EAGAN, Minn. — In his first workforce assembly as coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O’Connell did what coaches sometimes do: He turned on the movie. It was the spring of 2022, and O’Connell wished everybody — gamers, assistant coaches and workers members — to know what he considered the beginning quarterback he had inherited.
He selected a play from the Vikings’ 2021 recreation on the Los Angeles Chargers, the place Kirk Cousins stood in towards a fierce move rush to fireplace a downfield strike to large receiver Justin Jefferson. After displaying it on the large display, O’Connell paused the video.
“I keep in mind him saying to everybody in that room that it takes a particular capability to take a seat right here, stare down the barrel, get hit within the face and throw with accuracy,” Cousins mentioned. “He was empowering me in entrance of the entire workforce. That was sort of a humorous second the place I used to be sitting there like, ‘Wow. He is sort of simply complimenting me and inspiring me.’ That was cool. He was doing it for a couple of different guys too. He did not simply single me out. However these sorts of moments simply empower you as an individual and a participant.
“You are feeling like he isn’t simply constructing a soccer workforce. He is constructing folks.”
That second helped spark a coach-quarterback relationship that lies central to the Vikings’ 13-win season. Using the sunny character that Vikings homeowners Zygi and Mark Wilf wanted firing former coach Mike Zimmer final yr after eight seasons, O’Connell — a former NFL quarterback himself — has conjured the weirdest however best season of Cousins’ 11-year profession with Minnesota and Washington.
O’Connell has trusted Cousins to throw as many passes per recreation as he ever has (37.9) in his seven seasons as a full-time starter. Cousins completed, nevertheless, with a few of his worst numbers, together with a career-high 14 interceptions and a career-low 49.9 complete quarterback score.
However Cousins excelled late in video games, engineering eight fourth-quarter comebacks and a complete of 11 one-score wins (an NFL report), which fueled a playoff run that can start Sunday at U.S. Financial institution Stadium (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox). At O’Connell’s urging, Cousins focused Jefferson at a degree that yielded one of the crucial productive seasons ever for a receiver (1,809 receiving yards, sixth most in NFL historical past). Alongside the best way, Cousins felt liberated sufficient to disclose new ranges of his quirky personality, dad humor and dance moves in public.
“I wished Kirk to grasp what he was going to imply to us, not solely this yr however shifting ahead,” O’Connell mentioned of that movie clip from his first workforce assembly, “and what he had achieved on this league that will permit me to ensure that our complete locker room and training workers understood what I considered him at that time. And that was on Day 1.
“And each time I can have a chance in workforce conferences, after a recreation, a breakdown on the finish of observe, I do not ever need to miss out on a chance to permit Kirk to know that he is bought my belief, my religion in him as our chief and our quarterback.”
In separate interviews with ESPN, Cousins and O’Connell described the meticulous efforts they’ve taken to construct, preserve and improve a relationship that started in 2017, when O’Connell was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach with Washington.
Cousins has anxious a lot about O’Connell’s schedule as an offensive play-caller, first-time head coach, husband and father to 4 youngsters — together with a daughter who was born in November — that he has waited to be invited into one-on-one movie research. Ever the dad himself, Cousins mentioned: “He wants a nap when the season is over.”
O’Connell, in the meantime, has wrapped Cousins in a gentle stream of compliments, demonstrating what Cousins referred to as a “heat, relational, affirming” character. Considered one of O’Connell’s fears, it appears, is hurling an unintended insult.
Throughout a current outside observe, for instance, O’Connell felt compelled to inform Cousins he was throwing the ball nicely. After the following play, in line with Cousins, O’Connell added: “I did not imply to say it like you do not usually throw it nicely, however simply because it is further chilly as we speak.”
The impact, whether or not it intentional or coincidental, has been to equip Cousins higher for twists and turns late in shut video games.
“It simply looks like issues needed to go a sure method for him to function at a excessive degree,” mentioned former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber, now a Twin Cities media character who covers video games for KFAN-100.3 FM. “Then you definitely compound that with an old-school authoritarian method like [Zimmer’s] and you are taking a man that thinks in a linear vogue and also you make him tense. You go from being linear to being inflexible. Now taking a look at it with a contemporary method, that is possibly not the easiest way to deal with a character like that.
“It looks like Kevin O’Connell is somewhat like a tech entrepreneur who is available in with optimism and youth and the free spirit to say, ‘We will be aggressive, however we’ll allow you to play free.’ We will problem everyone to take pleasure in what you are doing and to take pleasure in taking dangers. You have got this man that is available in with the nice smile and this good character, however beneath all of these beauty layers is that this aggressive man that claims, ‘Let’s take dangers, and let’s do it in a fashion wherein I am not going to berate you and maintain you to the hearth on Monday morning once we’re watching movie and make you’re feeling unhealthy.”
