The Good

Wide receiver Justin Jefferson has quickly become one of the best receivers in the NFL. The former LSU Tiger has taken the league by storm and is on pace for a record-breaking career. Jefferson was close to breaking the single-season receiving yards record last year when he racked up 1,809 yards. This season I expect Jefferson to in fact break that record with 2,015 receiving yards. The addition of rookie Jordan Addison will help open up space for Jefferson and allow him to do more damage.

Beyond adding Addison the Vikings also invested in the tight end position by trading for T.J. Hockenson last year. Hockenson wasted no time making his mark on the Vikings offense as he hauled in 9 receptions in his Minnesota debut. He also reset the tight end market with a record-setting 4-year $66 million contract extension that he signed last week. It shows that the Vikings are invested in him long term and rightfully so. Hockenson has quickly become a top 5 tight end in the NFL.

The Bad

For as good as the Vikings offense was last year the defense was the exact opposite. The defense struggled all year long and it eventually led to the firing of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell. The Vikings will now look to former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores to rebuild the unit. Flores has a track record of getting the most from his defenses but Vikings fans should be patient. While I expect improvement in 2023, it’s going to take a couple of years for this defense to be formidable again.

The Prediction

Looking ahead to next season I expect some regression for this Vikings team. The offense will once again be explosive but the Vikings had several wins last year that could’ve gone either way. Sill Minnesota will battle for a wild-card berth and could make some noise once the playoffs start.

2023 Record: 10-7 (2nd in the Division)

The post Minnesota Vikings Record Prediction for 2023 appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Jeremy Trottier

This NFL season has most definitely been a memorable one, to say the least, with some of the best teams completely underperforming, and some of those we thought would be the worst at the top of their game.  The primary reason some of these teams with lower-tier rosters have been able to get to the top of their division or near to it has been their head coaches.  Head coaching is a huge deal at this level of play, hence why the NFL hands out a Coach of the Year award every season.  In this article, I will be detailing the top 5 candidates for this award so far this season and briefly describe why they deserve this award. 

#1 ”“ Nick Sirianni ”“ Philadelphia Eagles

As of right now, it should be a no-brainer who the leading candidate is for Coach of the Year, as winning is a huge factor in this award, and Nick Sirianni of the Philadelphia Eagles is currently 8-0 as of the writing of this article.  After building this roster with young talents through the draft and flashy trades, Sirianni and GM Howie Roseman have brought the Eagles back to a winning culture, which is due to coaching just as much as the players.  Jalen Hurts has been developed into a very quality starting QB in this league under Sirianni,  which has propelled the Eagles from a middle-ranking team to the top of their conference and the only remaining undefeated team for now. 

#2 ”“ Robert Saleh ”“ New York Jets

Second place is tough, as there are a lot of underwhelming rosters outperforming their skill due to great coaching, but the New York Jets have been able to do it against premier teams in the NFL, which is what I took into consideration here.  Just last week the Jets took on the Buffalo Bills, who are one of the if not the most well-rounded roster in the NFL, and beat them 20-17 on the back of a phenomenal defensive performance.  Know who was responsible?  Head coach Robert Saleh has found his footing in his second season as the Jets head coach and led them to a 6-3 record as of the writing of this article. 

#3 ”“ Kevin O’Connell ”“ Minnesota Vikings

Next up we have a rookie head coach and one of the youngest head coaches in the league, Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings.  While they may have some of the top premier talents in the league, such as Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook, they have also been coached up to a 7-1 record after struggling with a very similar roster last season under Mike Zimmer.  While their schedule has been slightly weak to start off the season, they have also performed well enough on the field to warrant this record, and seem to be a shoo-in as NFC North division winners this season as long as they do not fold under the pressure down the stretch.

#4 ”“ Brian Daboll ”“ New York Giants

It feels almost wrong putting Daboll so low on this list, but that just goes to show how great the head coaches have been this season.  Another rookie head coach, Daboll has led the New York Giants, one of the lesser rosters in the NFL entering the season, to a 6-2 record, and straight into the dogfight for the NFC East division title.  The giants have had 3 statement wins so far this season, against the Tennessee Titans (21-20), the Baltimore Ravens (24-20), and the Green Bay Packers (27-22).  Overall, Daboll has done a great job utilizing the run game with Saquon Barkley correctly and has turned this franchise back into its winning ways in only half a season.

#5 ”“ Mike McDaniel ”“ Miami Dolphins

Another AFC East head coach coming from the San Francisco 49ers previously would be Mike McDaniel, who has been able to handle the turmoil of losing Tua Tagovailoa mid-season relatively well and has coached this offense into something teams fear now.  Just 3-4 years ago this team was at the bottom of the league scraping up losses to try and tank for Tua, and now they sit only a half-game back of the AFC East title and are doing everything in their power to take this division away from the Jets, Bills, and Patriots.  McDaniel has the assets to work with, hence why he is lower on this list slightly but is absolutely deserving of this award if he can keep this team on track going the distance. 

The post Top 5 candidates for Coach of the Year so far this season appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brock Wells

Kevin O’Connell has the Minnesota Vikings in first place in the NFC North with a record of 5-1 thus far in the 2022 season. In a division that has belonged to the Green Bay Packers for the last several seasons, the Vikings have shown themselves to be the better of the teams this year. With the always dependable Kirk Cousins at quarterback, the incredible Justin Jefferson at wide receiver, and the veteran Vikings Adam Thielen and Harrison Smith, this team is primed to make a serious run to the postseason.

