Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell went viral after giving a surprise pep talk to recently benched Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, who the Vikings did plenty of homework on and reportedly attempted a trade-up for in the 2023 draft.
The No. 4 overall pick that year, Richardson lost his starting spot to veteran Joe Flacco last week after a troubling start to his second season in the league.
After a 21-13 win over the Colts in Week 9, O’Connell approached Richardson and reminded him why he was one of the most-coveted quarterbacks coming out of college in recent memory.
“You’re a bad dude and you’re going to play a long time in this league,” O’Connell said, per NFL Films footage after the game. “I still believe in you. I know these guys do, too.”
O’Connell addressed the exchange this week, saying he wanted to pick up Richardson, who he imagined had a difficult week after being benched.
“I wanted to let him know how I felt,” O’Connell said on November 8, per ESPN. “And whether it meant something to him, or not, didn’t matter. And I think it’s a good thing for everybody in society to do. If you’ve got the ability to help somebody else in circumstances that maybe as they’re working through it are less than ideal, but there is a road and a path — a rather large one in my opinion to him having have a very, very successful NFL career — [you should].
“Quarterback journeys are what they are, and every single one of them has their own story. And I just felt like if I can have an opportunity to just let him know how I feel about him, and not only him and where he’s at now but where I think he’s going in the future, I thought it was a good moment to tell him that. I’m just a big fan, and if you have something to say to uplift somebody else, you might as well say it and not keep it to yourself.”
Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell Shows How He Gets More Out of His QBs in Conversation With Richardson
GettyHead coach Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings.
When the Vikings hired O’Connell in 2022, the organization was coming out of a dark time with team morale low in the final days of Mike Zimmer and Rich Spielman’s tenure.
Described as a “fear-based” culture at the time, the Vikings needed a clean slate with a players-first coach.
O’Connell worked wonders in his first year, leading Minnesota to a 13-3 regular season and NFC North division title with largely the same team that went 8-9 and missed the playoffs in 2021.
He got more out of Kirk Cousins, encouraging the veteran quarterback to take a larger leadership role that translated onto the field. Cousins tied an NFL record eight game-winning drives during the 2022 season after a career that was largely maligned by a lack of clutch play.
After Cousins went down with a season-ending Achilles in October 2023, O’Connell guided Joshua Dobbs to a comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons after Dobbs had just arrived five days earlier at the trade deadline.
O’Connell is garnering Coach of the Year buzz for his work with Sam Darnold this season. His ability to develop quarterback talent returns to his philosophy that “organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations.”
His words for Richardson are another reminder of the quarterback-friendly environment O’Connell continues to foster.
O’Connell Makes Midseason Changes for Sam Darnold
GettyVikings coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterback Sam Darnold.
The Vikings’ win over the Colts in Week 9 was a step in the right direction for an offense that is still developing with Darnold.
While the offense has put up points, sustaining drives and playing consistently was a problem.
After ranking last in plays run per game (56.7) and time of possession, Minnesota set season highs in plays (71), first downs (29), total yards (415) and time of possession (36:54) in Week 9.
The Vikings limited pre-snap penalties and played with a more consistent tempo in the offense. It led to Darnold attempting a season-high 34 pass attempts, and outside of a pair of interceptions, he was deadeye accurate and decisive, completing 28 throws for a season-high 82.4% completion percentage.
While O’Connell is among the best play designers in the NFL, he took some advice from Justin Jefferson and distilled the play calls down. Instead of over-relying on scheming players open, O’Connell put trust in his skill players to win their matchup.
“Sam has done so many really high-level good things, especially throwing the football for us,” O’Connell said last week, per ESPN. “We’ve all got to remember sometimes that it is his first year starting [in Minnesota], and we tried to prepare him as best we could, and there’s still going to be some times in games where the urgency of just playing a lot of football comes into play. I think he’s done a really good job improving on that as he goes through a process of preparation.
“But there’s some other times where part of the bigger picture, the orchestrating of our offense, [is], ‘Can we make it a little easier on him? Can we make it easier on the guys around him to have clarity?’”
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