THE EASY STORY would go one thing like this: Cousins and the Vikings’ offense have flourished below the coach with the pleasant, optimistic demeanor and offensive background after years of grinding below the grumpy, defense-first authoritarian.
Cousins, for one, does not assume it suits.
“It is only a lazy narrative,” he mentioned. “I am going to inform you this: I bought higher yearly as a participant below Coach Zim. I bought to go to 2 Professional Bowls below Coach Zim. I gained my solely playoff recreation below Coach Zim. And yearly I performed, I bought higher. … I really feel like Coach Zimmer gave me every part I wanted to achieve success, and his fashion actually meshed nicely with what I used to be used to after I performed at Michigan State and had a ton of success with Mark Dantonio.
“A defensive-minded head coach, very a lot about self-discipline, and was going to see it by means of a defensive coach’s eyes. I noticed how nicely that labored. I noticed how a lot we gained and, actually, how profitable I used to be capable of be at quarterback in that mindset. There have been numerous methods the place I believe it actually helped me.”
The Vikings have been 33-29-1 in video games wherein Cousins began below Zimmer, who was not obtainable for remark for this story.
Cousins himself acknowledges that, from a person standpoint, the 2022 season is much from his finest. He agrees his public persona has blossomed however attributes it to components apart from Zimmer’s departure.
The primary, he mentioned, is just how a lot the Vikings have gained. Cousins entered the season with a 58-59-2 report as an NFL starter. Their 13-4 report in 2022 represents his second double-digit season win complete in his profession.
The second was merely rising comfy with the place he match into the profile of an NFL quarterback.
“After I was taking part in early in my profession, my first yr right here, early years in Washington, I used to be nonetheless making an attempt to study who I’m within the league,” Cousins, a fourth-round draft decide in 2012, mentioned. “What am I able to? How do I play finest? What do I must succeed?
“However because the pattern measurement bought bigger and bigger and bigger, I used to be capable of fairly comfortably say, ‘Look, that is what I’m.’ I do know what I’m. I do know what I must do to organize, to win, to remain wholesome, to have success, and I need not reinvent the wheel or change something or repair something. I do know my recipe for fulfillment.”
Probably the most public manifestation of that consolation, after all, has been the emergence of “Kirko Chainz.” Starting with the transatlantic flight residence from London after beating the New Orleans Saints 28-25 in Week 4, teammates started inserting their chains round his neck throughout in-flight celebrations. Cousins understood and embraced the mild mocking that ensued. Ribbed for tucking his white T-shirt into his sweatpants one week, Cousins agreed to take off his shirt solely the following.
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Vikings QB Kirk Cousins joins Peyton and Eli Manning to debate how his viral postgame celebrations happened.
However those that have spent the season round him have observed many different new glimpses of his character in public. He has peppered his weekly information conferences with tales a few neighbor who plows his driveway in change for tickets. He plugged long-snapper Andrew DePaola‘s soon-to-open bagel store. He credited his spouse, Julie, for “dressing me” by inserting his game-day outfits, together with a Norseman-print sports activities coat in Week 15, on their mattress earlier than he leaves for the workforce lodge.
And he advised a protracted story about how he nicknamed left sort out Christian Darrisaw, one that exposed as a lot about Cousins because it did his younger teammate. It goes one thing like this:
Throughout a pregame warmup in 2021, Cousins observed a video board displaying a rotation of trivia about Vikings gamers. It famous that Darrisaw performed first base as a 10-year-old in youth baseball.
Cousins discovered the randomness of the nugget hysterical and started calling Darrisaw the “Crime Canine” — a reference to Baseball Corridor of Fame first baseman Fred McGriff. “, Crime Canine, ‘CD,’ similar initials,” Cousins mentioned by the use of rationalization to Darrisaw, who’s 23 and had no concept who McGriff is.
However Darrisaw was the primary Vikings participant to place a sequence round Cousins’ neck, a turning level within the improvement of a fierce line of protection and admiration Cousins has skilled from youthful gamers on the roster. Extra just lately, Jefferson defended Cousins from social media criticism and was nonetheless on edge when requested about it later.
“It is nearly the truth that folks do not present the quantity of labor that he is been placing in,” Jefferson mentioned. “All people needs to make jokes about him and stuff like that, at all times need to speak about him, however his numbers are displaying in a different way.”
