Kevin O’Connell’s history with Kirk Cousins may be why Vikings move on

The history between new Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and Kirk Cousins might actually result in the team moving on from the quarterback.

Kevin O’Connell was the perfect hire for the Minnesota Vikings following the decision to make Kwesi Adofo-Mensah the organization’s new general manager.

O’Connell is a familiar name to some members of the Vikings, such as quarterback Kirk Cousins. The two crossed paths when they were both with the Washington Commanders in 2017.

O’Connell was the Commanders’ quarterbacks coach in 2017 and he was then promoted to offensive coordinator before the 2019 season.

Kevin O’Connell’s familiarity with Kirk Cousins suggests he will not be the Minnesota Vikings quarterback next season

From an outsider’s perspective, O’Connell is the perfect hire for the Vikings because of his familiarity with the team’s starting quarterback.

He is the young offensive mind Minnesota so desperately needed to get the most out of their franchise quarterback, who the organization has invested so much time, money, and headlines into.

Boiling it down, reading between the lines, taking a closer look, or whatever you want to call it, when further evaluating the O’Connell hire, he is the perfect fit for the Vikings because he aligns with the direction the team wants to go in. This stems from his familiarity with the team’s new general manager.

O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah were peers during their time in the San Francisco 49ers organization. Both are young minds who know what it takes to get to the Super Bowl, something Minnesota has failed to accomplish in each of the past 45-seasons.

O’Connell, Adofo-Mensah, and the Wilf brothers each share a vision of making the Vikings a Super Bowl champion. The path to getting there will look different than what Minnesota’s fans are used to and it will come with many changes concerning the team’s personnel and philosophy.

Fans can expect the Vikings to look a lot different next year, with a wave of change expected to wash over the organization. One of these changes is the likelihood that the team moves on from Cousins this offseason.

O’Connell’s familiarity with Cousins brings him closer to the conclusion that most Minnesota fans may already feel, which is that Cousins will not lead a team to the Super Bowl, let alone win it.

O’Connell comes from the Rams, who traded Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford before the Super Bowl was even played during the 2020 season.

Los Angeles knew that Goff was ultimately not going to help them win a Super Bowl, therefore they traded him for a quarterback who they felt would give them a better chance to win the big game. That seemed to work out well for the Rams, as Stafford actually went on to lead the team to a Super Bowl victory this season.

If this NFL season has taught us anything, it is that the quarterback position is as important as ever. Gone are the days of the Trent Dilfers and Joe Flaccos of the world winning a Super Bowl. If a team does not have a legitimate star behind center, they might as well try to get one because they won’t be a legitimate contender until they do so.

Even the San Francisco 49ers also feel this way as they selected a quarterback third overall in last year’s NFL Draft despite Jimmy Garropolo helping them get to the Super Bowl in 2019. The 49ers know they won’t win the big one without a prominent starter and Garropolo will likely have a new home before next season as well.

You could argue that Goff was plenty good to win the Rams a Super Bowl. In his best year with Los Angeles in 2018, when he helped the team get to the Super Bowl, Goff threw for over 4,600 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.

Those are more yards than any amount Cousins has had in any year with the Vikings. Cousins’ best statistical year in Minnesota, a 4,265/35/13 effort in 2020, ended with Minnesota missing the playoffs. Goff struggled in the two seasons after the Rams made the Super Bowl, with the team posting back-to-back nine-win seasons and missing the playoffs in 2019.

Despite the struggles, Goff did help lead Los Angeles to the playoffs in 2020, where they beat the Seattle Seahawks before eventually losing to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round. As for Cousins, he has not made the playoffs in three of his four years as the QB1 for the Vikings.

Minnesota is in the same position with Cousins that the Rams were in with Goff, and the organization knows it.

From an economic standpoint, which is Adofo-Mensah’s background, it makes even less sense for the Vikings to keep Cousins around. Why have one single player take up nearly 25 percent of your team’s total cap space if he is only going to help bring the team to the playoffs in 25 percent of his years with the team?

Star quarterbacks do not grow on trees, but that doesn’t mean they are not out there for teams to look for. Minnesota is going to have a lot of new faces next year, which means that some of the faces we are used to may not be around for much longer.

The Vikings need to make a change at the quarterback position to ultimately achieve their goal of being a Super Bowl contender – and they know it.