In the NFL, there’s nothing better than when the head coach is on the same page with the players inside his locker room. The Minnesota Vikings have a different dynamic between head coach Kevin O’Connell and wide receiver Justin Jefferson over the past three years.
O’Connell joined Jefferson in 2022 as the Vikings forged a new era after Mike Zimmer was fired following a disappointing season in 2021.
But while the following offseason was calm, both O’Connell and Jefferson have dealt with outrageous trade rumors that have gone on to be debunked hilariously.
Trade rumors about Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson and head coach Kevin O’Connell were much ado over nothing
It started last offseason when Jefferson was looking for a new contract with the Vikings. While many expected Jefferson to get a contract ahead of the 2023 season, it didn’t get done as Jefferson bet on himself to get more money.
The outside world didn’t realize this and instantly started all of Jefferson’s actions under a microscope. If he looked angry, it was because he wanted out of Minnesota. If he was happy, it was because he was playing out of the Vikings' price range. It led to an extremely long 2023 season and set the stage for even more rumors last offseason.
While the pending status of Kirk Cousins took most of the headlines, Jefferson’s contract situation was a close second. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio hinted that the Vikings tried to trade up for Malik Nabers during the 2024 NFL Draft so they could trade Jefferson and bad trade proposals flew everywhere as fans tried to get their hands on the superstar receiver.
Eventually, Jefferson agreed to a four-year, $140 million contract extension. But while Jefferson’s contract drama came to an end, O’Connell’s was just beginning.
O’Connell was entering the third year of a four-year contract in 2024 but many believed he had a case for a contract extension. When Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf told reporters that contract talks had not begun publicly or internally as of last August, everyone put it to rest…until Fox Sports’s Jay Glazer reported that teams looking for a new head coach were thinking about inquiring about O’Connell’s trade availability earlier this month.
If Glazer cracked the door open, Florio kicked it in, suggesting there was “tension” between O’Connell and the Vikings before their Week 18 matchup against the Detroit Lions. Florio seemingly doubled down on Monday, suggesting 11 different teams as potential trade partners for O’Connell hours before the Vikings agreed to a contract extension.
Glazer and Florio have sources that many could only dream of having and something had to have happened behind the scenes to get them to report this information. It’s also why both writers took to X to defend themselves shortly after O’Connell’s extension was announced on Tuesday.
But it’s also laughable considering these rumors seem to spark more with the Vikings than with any other fan base.
CeeDee Lamb was in a similar situation to Jefferson, entering the final year of his contract with the Dallas Cowboys this summer but neither Florio or Glazer had reports of trade rumors or “tension.” (Although Florio suggested that Micah Parsons to stay out of Lamb’s negotiations last August.)
Mike Tomlin also found himself in a similar situation as O’Connell this offseason with several teams considering trading for the Pittsburgh Steelers coach. But instead of going through potential “tension”, Florio wrote this on January 12.
“The problem with that approach is that coaches can’t be traded like players. The procedure goes like this. A team interested in hiring another team’s coach calls that coach and engages in negotiations on compensation if the team employing the coach has an interest in the deal.
After an agreement on terms is reached, the new team has permission to negotiate with the coach in an effort to reach a deal. If no deal is reached there is no trade.”
Maybe it’s because Florio is a Vikings fan and knows how easy it is to send this particular fan base into a full-blown panic. It could also be that a lot of the things Florio suggests are speculations that can’t be proven false or valid.
But in the end, the contract drama for Jefferson and O’Connell wound up being a lot of noise over nothing and it’s something that could make them laugh all the way to the bank.
