After the whole world watched Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears begin their 2025 playoff journey with an epic comeback win over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, Minnesota Vikings fans are still waiting for Kevin O'Connell to provide them with a similar experience.
With Johnson leading the Bears to a victory on Saturday, O'Connell is now the only current NFC North head coach without a win in the postseason. Minnesota, of course, failed to come away with victories in both of its two playoff appearances under O'Connell in 2022 and 2024.
The pressure was already going to be on the Vikings' head coach to get his team back to the postseason in 2026, but Chicago getting a playoff win with a first-year head coach is only going to ramp that pressure up even more.
Should it be playoff win or bust for Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell in 2026?
With three winning records in four years, Minnesota has achieved plenty of regular-season success with O'Connell as its head coach. But when it has come to the playoffs, he still hasn't found a way to get the Vikings over the hump.
After Minnesota failed to reach the playoffs this season, some are assuming that the team just qualifying for the postseason in 2026 will be enough for O'Connell to keep his job. But the expectations for the Vikings' head coach should be set slightly higher for next season.
At least one playoff win should be a requirement for Minnesota's head coach in 2026, and a request like this shouldn't seem unfair. O'Connell will be heading into his fifth season with the Vikings, and wanting him to achieve something that is a basic requirement of almost every NFL head coach isn't asking a whole lot.
The question is, will Minnesota's approach this offseason center more around getting a playoff win in the 2026 campaign or continuing to further the development of quarterback J.J. McCarthy?
O'Connell and the Vikings would probably prefer to find a way to do both, but, at this point, it seems more likely that the team will have to pick one path over the other.