With just two playoff appearances and no wins in his four years as Vikings coach, Kevin O’Connell is facing perhaps the most difficult season of his career. In our latest SKOLding Hot Take, Jonathan Pye explores exactly how hot the hotseat is getting for KOC.
Every season is important but for the 2026 Minnesota Vikings, reputations are on the line. This is the year when we learn more about coach Kevin O’Connell as an offensive guru.
We know as a head coach players like playing for him. Last season, when we were 4–8 and staring down the barrel of elimination from the playoffs, the team rallied and won five straight games to end the season.
With the mess at the quarterback position, it would have been easy for the defense especially to hand the rest of the season in. O’Connell has a way with words, though; his post game speeches would make me run through walls for him. It’s not hard to see why players want to play for him.
As a head coach, he has a 43–25 regular season record in his four seasons, but no playoff wins in two appearances. Heading into 2026, there are key questions to be answered about his offense.
Addressing the Nine-shaped elephant in the room
Heading into this season O’Connell’s reputation has taken a hit. Since Kirk Cousins went down with an Achilles injury midway through 2023, the Vikings have used seven different quarterbacks.
Last season was supposed to be the answer: J. J. McCarthy was back from the meniscus injury that redshirted him in his rookie year, but rather than answering the Vikings’ question under center, he raised a dozen more. A series of other injuries meant McCarthy missed seven games last season, turning the experiment from making gold out of lead to a shambolic failure.
McCarthy’s health is related to the O’Connell question: why did it take three quarters of the season to dumb down the offense and roll McCarthy out more and get him to make some quicker throws? At college, McCarthy didn’t carry the Wolverines – their star-studded backfield and offensive line did that. In 2025, the Vikings struggled with rushing success and the offensive line was one of the most banged up in the league.
Leaning on Murray and the run game
O’Connell is back with a veteran quarterback as starter, arguably his safe space as a coach. In 2022 and 2024, the last two seasons in which the Vikings had the same starting quarterback for all 17 games, they were 8th in scoring on offense and went on to make the playoffs. Kyler Murray is looking to rebuild his reputation and have a career year, and a successful season for Murray could be just what O’Connell needs to save his own reputation as one of the NFL’s offensive gurus.
Frank Smith is a new addition to the team looking to add some of the fantastic run game concepts that he ran with the Miami Dolphins in the past few seasons. This should add an element to coach O’Connell’s offense that we haven’t seen in Minnesota.
Murray is a capable runner and it will be interesting to see how he’s used in the quarterback run game. At 5ft 10in, he’s smaller than most pro quarterbacks, so there are question marks about how he’ll suit playing under center after spending most of his career in the shotgun formation. Having said all of that, if Murray is even the 17th best quarterback in the league, the Vikings will likely reach the playoffs again, providing Brian Flores has another top 10 unit.
Giving Flores his flowers
Even though the Vikings have the fifth-most regular season wins in the league since hiring Kevin O’Connell as head coach, a lot of credit for that must be put at Brian Flores’ door.
In 2024, the Vikings defense was fifth in the league, allowing under 20 points a game, as well as leading the league with 33 takeaways. That provided Sam Darnold and the offense a nice safety blanket to stay competitive in tight games.
A year later, Flores’ unit ranked 3rd for total defense, again allowing under 20 points a game. This is all the more impressive as the Vikings were averaging around four punts a game and turned the ball over 30 times on offense. The defense was tired but continued to keep us in games and put up extraordinary numbers. The Vikings were able to win nine games last season due to having the best special teams kicking unit in the league and the third-best defense.
K-O-See ya?
For the Vikings to kick on again this year the offense must take a step or two up as we cannot expect the same success from the special teams and defense as last year.
If the Vikings don’t get a playoff win I am of the opinion that Kevin O’Connell should be fired. While that’s unlikely to happen unless the Vikings have a car crash season, a more likely option is for him to give up offensive play calling and focus on maintaining the positive team culture and camaraderie that the team has, as he is undeniably good at that part of the job.
Ultimately, 2026 is the year he proves his doubters wrong or his noise will really amp up about him as offensive coach.
What do you think the Vikings should do with head coach Kevin O’Connell? Does he deserve more time or is 2026 his last chance? Let us know by sending us an email to UKVikingsFanClub@gmail.com or drop a DM to any of our social media channels.