At a recent Faith & Life series event, O’Connell addressed the team’s quarterback situation, emphasizing his intent to unearth a lasting solution.
His selectiveness has stemmed from a desire to not settle for anything but the best, thereby earning him the nickname “Quarterback Killer”.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell says he has become known as the "quarterback killer" in the building, as the teams has been searching for "the guy" at the position. https://t.co/o4lwnG4yxD
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 20, 2024
The coach is deliberately shying away from potentially bright, yet short-term, quarterback prospects.
O’Connell’s intentions clearly indicate his goal of focusing on sustenance, rather than quick remedies.
Despite the potential talent that comes their way, the Vikings’ leadership is seemingly putting their hopes on a quarterback who can walk with them into the future for the long haul.
“For a couple of years I’ve, you know, I’ve been kind of known as the ‘quarterback killer’ when it comes to the draft in Eagan, because the feeling that everybody that I feel from our fan base is when we get this next guy, he’s gonna be the guy. And I feel it. I know you guys all feel it. So I have had to in a lot of ways fight off some mistakes from being made, mainly because the evaluation process I go through, I think about the things that are fixable.
Kevin O'Connell gave a speech last night at St. Philip the Deacon Church in Plymouth and got a full breakdown of McCarthy and Maye by a Vikings fan at the end lol. He gave a very interesting answer, noting that he killed some previous QB ideas in the past because he wasn't sold.… pic.twitter.com/cb2SR6lOJo
— Matthew Coller (@MatthewColler) April 19, 2024
“I think about the things that are coachable and then you think about the things that you could coach another 15 years with the player, and you might not be able to fix and hope and faith are wonderful things. I do like them to not necessarily be strategies. So I do very much believe in certain principles of playing the quarterback position. I believe the footwork in the lower half of any quarterback can be fixed with the proper coaching and teaching. And I think that when you see the good things on tape, you see things that they can do better on tape. You’re looking for a lot of different things and to check a lot of boxes and ultimately when you feel like you find that guy then you got to hope that 31 other teams are complicit in making sure that they can become a Minnesota Viking, but we only need one team to be complicit and hopefully we find that team and that person’s on it.”
Interestingly, O’Connell’s past with the NFL team, the Patriots, has been drawing attention. This was highlighted when O’Connell humorously confessed that he may have sent a bouquet of flowers to the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft.
“You know, I may or may not have sent a nice bouquet of flowers to Robert Kraft the other day,” O’Connell said.
Underneath this jest, whispers of strategic collaboration or picks from the Patriots could potentially play into the Vikings’ unfolding quarterback saga.
Clearly, it’s going to take more than just flowers or goodwill to navigate from the current No. 11 to No. 3 in the 2024 draft.
It’s evident that the Vikings are ready to pull out all the stops, but only if they believe they have found their ‘right guy’.
