Neal: Kevin O’Connell, Matt LaFleur, and the battle of quarterback whisperers

Here’s one thing Kevin O’Connell and Matt LaFleur don’t have in common. O’Connell has been slimed.

Other than that, they both were college quarterbacks, both worked under Sean McVay with the Rams and both have 6% body fat ... or they appear to have.

And both are examples of how quarterbacks need to have the right coach to aid their development. O’Connell has brought out the talent many believed Sam Darnold had but never saw during his stints with the Jets and Panthers. LaFleur has molded Jordan Love into a star quarterback when few thought he could become one.

Sunday’s game between the Vikings and Packers is more than a battle of rivals, it’s a showcase of two of the best coaching jobs in the NFL through three weeks.

Darnold leads the league with eight touchdown passes and is the most improved player in the league so far. He has found the right coach at the right time of his career. He was named this week’s Nickelodeon Valuable Player, and O’Connell lived up to his promise of being slimed when one of his players wins the award. O’Connell also got the best out of Kirk Cousins here and Matt Stafford when he was a coordinator with the Rams. Now Slingin’ Sam.

LaFleur is on his second, how-did-he-pull-this-one-off project, winning two games with Malik Willis, whom Tennessee gave up on. The first one was the man who might be healthy enough to start on Sunday.

The Packers selected Love late in the first round of the 2020 draft, instead of drafting wide receiver help for Aaron Rodgers. Love’s 83 pass attempts and 606 yards in mostly spot action over two seasons did not scream “franchise quarterback.” But when Rodgers packed up his ayahuasca plants and headed for New York, Love replaced him as the fulltime starter and played like a boss, throwing for 4,159 yards last season.

We are now into a second generation of Packers quarterbacking excellence, going back to Brett Favre in 1992.

For Vikings fans — or Bears fans — this is torture.

For LaFleur and O’Connell, it means their processes are effective — and flexible. Skill sets and mentalities vary from quarterback to quarterback. A coach must know how to manage the flow of information to a developing signal caller, and when to coach them hard.

LaFleur has thrived with Rodgers, Love and, for the last two weeks, Willis. On Sunday, Willis will have been with the Packers for all of 34 days since being traded by Tennessee for a seventh-round pick. Of course, one of his wins was against his former team.

And KOC is on a roll as well. If he can do this with Darnold, J.J. McCarthy is in good hands once he fully recovers from knee surgery.

So enjoy Sunday’s border battle as the quarterback whisperers match wits.

The Chicago Sky on Friday dismissed coach Teresa Weatherspoon following a 13-27 season. Seems unfair, considering three starters from the 2023 team that reached the playoffs were no longer there.

Two of those three are point guard Courtney Williams and forward-masquerading-as-a-center Alanna Smith, who are now with the Lynx.

On a team with a superstar in Napheesa Collier, Williams and Smith have played important roles as the Lynx won a franchise-record 30 games during the regular season. Williams is smart and assertive. She puts her teammates in position to score. During the first-round matchup against Phoenix, she picked the right spots to shoot. Smith guarded the 6-9 Brittney Griner with only occasional help, more than holding her own and blocking her shots.

Cheryl Reeve, deservedly, was named AP WNBA Coach of the Year last week. She also should be the Executive of the Year for bringing in two players from Chicago who can help them win a title.

During the July weekend when Joe Mauer was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, his son, Chip, was on the lawn behind the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, New York, playing whiffle ball with the children of other Hall of Famers. Chip is just five years old, mind you.

As the children were playing, Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. walked over to Joe and asked him if the kid was his son.

“Yeah,” Mauer replied. “How did you know?”

Ripken replied: “I’ve seen that swing before.”

Papa Mauer tells this story, and others, during a weekly podcast created by the Hall of Fame called ‘The Road To Cooperstown.’ Each week, a Hall of Famer spends an hour discussing his career and the challenges encountered during his path to The Hall. I have listened to a couple and have enjoyed them. Mauer’s episode, the 17th, will be available on all podcast platforms Tuesday.

• The Vikings’ run of impressive victories will end on Sunday as Green Bay keeps Aaron Jones in check, forces Darnold into mistakes and beats The Purple 23-17.

• At least two members of the Twins coaching staff will be either be let go or reassigned following a season in which the club has fallen fshort of expectations.