The Minnesota Vikings made a major change to their front office when they fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah last January. The move broke up the initial power structure the Vikings had installed since 2022, where Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell were supposed to take the team into a new era of football.
A lot has been said about Adofo-Mensah since his dismissal, and it’s hard to know what really convinced the Vikings to make a change.
But the one fallacy that should be debunked is that O’Connell had nothing to do with the selection of McCarthy, as Vikings legend Cris Carter was the latest to suggest it during an episode of his "Fully Loaded Podcast" earlier this week.
“Well, this is the thing: Internally, you know what we hear, and from the people I talked to, he was the general manager’s guy.
...I know you got a different background, but we gave it a try. These draft picks are not working out. Bye-bye.
Because Minnesota’s got a lot of things in place. Championship atmosphere, what they do on a day-to-day basis, the ownership, the fan base. Like, they got a lot of good stuff lined up.
If they get good quarterback play, they have a chance.”
Carter also incorrectly stated that Adofo-Mensah never received a contract extension (the Vikings did so in May 2025), but he also contributed to the revisionist history that O’Connell had nothing to do with McCarthy.
Kevin O’Connell’s comments suggest he had plenty to do with bringing J.J. McCarthy to the Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings' search for a franchise quarterback began when O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah arrived.
While they extended Kirk Cousins ahead of the 2022 season, the plan was always to find a franchise quarterback, and the team put it into action when Cousins left for the Atlanta Falcons in free agency during the spring of 2024.
In the build to that draft, O’Connell clearly had eyes for Drake Maye, even hiring Josh McCown as his quarterbacks coach after McCown had coached Maye in high school.
While Maye was taken third overall by the New England Patriots, who debunked the Vikings’ efforts to trade up, O’Connell also mentioned that he had nixed several potential quarterbacks not only ahead of the 2024 draft but since he arrived in Minnesota.
“For a couple years, I’ve been kind of known as the quarterback killer when it comes to the draft in Eagan. Because the feeling that I feel from our fanbase is when we get this next guy, he’s gonna be the guy. And I feel it; I know you guys all feel it.
So I have had to fight off some mistakes from being made, mainly because [of] the evaluation process I go through.
I think about the things that are fixable. I think about the things that are coachable. And then you think about the things that, you know, you could coach another 15 years with a player, and you might not be able to fix.”
O’Connell’s comments were quite the power move. Not only had he identified Sam Darnold as his quarterback a few weeks earlier in a move that would spark a 14-win season.
He said these comments while standing in the middle of a Twin Cities area church. In some ways, that may be fitting as the football gods proceeded to strike him with lightning, or more specifically, the addition of McCarthy, a few weeks later.
McCarthy was a flawed prospect at Michigan, playing in a run-heavy offense that hid his flawed mechanics. But O’Connell clearly believed they could be fixed and thought progress was being made before McCarthy tore his meniscus in the 2024 preseason opener.
“As our fans either have already come to find out or will in the future, this guy is so motivated and dialed in. As excited as I was to draft him, he’s confirmed everything that I hoped to see.
Our fan base and everyone should be excited about the fact that we’ve got our young franchise quarterback in the building.”
A lot has happened since those comments, including an MVP-caliber campaign from Darnold in 2024, a flirtation with Aaron Rodgers the following offseason, and a rough first season for McCarthy as a starter that may have been accelerated by Adofo-Mensah’s overall vision for the team’s roster construction.
But O’Connell still admitted he saw McCarthy as a franchise quarterback.
“A lot of those feelings are still the same. It’s just the timeline is in a different place for all of us than it was [in 2024].”
Minnesota Vikings are still trying to re-write history over the J.J. McCarthy pick
If there’s one aspect of Carter’s intel that could be correct, it’s that O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah had differing opinions on whether McCarthy was ready to start.
Before McCarthy arrived, O’Connell pushed strongly to keep Cousins before his price exceeded what the Vikings were willing to pay, according to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert.
A joint report by The Athletic’s Alec Lewis and Dianna Russini at the time of Adofo-Mensah’s firing also stated that “many executives, coaches and even key players supported” the idea of bringing in Rodgers last season.
There’s a good chance that O’Connell was in that group – especially after it was revealed he was texting with Russini during a viral traffic stop last January – and it’s also possible that Adofo-Mensah was the one who nixed the idea in order to roll out his plan.
But to suggest that O’Connell, who has earned a quarterback whisperer label, didn’t give the green light on McCarthy is preposterous, even as he seemingly tries to find an out by signing Kyler Murray to a veteran minimum deal this offseason.
If Adofo-Mensah didn’t ask for his opinion, it may have been a fireable offense, especially since O’Connell would later be heavily involved in the search for his replacement a few months later.
For a franchise that has done its best to erase Adofo-Mensah’s poor decisions this offseason, suggesting O’Connell had nothing to do with McCarthy and “he wasn’t his guy” is one of the craziest takes out there, and it could come back into play if McCarthy has to start for the Vikings next season.
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