Kevin O’Connell refuses to conform to group-think in the NFL. The best trust their own judgement implicitly. And he is one of the very best.

When the London-bound Minnesota Vikings head coach explains it, finding success and reward at the most important position in sport seems so simple. Of course, it isn’t. Quarterback production defines job tenures and entire eras – hence the position’s revolving door, hence the desperate search for answers, hence the shortage of patience.

But his ethos is clear. Players don’t accidentally fall into the 1.6 per cent of college athletes that reach the NFL; they are there because they are good enough, even if the results may not reflect it.

“Organisations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organisations,” O’Connell famously stated last year.

It is a mindset that has seen the former Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator translate his skills as one of the NFL’s most gifted architects into becoming one of the NFL’s premier quarterback whisperers since being appointed head coach in 2022.

“It’s been years and years of learning, of watching guys, trying to coach principles that you believe in, but at the same time understanding two things have to be true,” O’Connell tells Sky Sports in an exclusive interview.

“Each player is his own player. Nobody does it the exact same way. What you have to do is be able to analyse a player, either a guy with a bunch of tape already professionally or even a college player that’s got so much runway for growth and development. And you’ve got to figure out what works.

“What are their strengths? What are the things that they do regardless of if we ever coach them or not? Hey, these are their strengths. And then how do we design an offense? How do we design a system that allows them to then tie the fundamentals and techniques that we teach with the progressions and where their eyes are throughout plays?

“How do we give them opportunities to just make decisive decisions that they can then be aggressive with their arm and throw completions and then reap the momentum and the benefit of that?”

O’Connell played a starring role in helping Sam Darnold resurrect his career last season as the written-off quarterback spearheaded an unlikely playoff charge.

Darnold’s future as a starting quarterback had appeared over. He had endured three turbulent seasons with the New York Jets as the third overall pick in 2018 and spent time with the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers before the Vikings came calling.

He had been deemed a veteran head with whom to support and nurture first-round quarterback JJ McCarthy, only for the 10th overall pick to suffer a year-ending injury before the start of the season. The result would be a thriving Darnold as he threw for a career-high 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions in an expertly-tailored O’Connell offense.

“What you normally see with our history of kind of coaching the position, is a confidence that starts to develop, and then one rep can have an equal effect on the next 10,” O’Connell continued.

“And it’s a layered learning approach of how you build confidence, build confidence, build confidence, and then try to maintain confidence throughout the adversity of playing what I believe the hardest position in all of sports happens to be is the quarterback position.”

Darnold’s impact earned him a three-year, $100.5m contract with the Seattle Seahawks as O’Connell instead turned his attentions towards McCarthy’s first campaign as starter.

Injury to the former Michigan man has, meanwhile, introduced yet another test of his quarterback in the form of Carson Wentz, who recently extended his NFL record of making at least one start for six teams in a six-year period.

“So let’s get really granular in our detail of how we coach but not in a way where we’re coaching robots out there either,” said O’Connell. “It’s this balance of understanding each player as his own player and how do we fix the things that need to be fixed, but at the same time how do we maximise the things they do really well?

“They wouldn’t be at this level if they weren’t really talented players, and they’ve got to know that too, and I think that’s the last side of it is the communication from me as the head coach.”

‘Mixed’ would be the word to typically describe McCarthy’s start, which saw him throw two touchdowns in a comeback win over the Chicago Bears before tossing a pair of interceptions in a tough loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Wentz then flourished with two touchdown passes in a 48-10 win over the Bengals before throwing two picks in the face of a rampant Pittsburgh Steelers defense in Dublin. The Vikings still have questions at quarterback, but O’Connell offers as much faith that answers will be found as any coach in the league.

“I do believe our system allows these guys to then take all of those little things with them and hopefully throw them in the pot and come out the other side with something they can feel really good about,” he said.

The Justin Jefferson effect

Having the NFL’s best wide receiver on tap helps. Justin Jefferson is every and any quarterback’s best friend, from the ease at which he buys separation to the suction hands with which he makes magic at all levels of the field.

He has reeled off five straight 1,000-yard campaigns since being drafted in 2020, his 7,758 receiving yards in that period more than any other player in the league.

“That definitely helps, man,” laughs O’Connell. “I think what makes Justin so, so different is he’s got all of the unique one-on-one kind of physical skill sets, right? He’s got some length. He’s got some twitch and his change of direction, his ability to run routes and be totally underneath himself at all times, the explosive cuts, but yet never outside the frame of his body so that he’s always in control but forcing defenses to be out of control by how he plays the game.

“And then he’s so competitive. And the most fun I’ve had probably in coaching has been these three years going on four now with Justin and kind of taking that next step with him.

“He came into this league impacting from day one, but he wasn’t always the number one circle player on the board. From basically 2022 on, I imagine everybody we play is saying, first and foremost, we got to stop 18 and we got to have a plan to stop 18. This is how we’re going to do it.”

O’Connell jokes the Vikings by now have seen every shape, disguise and model of coverage possible sent their way in a bid to blunt Jefferson’s influence. Few have worked.

Whether it be Kirk Cousins, Darnold, Wentz or McCarthy, whenever a Vikings quarterback has looked up from the snap in recent years, No 18 has usually been available.

“We’ve learned just tricks and tools and ways of not allowing that to happen always because when Justin Jefferson touches the ball, good things happen for the Minnesota Vikings.”

‘Organised chaos’

The Vikings have unearthed coveted direction as a franchise behind the mind of O’Connell and the shrewd recruitment of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, reaching the playoffs in two of their three seasons together so far.

O’Connell, meanwhile, heads up one of the league’s most impressive coaching staff, including star defensive coordinator Brian Flores as he coasts towards a return to a top job in the NFL.

“Flo has been such a shot of life into our organisation because when I went into the process of finding a new defensive coordinator, and Flo was at the very top of the list, my goal was to try to find somebody who matched me in a lot of ways from a communication standpoint, but most importantly, a competitive standpoint and a systems thinking standpoint,” said O’Connell.

“If you think about our offense, you think about an offense that tries to do certain principles at a very high level to set up the things that will inevitably cause things to be difficult for the defense. Our defense is the same way.

“We want to have our base way of doing things, give ownership of the players, give them the tools, but then it’s the attacking style that allows our guys to get to whatever coverage or defense or pressure they feel like week in and week out is the right thing to do. We give them the tools to trigger those things.”

Flores has been renowned for maintaining one of the highest blitz rates across the league while inciting an aggressive style of football designed to throttle modern offensive schemes. He mixes it in with simulated pressures, rotating coverages both pre- and post-snap and funky alignments that test a quarterback’s ability to decipher and diagnose the field like few others in the league.

“Flo allows those guys to have a bunch of ownership, but Brian Flores is one of the best teachers in our game,” said O’Connell.

“The players seem to always be able to embrace and absorb the game plan. And then, man, I always tell him because he’ll ask me in some moments in games on some calls, ‘hey, KO, what do you think?’ and I tell him, you got to be careful, man, because I’m always going to send it, send them forward, send everybody.

“I tell him sometimes, just go with your gut, because if you ask me, you know what my answer is going to be.

“Chaos is a great word. We want it to be chaos, but it’s organised chaos for us.”

O’Connell, Flores, Jefferson and organised chaos return to London this week when the Vikings face the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, live on Sky Sports NFL.

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