This is all the more impressive when you consider the issue the Vikings have had the past couple of seasons with clashes between coaches and players. It’s no secret that Cousins had plenty of problems with former coach Mike Zimmer, and that that reverberated throughout the rest of the locker room. With a similar looking roster to this year’s Vikings, the team went just 8-9 last season and missed the playoffs. O’Connell has this team feeling good about themselves, and his ability to connect to players who aren’t too much younger than he is makes up some of the reason.

O’Connell is just 37. He’s able to connect with this generation of players easily. Sometimes that’s what this comes down to for rosters. The ’22 Vikings know they can win, and currently have the largest lead of any division leader in the NFL. With as poorly as the Packers and the Lions are playing, there’s no reason to think they’ll be any threat to them. As for the Bears, they do look better than they have in recent memory, but they’re nowhere near the Vikings at this point.

Essentially, O’Connell has the picture-perfect opportunity to win NFL Coach of the Year because of this divisional makeup. That being said, it isn’t going to be easy for them outside the division going forward. In the coming weeks, the Vikings have games against the Bills, Cowboys, Jets, and Giants. If they can even go .500 in these games, it’ll be more than enough for them to shore up their hold on a playoff berth. But there’s more than just holding on for this team and all of its offensive talent.

O’Connell could win Coach of the Year even with the Philadelphia Eagles playing the way they are because of the size of the step made by the Vikings. Yes, the Eagles are the better of the two teams right now, but the Eagles were also a playoff team last season. There’ll be a lot of support for Nick Sirianni for this award, but O’Connell has arguably the clearest cut chance to win it if the Vikings continue to dominant their division on their path to playoffs the way they’ve done so thus far.

The post Why Kevin O’Connell can win COTY appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Jake Rajala

The Minnesota Vikings cut ties with Mike Zimmer in 2022 after eight seasons of being led by the Bill Parcells disciple. Sure, it felt like yesterday Zimmer brought the team to the playoffs and miracles were being displayed in the playoff dance. Nonetheless, the products and services were getting stale in the Zimmer regime. It was clearly time for a change of scenery at the Minnesota Vikings head coaching position in 2022.

The Vikings didn’t hesitate to transition from an old sage, defensive guru, to an intuitive, young offensive coach. On February 16th, the Vikings officially hire the 2021 Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator, Kevin O’Connell. The new sheriff in town will look to improve the 33-year-old Kirk Cousins and bring a boost to the Vikings offense yielding Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook, and Cousins.

Cousins wasn’t actually a slouch in 2021, as he recorded 33 passing touchdowns (second-most in his career). Justin Jefferson was also on fire with 1,616 yards and 10 touchdowns (both career-high marks). Although, Cook could benefit from more creative play calling and a play-caller that can help him get in the end zone more. Cook recorded 13 rushing touchdowns in 2019, 16 rushing TDs in 2020, but only managed to run angry for six scores in 2021.

With that said, who exactly is the young, hyped-up new Vikings head coach? Well, I will highlight a few polarizing facts about the new face in Minny.

• Kevin O’Connell was a special offensive coordinator for LA in 2021

This might be an easy icebreaker, but I will untwine how magical the 36-year-old, former OC was last season. The Rams offense was ranked fifth in passing YPG and second in passing touchdowns in 2021. The Rams QB Matthew Stafford matched his single-season career-high passing touchdowns with 41 touchdowns thrown. The former Lions QB also threw for a career-high passer rating of 102.9 in a 16+ game season.

Although, Stafford did have a major issue in 2021: interceptions. The Rams QB threw for 17 interceptions, which was the most he’s thrown in a season since 2013. O’Connell can’t let his new QB throw an interception count that is near that number, especially given Cousins’s somewhat conservative style of play.

The Rams top WR Cooper Kupp would receive 191 targets, 145 receptions, 1,947 yards, haul in 16 touchdowns, and go on to win Offensive Player of The Year and Super Bowl MVP last season. The highly touted Justin Jefferson clearly needs to have lots of questions for O’Connell early on.

• O’Connell was an NFL quarterback

The Vikings new head coach follows a path that many other former head coaches have followed. He’s a former NFL QB turned NFL head coach. O’Connell was drafted by the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick in the third round of the 2008 draft. He was a supreme dual-threat QB in college and that helped earn attention in the draft process.

He was waived by the Pats in the 2009 preseason and scooped up by the Detroit Lions a month later. The former third-rounder would bounce around the league for a few more years. He never started an NFL game or made a name for himself in the playing ranks. It clearly didn’t stop him from driving to be a successful coach. The future Hall of Fame coach Sean Payton was once an NFL quarterback. It’s okay to wish that he could go down the same road that Payton went on. The Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, was once a mediocre NFL QB, as well.

• O’Connell is the 10th head coach in franchise history

O’Connell follows in the footsteps of many coaching legends in Vikings history. There’s the biggest Vikings coaching legend Bud Grant. Grant won three NFC Championships and was named coach of the year in 1969. Then along came a Vikings coaching legend in Dennis Green, who won four NFC Central titles. In the 2000s, Brad Childress and Mike Zimmer combined to win four NFC North titles. They weren’t superstar coaches, but they can be reflected as quality leaders in the grand scheme of things.

The Vikings will hope that O’Connell brings success that lies in between the wins that Grant and Zimmer captured realistically. Perhaps, O’Connell can really bring over the same magic that his mentor Sean McVay head. I guess time will tell.

The post Kevin O’Connell is the Minnesota Vikings new head coach: 3 things to know about O’Connell appeared first on Pro Football Mania.