Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is viewed as one of the best offensive minds in the NFL. His offensive play design is among the best in the league, and they do a great job of creating opportunities for deep shots down the field. With that said, does he deserve the title of being a quarterback whisperer and offensive guru? The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia raised that question.

There’s a chance that O’Connell has gotten too much credit and Flores too little. If we’re talking just offensive acumen, look at where the Vikings have ranked over the past four seasons,” wrote Kapadia. They have finished 14th, 16th, 15th, and 28th in EPA/play.

Kevin O’Connell has a lot to prove

That’s a fair question. We know that O’Connell has done a lot to maximize the quarterbacks he’s had, but has he done enough to keep the title of being a guru or whisperer? Kapadia’s next line emphasized that we may be looking at things the wrong way.

“O’Connell has coached a few mediocre offenses and one terrible offense. Look at it this way: If your favorite offensive coach—Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Sean Payton, whoever—had the Vikings’ group of talent on offense, would they be able to produce a top-10 to top-12 offense? I think the answer is yes. O’Connell has to show this season that he can get the Vikings to that range.”

It’s a valid question. We know that the likes of Payton, McVay, and Shanahan can do just that, but the lack of success with poor quarterback play last season has raised questions about his true acumen.

Is that fair to say? I think the bigger question is rooted not in EPA/play, but rather how his style of offense isn’t necessarily conducive to some advanced metrics. During the 2024 season where the Vikings finished 14-3 and were ninth in points scored and were the most explosive offense in attacking vertically. They were also 17th in turnovers, mainly due to quarterback Sam Darnold attacking defenses vertically. That will crater EPA. What they struggled to do was sustain drives, but that style certainly worked because they were an impactful offense.

For more added context, Shanahan’s offenses always rank highly in EPA/play, and a lot of that is rooted in explosive runs and play-action passes. If you want to be critical of O’Connell, the lack of an explosive running game is definitely a fair critique. However, his offenses have worked very well with capable quarterback play, and they are set to have it this year.

O’Connell also understood his biggest flaw in crafting an explosive run game by hiring Frank Smith. EPA/play is a great metric that we use to quantify large datasets, but it lacks some context. The lack of offensive line consistency is one you can point to, along with the multitude of injuries they have dealt with to key players, including Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw.

There are very few who can orchestrate deep shots to his receivers the way O’Connell can, and found a way to maximize who is playing quarterback. If O’Connell finally has things working in his favor, that will do a lot for him. Then again, isn’t that the crux of the debate? It’s especially so due to the likes of Justin Jefferson on the roster.

This is shaping up to be a huge year for O’Connell.