Mike Tannenbaum watched the Minnesota Vikings’ 34-7 win over the Houston Texans live from U.S. Bank Stadium. Perched from his seat in the press box, he observed Kevin O’Connell masterfully guide Sam Darnold and the Vikings to their second three-plus-score victory this season, this time as a 1.5-point underdog at home.
Today, Tannenbaum appears on ESPN’s talk shows. However, he was the New York Jets’ general manager during their most recent successful run from 2006 to 2012. The Jets last made the playoffs in 2010, the same year Tannebaum cut O’Connell on Hard Knocks.
Two years later, the Jets cut O’Connell again. This time, Rex Ryan offered him a coaching job. The former Jets coach told O’Connell that he didn’t think much of him as a quarterback. However, he thought he would make a great coach. O’Connell didn’t want to give up his NFL dream then, but Ryan was right. O’Connell has the Vikings, who Vegas projected to win 7.5 games this year, off to a 3-0 start.
Much of O’Connell’s success comes from his ability to coach quarterbacks. “Countless coaches and execs have paid attention to what [Kevin] O’Connell has accomplished,” The Athletic’s Diana Russini reported earlier this week. “One opposing defensive coach said, ‘I’d trust KOC more than anyone in our league to get the most out of his quarterback.’”
Darnold is O’Connell’s proof of concept. Like with O’Connell, the Jets cut Darnold. However, they drafted him third overall in 2018 to be their franchise quarterback. They had given up on Geno Smith, the Seattle Seahawks’ starter this year, and moved on from Darnold after taking Zach Wilson second overall in 2021. The Jets traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers, who moved on from Darnold after 17 starts. He was the San Francisco 49ers backup last year.
O’Connell likely identifies with Darnold because teams gave up on him during his career. He got emotional talking about Darnold in his opening remarks after the Vikings upset the Niners 23-17 last week.
“I’d like to finish with Sam Darnold against his former team,” said O’Connell. “Just the amount of work that goes into that position on your quarterback journey when everybody decides that you cannot play.
“We always believed in him, and it felt awesome to watch him go do that thing, so I’m really proud of Sam Darnold.”
Darnold is more gifted than O’Connell and entered the league with higher expectations. Still, O’Connell isn’t treating Darnold like Minnesota’s future franchise quarterback – that’s J.J. McCarthy. He’s given Darnold a manageable role in the offense. He’s tapped into Darnold’s natural ability while creating boundaries to keep him from making erratic, game-changing turnovers.
- Darnold threw for 208 yards in a 28-6 win over the New York Giants in Week 1. He didn’t need to do much more than that because Andrew Van Ginkel and the defense flustered Daniel Jones.
- A week later, Darnold’s pass to Justin Jefferson from Minnesota’s goal line accounted for 97 of the 268 yards he threw for in the San Francisco game. His lone mistake was a forced pass to Trent Sherfield, and Fred Warner made an incredible catch to pick him.
- Darnold only threw for 181 yards against Houston’s stout defense but still had four touchdowns and no interceptions.
O’Connell has kept things manageable for Darnold in his complicated offense. The Vikings had to take two timeouts in New York to avoid delay-of-game penalties, likely because O’Connell’s play calls are a mouthful, and Darnold must get to the line in time to make checks on the defense. However, that was the only indication that Darnold has had issues with O’Connell’s system. Otherwise, O’Connell has given him a clean slate and enabled him to run the offense.
“Part of my answer about Sam postgame,” O’Connell explained on the Monday after the Niners game, “was I don’t really have a lot of interest in talking about the past with Sam Darnold. I think we all need to just start being totally present. When he plays well like he has, I think we just talk about a guy playing the position at a high level, and we move on.”
As concerning as Darnold’s knee injury looked when Danielle Hunter hit him low, O’Connell had to be heartened to hear the home crowd chant, “Sam-my! Sam-my!” when he returned after going to the sidelines for one play. In different circumstances, the fans would be excited to see McCarthy in Darnold’s stead. Instead, they waited with bated breath for Darnold’s MRI results on Monday.
“If something happens there, they’re f—ed,” an anonymous executive told The Athletic’s Mike Sando before Darnold’s MRI revealed no structural damage to his knee. “You can’t win with Nick Mullens.”
That’s a dramatic turnaround in three weeks. Before the season, Sando interviewed 50 anonymous NFL coaches and execs to determine his annual quarterback tiers. In 2022, 12 ranked him in Tier 3 of 5, with players like Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, and Kyler Murray. However, most of them had him in Tier 4, sandwiched between Bryce Young and Jacoby Brissett.
One coach said he “got back on course” as Purdy’s backup with the Niners last year. One executive had him “teetering” between a 3 and a 5. However, one coach had him in Tier 2 with Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford, and Justin Herbert under O’Connell. Still, he seemed hesitant to admit that.
“I don’t want to be one of those guys who holds on to his draft grade, but I would not be surprised if he holds off J.J. McCarthy for a while,” the head coach told Sando before McCarthy’s injury. “(Darnold) has the ability to play to a 2.”
Ironically, the sheepish coach turned out to be most right. Darold might not be Jackson or Stafford, but he has the fifth-highest quarterback rating under O’Connell. The Vikings have been vocal about their nurture-over-nature approach with their quarterbacks. With the man who cut him on Hard Knocks looking down upon him on Sunday, O’Connell showed the world that he could take a quarterback who executives believed was Young or Brissett’s peer and had him playing with a higher quarterback rating than Stafford, Jackson, or Herbert.
