Do you, Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell, want to sign an extension to remain in Minnesota?
“I do,” O’Connell said Thursday, per The Athletic.
And do you, Vikings brass, want to keep your current head coach in Minnesota beyond 2025, the fourth and final year of his contract?
They do … probably.
5 Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell fields questions from the media after losing in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs. AP
So says CBS NFL Insider Jonathan Jones, who wrote Thursday that, “The expectation league wide, for months, has been [that] the Vikings will extend [O’Connell] this offseason.”
That expectation runs in parallel to the one Jay Glazer reported on “Fox NFL Sunday” earlier in January — that multiple teams were thinking about trying to trade for O’Connell.
5 Minnesota Vikings owners, Mark Wilf and Zygi Wilf, stand on the field prior to the wild-card playoff game. Getty Images
Now, it appears that those teams may not get the chance.
Co-owner Mark Wilf told the Minnesota Star Tribune earlier in January he was “looking forward to a great future” with O’Connell, 39, and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who is also entering the final year of his contract in 2025.
According to the Star Tribune, the ownership group in Minnesota intended to open discussions about contract extensions for both the head coach and the general manager during the coming offseason.
5 Kevin O’Connell walks off the field after the Vikings’ season ends at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
And while the offseason may have come sooner than Wilf and company were expecting, that doesn’t seem to have significantly altered their lines of thinking.
After starting the season 5-0 and amassing 14 wins — the most for a Vikings team since 1998 — the 2024 campaign came to an abrupt and unceremonious end at the hands of Matthew Stafford and the Rams in the NFC wild-card round.
5 Los Angeles Rams defensive end Braden Fiske (55) celebrates his sack of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) during the playoff game on Monday. Joseph Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Nonetheless, O’Connell has already had “great dialogue” with ownership, The Athletic reported.
Despite the anticlimactic ending to 2024, there are plenty of reasons for optimism in Minnesota.
One wears No. 18 (Justin Jefferson) and, at only 25 years old, has all the makings to go down as one of the greatest receivers of all time.
5 Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson (18) signals a first down after a catch against the Los Angeles Rams during their playoff game at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 13, 2025, in Glendale. Joseph Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Another, once he’s done nursing his knee back to health, will wear No. 9 (J.J. McCarthy). Minnesotans hope for many years to come.
And in O’Connell, the first coach in franchise history with multiple 13-win seasons, the Vikings might already have the man to lead them both — to lead the entirety of the North Star State — to the promised land.
He’s 0-2 in the playoffs and has not yet hopped the wild-card hump, but hope springs eternal.
Kevin O’Connell hopes to remain in Minnesota long-term
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