important position
in football. And then this past season, no one expected
the Vikings to win fourteen games. But now it switches
because now Kevin o'call and QUESSI have full range and
(06:32):
full control over the Minnesota Vikings roster. There's not this
Kirk Cousins dead cap thing roaming through the Minnesota Vikings organization.
There's not a contract here or contract there to a
thirty something year old guy that is completely ruining the
(06:57):
salary cap flexibility. Moving forward, the Minnesota Vikings have free
agency money to spend. They have their QB one in place,
JJ McCarthy, whom they practically hand selected. I mean, if
they could have hand selected anybody, they would have picked
(07:19):
Jadeen Daniels or Drake May. But they also picked McCarthy
over Bonnicks, and they would have taken McCarthy over Pennix
if Pennix was available. So they hand selected McCarthy and
they have room to spend on offensive linemen, on defensive guys,
and now the expectation changes. The expectation changed is from okay,
(07:43):
Vikings just be decent and that was the expectation. Okay,
Kirk Cousins, you're a five hundred guy throughout your entire career.
Maybe the Vikings can go nine to eight or ten
and six or whatever the situation was. Maybe the Minnesota
Vikings this season can sneak out eight wins and potentially
compete for a wildcard spot. And I think that it
(08:06):
is way more easy to win when there's not as
much pressure. And that's what Kevin O'Connell had in his
first three seasons as head coach for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
There was not much pressure to perform great.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think it's easier to take a team that's supposed
to be average and take them good than it is
to take a team that's expected to be good and
make them good, or even make them great. Because now
the expectations are shifting. There's no thing laying over the
Minnesota Vikings organization preventing them from being good.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's all a on execution.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Excuses are out the window, and that's why Kevin O'Connell
now enters a dangerous territory of expectations shifting. There's a
lot more pressure to deliver playoff wins and maybe even
a super Bowl because there's no Sam Darnold that quarterback
won anymore, or most likely not. Kirk Cousins thirty five
(09:13):
years old, never really had success in his career.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's not hanging over your head either.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's up to you now to make the most of
the roster that you personally constructed. So, yeah, things are
about to change. Expectations are changing by the minute. And
if Kevin O'Connell cannot prove himself to be a coach
(09:39):
that can take McCarthy this first season and make him
a good quarterback and make the Vikings a competitive team
in the NFC North, he's going to be on.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The hot seat immediately.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So now that guys are gone and the roster is
reconstructing and shifting and they have full power over who stays,
who goes, who's drafted, and there's not this dead cap
hanging over their heads. The Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin
(10:13):
O'Connell has a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And he's proven to be a good coach for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I don't think he's necessarily as respected as he should be.
Through his first three seasons on the Vikings. Kevin O'Connell
has a win percentage of zero point six sixty seven
and his fourth among active head coaches.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh but he lost a playoff game with Sam Darnald.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Oh but he lost to Daniel Jones with an Ed
donatell defense. I think right now we give him a
pass because of those two situations that were hanging over
his head at that time and Donontell's defense Sam Darnold
at QB one.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
But now those things are gone.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Brian Flores is going to be back, they have the
money to spend, they still have a first round draft pick,
and they have McCarthy who looks like he's on schedule
to be back for OTA's training camp preseason.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Then we're the regular season next year.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So things are a changing, and things are moving fast
within the Minnesota Vikings organization because now there's pressure.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
The over one the I really don't know what he
said at the end of this.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I don't think he knows what he said either. The
over underwin percentage of you know, six and a half.
And you know, even if the Vikers won ten games
with Sam Darnold, people would have been impressed with Kevin o'callin.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Then they went fourteen.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, that's not gonna be the over underwin percentage next year.
The over underwin projection next year is probably gonna be
like eight and a half, maybe even nine and a half,
and you better get there, you better outperform. Those expectations
are the brigade of Minnesota Vikings sports fans are gonna
(12:11):
come charging at the TCO Performance Facility and they're gonna
be pissed because this was supposed to be your time
to shine with McCarthy and Jefferson and Addison and the
defense and a roster that you completely constructed yourself. Excuses
are gone, and that is dangerous territory for Kevin O'Connell. Again,
(12:38):
it's way harder to take a team that's expected to
be good or great and make them great than it
is to take a team that's supposed to be average
and make them good. It's way harder. Think about McCarthy
this year from the Cowboys. The Cowboys stunk with Dak Prescott,
and I was like, fire mccarthury, this guy sucks. Oh
(12:58):
what a terrible head coach? Like why is he the
Dallas Cowboys coach? Why did Jerry Jones pick him? Dak
Prescott goes down, Cooper Rush steps in Cowboys start winning games,
and then all of a sudden, people are thinking, wow,
McCarthy can coach. This guy can take bottomless talent in
(13:20):
the NFL and make them a competitive roster. And the
Dallas Cowboys won how many games this year when Dak
Prescott hurt And now we're seeing it in the market.
Interviewed with the Bears, interviewed with the Saints. Now he
was getting serious interviews in the NFL. Wouldn't have happened
if Dak Prescott was healthy, and the Cowboys still stink.
