Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell is among the league’s best play callers with one element separating him from the pack
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is among the league’s best play callers, ranking fifth among defensive coordinators in a piece from Ted Nguyen of The Athletic. Nguyen’s task was relatively simple: he asked six defensive coordinators and defensive assistants who the best play caller was. There were some interesting opinions on who was better […]
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is among the league’s best play callers, ranking fifth among defensive coordinators in a piece from Ted Nguyen of The Athletic.
Nguyen’s task was relatively simple: he asked six defensive coordinators and defensive assistants who the best play caller was. There were some interesting opinions on who was better when the list was officially compiled. The top 10 are as follows:
- 1. Kyle Shanahan
- 2. Sean McVay
- 3. Ben Johnson
- 4. Andy Reid
- 5. Kevin O’Connell
- 6. Matt LaFleur
- 7. Todd Monken
- 8. Sean Payton
- 9. Liam Coen
- 10. Shane Steichen
Kevin O’Connell praised by NFL colleagues
When you watch O’Connell’s offense, they thrive in the intermediate areas of the field. He loves to use play-action to create space in those areas to attack with concepts like dagger and mills with in-breaking routes.
As mentioned in the above tweet, it’s all about what O’Connell calls the illusion of complexity. He will run the same group of 10-15 route concepts but have over a dozen ways to get to each one. You’ll never know what he’s about to throw at you because they do such a good job of varying things.
The one really good element that O’Connell pairs with the illusion of complexity is finding ways to get Justin Jefferson open. He get a lot of attention ad O’Connell’s creativity in getting him space to work with knows no bounds.
“They do a really nice job where they know you’re gonna try to cloud to (Jefferson), so they they run stuff to basically high/low your flat player and they run cloud beaters to that to his side and then they have really good receivers on the other side so now, you’re playing quarters away from them and they run quarters beaters that side,” the coach told Nguyen. “Then they do a really nice job designing their play-action concepts to create space downfield.”
The next step for O’Connell is to integrate a really good running game with the excellent passing game that has been consistent for the entirety of his tenure. With the running game that the Vikings are projected to have, things are set to be much improved.
The play-action game is going to be really fun to watch this year, and O’Connell could easily shoot up the rankings.
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Kevin O’Connell’s offense is set to have a big year.
