One analyst's recent ranking of the top ten head coaches in the NFL doesn't include the reigning coach of the year in the league.
Dalton Wasserman of Pro Football Focus put together his top 10 returning head coaches and the Vikings' Kevin O'Connell, despite his success over the last three seasons, didn't make the cut. That means he views O'Connell as the 11th-best head coach in the NFL, or worse, out of the 25 men who have held that role since at least the 2024 season. The seven newly-hired coaches were not considered.
It's one person's opinion, but that feels like a fairly notable snub. O'Connell is 34-17 in the regular season, which is a .667 winning percentage that trails only Andy Reid, Nick Sirianni, and Matt LaFleur among head coaches with more than one season under their belt. The argument isn't that O'Connell's winning percentage alone should get him ranked over coaches like Sean McVay or Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh — guys who have done it at a high level for a long time — but it feels there should probably be a spot for KOC somewhere in the 6-10 range.
Remember, O'Connell has won those 34 games with five different quarterbacks starting at least one game: Kirk Cousins, Jaren Hall, Josh Dobbs, Nick Mullens, and Sam Darnold. He won 13 games with Cousins in 2022, stuck around in the playoff race for a while after Cousins' season-ending injury in 2023, and then won 14 games last season with Darnold, a QB written off as a bust by the national public. Last year's coaching job earned O'Connell the AP coach of the year award, making him the first Vikings coach to win it since Bud Grant in 1969. He hasn't won a playoff game yet, which matters, but to make it there in two of his first three years is an encouraging start.
I'd place O'Connell over both Dan Campbell and Kevin Stefanski, if not multiple other coaches on Wasserman's list. Do we know if Campbell can sustain success without Ben Johnson by his side? Stefanski does have two coach of the year awards, but he also has a 40-44 overall record.
The Vikings signed O'Connell to a lucrative five-year contract extension this offseason. They believe he's the coach who will lead their franchise to its first-ever Super Bowl win.