(13:45):
Expectations are a dangerous thing, and now Minnesota Vikings head
coach Kevin O'Connell now enters a dangerous territory.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I made it through the podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Thank you for watching, Thank you for making this podcast
for every day. Tell your friends hit that subscribe button
wherever you're watching and listening
Welcome into this show today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you for making this podcast a part of your
day and for going on this podcasting journey with me.
If you're watching this show on YouTube, hit that subscribe button,
and if you're listening on Appler, Spotify, please rate, review,
and follow this show. Wherever you are listening to this show,
the podcast has really gone on an incredible journey in
the last year, almost four thousand subscribers doing a podcast
(00:33):
six times a week about the Minnesota vikings, and the
downloads and listens and follows and comments have been incredible
across all social media channels Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
So thank you for being a part of this journey
and for making this podcast a part of your day.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It's pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This podcast is percent honest, one hundred percent of the time,
and it doesn't really care about your feelings. And right
now I'm kind up battling something internally because before this
show started I really had to poop, and right now
I still kind of have to poop. But I'm trying
to make it through the show first so I can
put it together while i'm pooping, and then I can
(01:16):
go to Bible study afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So that's my plan. For the morning.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's my plan of attack, and hopefully I can make
it through this podcast as good as normal. My takes
are fresh, I'm feeling good, and I'm battling controversy. But
right now, you know, when you have adversity, not controversy,
you can fight through it and you're just stronger afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So that's my plan, and that's my plan of attack.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Kevin O'Connell signed a contract extension with the Minnesota Vikings
and it's reportedly around fifteen million dollars a year, and
it makes sense from a few different angles. One, it
makes sense to sign a contract extension after you figured
out what Ben Johnson made from the Chicago Bears. Maybe
it had nothing to do with it, but maybe it did.
(02:08):
When Ben Johnson chose his location, because let's just be
real about it, he basically had his free choice on
where he wanted to coach. I'm sure he had multiple
offers from multiple teams to come in and be their
head coach, and he got the free choice, which hardly
any NFL head coaches get, and he chose the Chicago
(02:31):
Bears over the Raiders, over the Jets, over the Jaguars,
which makes sense to the toughest division football, but tough
divisions changed so frequently, and that's not a decision that
should really hold.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You back because just a few years ago, the.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Toughest division in football is the NFC West with the
Seahawks and the forty nine ers and the Cardinals and
the Rams. That was considered the best division in football.
Then it switched and then become the NFC North and
the tough division and football thing changes every year or
every other year, So it's not a decision that you
should base your head coaching decision on. But the most
(03:13):
important decision is who or which team has their quarterback
in place. And he chose the Chicago Bears because Caleb.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Williams clearly has talent.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It needs to be figured out and his potential needs
to be exploited more than it was when Matt Eberfluss
or Thomas Brown with their head coach, and Ben Johnson
believes that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He can be that guy that does that. But it
makes sense that Kevin O'Connell signed.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It afterwards, because what you don't want is you signed
your contract extension, you get ten million dollars a year,
and then you find out that Ben Johnson gets thirteen
million dollars a year his first year as a head coach.
That doesn't make sense, and that would it makes sense
(04:00):
for anybody. So it made sense that Kevin O'Connell waited
to see what the market was for guys like Ben Johnson.
But as he's signed this contract extension, as you look
towards next year, in the year after for the Minnesota Vikings,
Kevin o'collumn now enters a dangerous territory because when he
(04:23):
signed on to be the Vikings head coach a couple
of years ago, his roster was what it was and
they didn't have much control over it. They entered a
situation with terrible cap contracts that were awful defensively and offensively,
guys that were paid way too much money for their age,
(04:44):
and it was a disaster of a situation, and they
made the most of it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They went thirteen and four.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Kirk Cousins had one of his best years of his career,
and they made it to the playoffs when it was
not necessarily expected. His second year, it was what it was.
They started out terribly zero to three, but then they
went on a hot run and kirk Cousins was playing
somewhat like an MVP candidate at mid season until Torre's
(05:10):
achilles seasons over after that, but it really wasn't because
Josh Jobbs came in.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We had the Dobbs sanity thing going for a while
and at one point the.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Vikings had an eighty percent chance of making the playoffs.
But then Dobbs sanity went away and he went or
reverted back to what he had been throughout his entire
NFL career, and Mullins and Dobbs and Jaron Hall just
not going to cut it late in the season when
games really really matter.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So you can't really blame Kevin o'connen for that one.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And this year, projected to win six and a half games,
takes Sam Darnold to fourteen wins and makes him an
MVP candidate until the final week of the year, in
which she was a disaster versus the Detroit Lyons. So
there's been a theme and Kevin O'Connell's first three years
in the NFL, he's taken a team that has not
(06:02):
had much expectation and he's made the most of it.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Let's just be real about that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
His first year with Kirk Cousins, no one expected the
team to win thirteen games. His second year was a wash.
Injuries deflated the entire year at the most important position
in football. And then this past season, no one expected
the Vikings to win fourteen games. But now it switches
because now Kevin o'call and QUESSI have full range and
(06:32):
full control over the Minnesota Vikings roster. There's not this
Kirk Cousins dead cap thing roaming through the Minnesota Vikings organization.