Earlier than Minnesota’s Thanksgiving recreation towards the New England Patriots, wideout Adam Thielen pulled Cousins apart to provide him a pep speak. “You are a dang good soccer participant,” Thielen mentioned. After the Vikings’ 33-26 victory, Cousins revealed the anguish he had been placing himself by means of throughout an uneven statistical season and mentioned he was practically moved to tears by his teammates’ encouragement — the precise assist O’Connell had hoped to construct round him.
“He is such a process-driven man that typically it catches him,” O’Connell mentioned. “In both these workforce assembly moments or postgame and even within the recreation, it typically catches him the place he appears like, ‘Man, I really feel the assist and love of my teammates and coaches.’ Not that he did not ever really feel that earlier than, nevertheless it’s direct and genuine in a method that if he did not really feel it, I might be telling our guys, we have got to let him really feel it much more.”
THAT ASSESSMENT EPITOMIZES O’Connell, who speaks simply however not freely, measuring each phrase relative to the best way it is likely to be interpreted. In saying Cousins is cherished within the locker room, O’Connell makes clear he is not suggesting the quarterback wasn’t cherished earlier than. In telling Cousins he’s throwing nicely, the coach would by no means imply to indicate he hadn’t thrown the ball nicely beforehand.
And after returning to the locker room after video games, O’Connell places himself by means of an agonizing means of guaranteeing he doles out the suitable credit score throughout his postgame speech. Leber has seen the method play out on a weekly foundation as a part of the flagship radio workforce that conducts in-house interviews.
“It eats at him typically,” Leber mentioned. “He actually needs to ensure that he is giving out recreation balls to the necessary gamers in that recreation. You possibly can inform that he needs to ensure that the workforce hears and understands that these gamers’ efficiency was valued and validated. That appears actually necessary to him. It most likely comes from being a participant himself and the way uplifting it’s for a head coach or any coach to single you out when one thing’s good.”
In a number of of these speeches, O’Connell has advised gamers he loves them. Requested if O’Connell ever speaks negatively about them in entrance of the workforce, Cousins mentioned: “He does strive to not throw folks below the bus. I am going to put it that method. However this league will at all times let you recognize once you’re not assembly the usual.” In coaching camp, Thielen mentioned that O’Connell’s reticence to criticize gamers “nearly feels awkward.”
For Cousins, the frequency and authenticity of that message evoked “Season of Life,” a ebook monitoring former NFL star Joe Ehrmann as he coaches highschool soccer in Baltimore. Cousins learn it whereas at Michigan State and appreciated Ehrmann’s advocacy towards conventional phrases of masculinity — and for overt expressions of affection.
“Simply because we’re tough and difficult soccer gamers does not imply we won’t love one another,” Cousins mentioned. “In actual fact, it’d make you a greater soccer participant.”
The mixed mindset of Cousins and O’Connell has led, at instances, to a superpolite faucet dance to keep away from the mere risk of imposition. Ideally, Cousins famous, he would like to have a standing weekly assembly with the top coach and play-caller. “However I strive to not take up an excessive amount of of his time,” he mentioned, “realizing how demanding his job is.”
Their one-on-one interactions are normally extra casual, maybe a flurry of late-night textual content messages, fast telephone calls or five-minute FaceTimes.
“I by no means need to disrupt from his routine that he has had in place,” O’Connell mentioned of Cousins. “However he is simply so conscious of my time that I’ve to typically poke my head within the quarterback room, and say, ‘You and me, let’s go.'”
O’Connell calls these events “pink pen conferences,” as a result of the intent is to edit the sport plan and/or name sheet with Cousins’ preferences and recommendations based mostly on his personal movie research. It may take some time — an hour or extra, O’Connell mentioned — for them to make a considerable change.
“I rejoice that,” he mentioned. “Typically, I am going to must say, ‘We have to get one. Let’s discover one on right here.'”
It has all added as much as make Cousins, the participant with an inclination to tense up, one of many NFL’s prime late-game quarterbacks. He threw for the league’s second-most yards (1,339) and tied for essentially the most touchdowns (13) after the beginning of the fourth quarter and ranked No. 10 in uncooked QBR (58.6).
Teammates have observed the shift and respect its origin.
“This isn’t to take a shot at Zim,” cornerback Patrick Peterson mentioned. “Some gamers react totally different to that sort of authority. Kevin is only a complete reverse. He’s a man that likes to shed gentle. He is a man that likes to smile. Excessive power. I simply assume when you’ve gotten a man like that, it brings out the perfect not solely of your quarterback however your complete workforce.”
Some matches, it appears, could also be merely higher than others.