Souhan: Late-season collapse didn’t damage Kevin O’Connell’s credibility

An investor named Bill Hwang once lost $20 billion in two days.

Almost as much as Sam Darnold lost in the last week.

American historians called the economic disaster beginning in 1929 “The Great Depression.”

That’s because they never sat amid Vikings fans at 5 a.m. at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix after Darnold scuttled their team in the playoffs.

With a strong run of big games, Darnold could have positioned himself to make a hundred million over the next few years.

Instead, he will likely rejoin the cast of backups hoping to find a job, a cast of backups that the Vikings will likely search for their next temp.

In the wake of the Vikings’ two-game, late-season collapse, there will be those who will blame Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell for not calling that magic play that would elevate a faltering quarterback.

Those plays don’t exist, not against quality competition.

You don’t beat the Lions and Rams by coddling your quarterback. Your quarterback needs to make instantaneous decisions and produce big plays. The Vikings were not going to win with bootleg passes to the tight end or more handoffs to Aaron Jones.

The last two losses didn’t damage O’Connell’s credibility, but burnish it.

Let’s have a little perspective here.

Kirk Cousins, the guy who couldn’t make it through one season as a starter with a talented Falcons team?

O’Connell won 13 games with that guy, and might have won another 10 or 12 the following season with better injury luck.

Josh Dobbs, the guy now starring in commercials about career backups? O’Connell actually won three games with him behind center.

Darnold? O’Connell got three more good months out of him than any of his three previous teams.

If O’Connell was a favorite to win coach of the year before this two-game collapse, he should be a lock now, because we can see what he was working with and fighting against.

We also were reminded this season that the offense run by Rams coach Sean McVay, and taught to O’Connell, is magical when run by a savvy veteran quarterback, in this case Matthew Stafford.

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores obscured his team’s lack of in-their-prime athletic ability in his secondary with exotic blitzes and alignments. The two quarterbacks McVay has coached in Super Bowls — Detroit’s Jared Goff and Stafford — knew exactly how to expose this defense’s flaws.

The McVay/KO offense, in the right hands, is capable of blending power running, ball-control passing and big-play passing, even against good defenses. And the Vikings had a good defense.

The good news for Vikings fans is that they have clarity heading into the offseason and draft.

The bad news is that O’Connell’s next contender might be a few years away.

The success of the Vikings’ 2024 season wasn’t a matter of putting Band-Aids on a roster — it was a skillful mummification.

These Vikings lacked youth and speed in the secondary, pass rushers in the interior defensive line, competence in the interior offensive line, and a quarterback you could trust in the biggest games of the year.

They have the 24th pick in the upcoming draft, and two picks in the fifth round. They might be awarded a compensatory pick or two.

They won in 2024 because of a brilliant run of free-agent signees that included Darnold, Aaron Jones, Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin.

Pulling such a haul off again would defy odds and salary-cap limitations.

This team needs younger and cheaper talent. That’s one of the many reasons this team should (and probably will) invest in speeding the development of quarterback J.J. McCarthy. If he’s good enough, he’ll give the Vikings a starting quarterback who leaves them with money to spend on other positions.

The Vikings’ long-term employees are desperate to win a Super Bowl.

At how many positions are they currently good enough to do that?

Linebacker, including edge rushers Greenard, Van Ginkel and, they hope, Dallas Turner.

Receiver/tight end, assuming Jordan Addison continues to progress.

Offensive tackle.

That’s it.

When you have holes, you need your quarterback to be exceptional.

If and when McCarthy earns that adjective — and if and when the Lions start losing talented players to free agency — the Vikings could become championship contenders.