There's not a contract here or contract there to a
thirty something year old guy that is completely ruining the
(06:57):
salary cap flexibility. Moving forward, the Minnesota Vikings have free
agency money to spend. They have their QB one in place,
JJ McCarthy, whom they practically hand selected. I mean, if
they could have hand selected anybody, they would have picked
(07:19):
Jadeen Daniels or Drake May. But they also picked McCarthy
over Bonnicks, and they would have taken McCarthy over Pennix
if Pennix was available. So they hand selected McCarthy and
they have room to spend on offensive linemen, on defensive guys,
and now the expectation changes. The expectation changed is from okay,
(07:43):
Vikings just be decent and that was the expectation. Okay,
Kirk Cousins, you're a five hundred guy throughout your entire career.
Maybe the Vikings can go nine to eight or ten
and six or whatever the situation was. Maybe the Minnesota
Vikings this season can sneak out eight wins and potentially
compete for a wildcard spot. And I think that it
(08:06):
is way more easy to win when there's not as
much pressure. And that's what Kevin O'Connell had in his
first three seasons as head coach for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
There was not much pressure to perform great.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I think it's easier to take a team that's supposed
to be average and take them good than it is
to take a team that's expected to be good and
make them good, or even make them great. Because now
the expectations are shifting. There's no thing laying over the
Minnesota Vikings organization preventing them from being good.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's all a on execution.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Excuses are out the window, and that's why Kevin O'Connell
now enters a dangerous territory of expectations shifting. There's a
lot more pressure to deliver playoff wins and maybe even
a super Bowl because there's no Sam Darnold that quarterback
won anymore, or most likely not. Kirk Cousins thirty five
(09:13):
years old, never really had success in his career.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's not hanging over your head either.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's up to you now to make the most of
the roster that you personally constructed. So, yeah, things are
about to change. Expectations are changing by the minute. And
if Kevin O'Connell cannot prove himself to be a coach
(09:39):
that can take McCarthy this first season and make him
a good quarterback and make the Vikings a competitive team
in the NFC North, he's going to be on.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The hot seat immediately.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So now that guys are gone and the roster is
reconstructing and shifting and they have full power over who stays,
who goes, who's drafted, and there's not this dead cap
hanging over their heads. The Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin
(10:13):
O'Connell has a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And he's proven to be a good coach for the Vikings.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I don't think he's necessarily as respected as he should be.
Through his first three seasons on the Vikings. Kevin O'Connell
has a win percentage of zero point six sixty seven
and his fourth among active head coaches.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh but he lost a playoff game with Sam Darnald.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Oh but he lost to Daniel Jones with an Ed
donatell defense. I think right now we give him a
pass because of those two situations that were hanging over
his head at that time and Donontell's defense Sam Darnold
at QB one.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
But now those things are gone.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Brian Flores is going to be back, they have the
money to spend, they still have a first round draft pick,
and they have McCarthy who looks like he's on schedule
to be back for OTA's training camp preseason.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Then we're the regular season next year.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So things are a changing, and things are moving fast
within the Minnesota Vikings organization because now there's pressure.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
The over one the I really don't know what he
said at the end of this.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I don't think he knows what he said either. The
over underwin percentage of you know, six and a half.
And you know, even if the Vikers won ten games
with Sam Darnold, people would have been impressed with Kevin o'callin.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Then they went fourteen.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, that's not gonna be the over underwin percentage next year.
The over underwin projection next year is probably gonna be
like eight and a half, maybe even nine and a half,
and you better get there, you better outperform. Those expectations
are the brigade of Minnesota Vikings sports fans are gonna
(12:11):
come charging at the TCO Performance Facility and they're gonna
be pissed because this was supposed to be your time
to shine with McCarthy and Jefferson and Addison and the
defense and a roster that you completely constructed yourself. Excuses
are gone, and that is dangerous territory for Kevin O'Connell. Again,
(12:38):
it's way harder to take a team that's expected to
be good or great and make them great than it
is to take a team that's supposed to be average
and make them good. It's way harder. Think about McCarthy
this year from the Cowboys. The Cowboys stunk with Dak Prescott,
and I was like, fire mccarthury, this guy sucks. Oh
(12:58):
what a terrible head coach? Like why is he the
Dallas Cowboys coach? Why did Jerry Jones pick him? Dak
Prescott goes down, Cooper Rush steps in Cowboys start winning games,
and then all of a sudden, people are thinking, wow,
McCarthy can coach. This guy can take bottomless talent in
(13:20):
the NFL and make them a competitive roster. And the
Dallas Cowboys won how many games this year when Dak
Prescott hurt And now we're seeing it in the market.
Interviewed with the Bears, interviewed with the Saints. Now he
was getting serious interviews in the NFL. Wouldn't have happened
if Dak Prescott was healthy, and the Cowboys still stink.
(13:45):
Expectations are a dangerous thing, and now Minnesota Vikings head
coach Kevin O'Connell now enters a dangerous territory.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I made it through the podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Thank you for watching, Thank you for making this podcast
for every day. Tell your friends hit that subscribe button
wherever you're watching and listening
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