By the time Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had arrived at TCO Performance Center, they had been on a long journey.
They had followed the two-minute trail through the receiver forest. Kevin and Kwesi trudged through the desert of abandoned guards and even swam through the ocean of playoff failures. But when they got to Eagan, their biggest challenge awaited.
The skies were dark. People trudged nervously through the hallways. Although O’Connell said hello to everyone he encountered, something felt off. Then they saw it.
Mike Zimmer sat on a giant throne. With a terrified Klint Kubiak watching on, Zimmer struggled with a film projector made in the 1980s. Once he finally got it to work, a loss to the Green Bay Packers started playing, and Zimmer bellowed over the loud clicking noises.
“I TOLD YOU TO RUN THE BALL MORE!!!” Zimmer screamed before breathing flames into the sky. “I DON’T CARE IF WE’RE DOWN BY 17 POINTS!!! RUN THE DAMN BALL!!!”
At this moment, O’Connell reached into his bag. He used the arm that made him a third-round draft pick and chucked a bottle of Fireball into the room. Zimmer, Kubiak, and the projector all evaporated, and things became a lot brighter.
Maybe O’Connell’s journey to becoming a head coach wasn’t something out of Super Mario. But you would have to forgive everyone if it didn’t seem like a happy ending.
The end of the Mike Zimmer era felt a lot like King Bowser’s reign. The first four years were great, and the Vikings captured a pair of division titles. But after going to the NFC Championship Game in 2017, Zimmer slowly began to take a dark hold over the franchise.
Zimmer showed offensive coordinators the door. He ignored his quarterback. The offense was a burden, and if anyone said a word about his defense, they would have their job security questioned.
These were just the things that were in the public eye. Eric Kendricks called Zimmer’s reign “a fear-based culture.” Kirk Cousins was afraid to call an audible. Brian O’Neill just wanted someone to say “Good morning” in the hallway. It was like Zimmer was leading an army of Koopa Troopas.
But in O’Connell, the Vikings have their protagonist.
O’Connell’s hiring represented everything that fans wanted. He was a young offensive mind and worked under Sean McVay. He focused on both sides of the ball. O’Connell even commended the reporters for their excellent questions!
“Illusion of complexity” sounds like something someone would utter in a Prestige Worldwide presentation. But if it means getting Justin Jefferson the ball before being down by two scores, the entire team might enjoy coming to work every day.
O’Connell talked about working with the players. He vowed to hire coaches with the sole purpose of making the players better. He even spoke of a culture where players wanted to be around their coaches.
Just those comments alone make it feel like the dark clouds have given way to a beautiful 40-degree day in February. Shorts and sandals may not yet be a staple in Eagan, but it’s a contrast to where this situation was one year ago.
Zimmer stood in front of a Zoom camera and boasted about his new-look defense. He probably locked his coaches in a room and drew up plays on a greaseboard. Zimmer called every defensive player on the roster to state his expectations. He brushed it off when asked about the offense before talking about his defense some more.
The Vikings blew $45 million to rebuild his defense in free agency before drafting many players he refused to play. Minnesota trudged through training camp. It became an every-man-for-himself scenario. When showing up for a critical game against O’Connell’s Los Angeles Rams, the Vikings experienced “a Christmas hangover” until furiously mounting a faux comeback.
Culture was running more gassers at practice. The coaches only practiced communication if the headsets were working. Collaboration was non-existent. And all of it led to the Vikings missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
If you want to measure how much things have changed, O’Connell mentioned the words culture, communication, and collaboration 22 times during his introductory press conference.
Even with Zimmer’s most dysfunctional relationship, O’Connell made sure to make amends. He praised Cousins’ accuracy and physical ability. If the Vikings cave into his $40 million contract demands, O’Connell and Cousins might be tighter than Mario and Luigi.
All of this with a guy that looks like Wario watching on.
O’Connell may not be marching up to a podium with Princess Toadstool anytime soon, but it feels like something has changed. If he can create a better atmosphere at TCO Performance Center, there’s a chance that the Vikings may just live happily ever after.
