Vikings' Kevin O’Connell wins NFL Coach of the Year award

NEW ORLEANS – The football world continues to basically say “whoops, our bad” for having zero faith in Kevin O’Connell’s absolute trust in Sam Darnold.

So, Thursday night in the Big Easy, the Associated Press’ 50-member selection committee, which includes this reporter, bestowed the most prestigious NFL Coach of the Year award of them all upon the Vikings head coach during the NFL Honors show inside Saenger Theater. Hall of Famer Bud Grant, who won 56 years ago on his way to Super Bowl IV, is the only other Vikings coach to win the award.

“This is an organizational award,” O’Connell said during his acceptance speech, thanking his family, the Wilfs, the Vikings players, coaches, support staff and fans, adding, “This season was one I’ll always remember.”

The award was voted on two days after the regular season ended with the Vikings losing the NFC North division and the NFC’s No. 1 seed to Detroit at Ford Field. Voters, however, looked past that and focused instead on how O’Connell, known as a quarterback whisperer, took a seven-year journeyman, failed former No. 3 overall pick and proverbial punchline and built him into a 14-game winner, fringe MVP candidate and one of the league’s best quarterbacks through 17 weeks.

O’Connell got 25 first-place votes, finishing with 361 points and ahead of Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell (283 points, 19 first-place votes). Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid was third with 119 points and four first-place votes.

“As disappointing as the end of this season was, it’s comforting to know that the Minnesota Vikings have the right guy at head coach,” Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf said while walking the red carpet before the show. “Everything Kevin told us before the season about what he thought he could get out of Sam came true. That says a lot about Sam Darnold. And no matter what the future holds [for Darnold, a free agent], it says a lot about Kevin O’Connell and what he does for us.”

O’Connell was presented the award by his first NFL coach, Bill Belichick, who announced the Vikings coach as “my third-round draft choice in 2008.”

O’Connell, who hugged Darnold on his way up to the stage, called it special to receive the award from Belichick.

“My football journey really started in the National Football League with him, the greatest coach of all time, Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, sitting in the quarterback room next to him,” O’Connell said. “So to have him up there, and he’s been, as I’ve shared with you guys before, he’s been a pretty integral part of my coaching journey, being willing to be a mentor and answer the phone when I may have questions, or just overall, calling to check in and see how I’m doing, see the challenges that I’m facing, see any way he could help me. So for him to be up there tonight, and the smile on his face and mine probably said it all. It was a pretty surreal moment, and one that I’ll never forget for sure.”

For Darnold’s part in this, enough AP voters chose him as their NFL Comeback Player of the Year that he was announced as one of the five finalists. Darnold, however, fell short primarily because AP issued this sentence as guidance to voters after it was deemed that some recent winners — mainly Geno Smith and Joe Flacco — didn’t meet the award’s intent: “The spirit of the award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”

Left to interpret Darnold’s “other circumstances” and contemplate the fact he was active for all 20 games as a 49ers backup in 2023, voters chose Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was returning from wrist surgery, as this season’s winner. Burrow got 31 of 50 first-place votes and 370 points; Darnold finished third with 102 points and eight first-place votes.

The Comeback Player of the Year Award was presented by Vikings Hall of Famer Randy Moss in one of the more touching moments of the show. Current Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson introduced Moss, who is battling cancer. Moss looked good as he presented remotely, saying he’s “Mossing cancer” before giving the award to Burrow.

Another moving moment was the annual presentation of the league’s 32 Walter Payton Man of the Year award finalists. Fullback C.J. Ham represented the Vikings.

Vikings safeties Camryn Bynum and Josh Metellus were also part of the show, featured during a segment on NFL celebrations. They did a “dance off” on stage against three players from the audience, reprising their “White Chicks” celebration. Then all five finished with a dance to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Live” from “Dirty Dancing” (without the famous lift).

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores finished second in NFL Assistant Coach of the Year voting. Molding five new starters and other key pieces into an aggressive, creative top-five scoring defense, Flores got 143 points and three first-place votes as former Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, now the Bears head coach, won with 364 points and 29 first-place votes. Former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, now Jets head coach, received six first-place votes and came in third with 110 points.

O’Connell, who had already won coach of the year from the Pro Football Writers of America and the Sporting News among others, beat a strong field of finalists for the AP award:

O’Connell said he could win with Darnold, said that teams tend to fail quarterbacks more often than quarterbacks fail teams. The world rolled its eyes.

Darnold’s first six seasons defined him as nothing more than the Jets’ failed No. 3 overall pick in 2018. He drifted to Carolina and then San Francisco before heading to Minnesota on a one-year prove-it deal as a bridge quarterback for a team that drafted J.J. McCarthy 10th overall. The Vikings were coming off seven wins, had no outside expectations and were presumed to be the worst team in their division.

“My belief in Sam started a long time ago, evaluating him in the draft, knowing him when he was in high school,” O’Connell said. “I just always saw a big, strong, smart guy who could throw it as well as anybody on the planet. And what would that look like in our offense with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and all the other guys.

“Sam deserves credit for this. What a journey. What a year he had. I’ll remember it for the rest of my career.”

So will Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

“I knew from the first time I met Kevin that he was a special person,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It’s great that the league is taking notice of that, too. He and I had a multi-year process on all quarterbacks. [Sam] was a joint decision, but that came from my belief in Kevin. In the way he teaches. When you get somebody that talented in the building, you know he’s going to get the most out of them that they have.”

O’Connell received a multiyear contract extension shortly after the Vikings season ended.

“There was nothing that I wanted more than to solidify our future here and make sure we continue on a job that’s not done,” he said Thursday night in his first news conference since getting a new contract. “There’s more to do. We’re proud of the team that our players have built, the culture our players have built, our coaching staff’s ready to rock and roll, and just to know that this is going to be an ongoing journey and the challenges out ahead, we get to attack them and try to do that special thing that Vikings fans deserve.”

“It all becomes easier, knowing the peace of mind, knowing that you’ve got a solid amount of time under contract,” he added. “Very blessed and fortunate to be the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.”

Ben Goessling of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

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