Shift into high gear and put the petal to the medal. That’s the word from right tackle Brian O’Neill, an excellent player and well-respected veteran inside TCO Performance Center.
The lineman met with the Minnesota media earlier in the week. Asked about the offense’s upcoming strategy with the additions at running back (re-signing Aaron Jones, trading for Jordan Mason), O’Neill didn’t get into whether the approach should be to run or pass. Instead, it’s about committing to game-winning aggression.
“I want to score 35 points and win every game,” O’Neill explains. “So, like, at this point I don’t really care. Not to be a short answer, but I want to win. And however that happens, I’m good with.”
O’Neill further clarifies his stance: “Whatever we need to do to score 1 more point than the other team, at this point, if that’s throwing it 75 times, if that’s running it 75 times, like let’s go […] we gotta make something shake here.”
So, if Kevin O’Connell is listening, the point is pretty straightforward: pull any lever needed to push the points to the maximum in an effort to win, win some more, and then keep the winning going.
Brian O’Neill: Time to Go Full Tilt
Establishing Mr. O’Neill’s NFL credentials isn’t too difficult.
Picked at No. 62 back in the 2018 NFL Draft, Brian O’Neill has spent his entire career with the Vikings after being chosen as an athletic offensive tackle with upside. For whatever it’s worth, the man looks like an NFL offensive tackle, standing at 6’7″ and weighing 310 pounds. He has been in the NFL for seven seasons, playing in 110 games while snagging 106 starts along the way.
Signed to a five-year extension after his rookie deal for $92.5 million, O’Neill has earned his contract. He has been offering high-level play across the years, which gets reflected in the PFF grades (merely one spot to evaluate O’Neill’s play).
In 2024, O’Neill earned an 80.8 grade. The number puts O’Neill at 12th among the 140 qualifying tackles, a pretty accurate reflection of where he stands among the NFL’s offensive tackles. Sure, one could convincingly argue that Penei Sewell and/or Lane Johnson are better (among some others, perhaps), but Brian O’Neill isn’t too far behind. Genuinely, he’s one of the NFL’s better OTs.
In the quotation above, Brian O’Neill conveys a sense of urgency when it comes to winning. The final thought — “gotta make something shake here” — speaks to the veteran’s desire to finally experience meaningful team success.
So far, O’Neill has played in just a trio of playoff games in his career (missing the 2022 Giants contest). There has been a single, lonely win in that time…following the 2019 season. The right tackle wants his offense to get to a point where they’re dropping a weekly 35 points, the kind of lofty goal that speaks to not just urgency but an ambitious outlook about what the team is capable of doing.
The great takeaway from O’Neill is to simply do +1 math. Every week, the Vikings need to find a way to climb up to scoring a single point more than the opponent. If so, then the 2025 Vikings will be a tremendous success, even if they fail in that objective on a few occasions.
And, of course, there’s the great opportunity that exists after the regular season: continuing to outscore opponents throughout the playoffs. Doing so all the way to a Lombardi would make Brian O’Neill a very happy man.
