Kevin O'Connell's Reputation As A 'Quarterback Killer' Should Mean Great Things For J.J. McCarthy

Picture, if you will, a Halloween scene:

Somewhere in the Smoky Mountains, Will Levis and Anthony Richardson were enjoying a campfire. The two quarterbacks had plenty of s’mores, mayonnaise, and good times. However, things turned dark when Levis asked Richardson if he wanted to hear a story.

After initially pointing his flashlight in the wrong direction, Levis told Richardson about a man they called “The Quarterback Killer.” He stood 6’5” and was as intense as could be. He put on a gentle face in public. However, behind the scenes, he made Michael Myers look like Big Bird.

“He even has a ‘red pen’ day," Levis said, wide-eyed, "where he slashes all the plays he doesn’t like.”

Richardson was scared. What kind of man could do all of this?

Then came a rustling through the trees. Through the bushes stood the Quarterback Killer himself, with a game ball in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.

Okay, so Kevin O'Connell isn’t that menacing. He probably wouldn’t re-create the fat cat episode Mike Zimmer had the last time the Vikings were 5-0. But a few months ago, O’Connell sat in the middle of a church and dubbed himself “The Quarterback Killer” due to his high standards for his quarterback of the future.

In his third season in Minnesota, O’Connell has dodged the horror stories that come with selecting a quarterback. The way things have turned out suggests it means great things for J.J. McCarthy, his chosen quarterback.

O’Connell’s hiring was considered a refresh for the franchise. Zimmer had struggled to connect with Kirk Cousins, and the Vikings wanted to find someone who could get the most out of Kirk. O’Connell’s previous stint with Cousins in Washington helped; after a brief adjustment period, Cousins looked the part of a franchise quarterback. He tied an NFL record with eight comeback victories in O’Connell’s first season in 2022.

Cousins played even better the following season. However, his age, contract status, and eventually a torn Achilles forced the Vikings into the deep waters of drafting a successor. To most fans, this had the suspense of swimming on Amity Island. What if the Vikings draft the next Christian Ponder? But that’s where O’Connell comes crashing in like Jason Voorhees unexpectedly, saving a group of teenagers from Freddy Krueger.

“For a couple of years, I’ve, you know, I’ve been known as ‘The Quarterback Killer’ when it comes to the draft in Eagan, because the feeling that everybody that I feel from our fan base is when we get this next guy, he’s gonna be the guy,” O’Connell said in April. “And I feel it. I know you guys all feel it. So I have had to in a lot of ways fight off some mistakes from being made, mainly because the evaluation process I go through, I think about the things that are fixable.”

However, there was a lot of slashing during the first two drafts. O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had their first draft in 2022. While that class has proven disastrous, it may have been even worse had the Vikings taken a quarterback.

The Pittsburgh Steelers took Kenny Pickett 20th overall in the first round, and two years later, he's backing up Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia. The New England Patriots took Bailey Zappe in the fourth round, and he's a third-string quarterback with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Malik Willis picked up a pair of wins for the Green Bay Packers this year. However, it was because Matt LeFleur wisely leaned on a running game led by Josh Jacobs.

Desmond Ridder, Matt Corral, and Chris Oladokun were all blips on the radar. The one quarterback in the class O’Connell liked was Brock Purdy, who the San Francisco 49ers wisely selected with the draft's final pick.

The following year, Brett Kollmann reported that the Vikings tried to trade up for Richardson. Built like a Daunte Culpepper clone, Richardson stood 6’4” and weighed 244 lbs. He has a cannon for an arm, but accuracy issues and a lack of experience swayed some away from drafting him.

O’Connell aggressively declines some projects. However, he’s willing to take on others, as he mentioned in the second half of his “Quarterback Killer” comments.

“I think about the things that are coachable and then you think about the things that you could coach another 15 years with the player, and you might not be able to fix. And hope and faith are wonderful things,” O’Connell said. “I do like them to not necessarily be strategies. So, I do very much believe in certain principles of playing the quarterback position. ... And I think that when you see the good things on tape, you see things that they can do better on tape.”

Richardson’s injury history is one reason he fell short of expectations after the Indianapolis Colts took him fourth overall in 2023. Conversely, Levis’s performance and inability to correct it may have been another red flag.

Coming out of Kentucky, Levis had many qualities that O’Connell sought, such as a big arm and experience in a Sean McVay-style offense under Liam Cohen. Many saw Levis’s dietary habits as a red flag in the draft, but that wasn’t as big a factor as his decision-making.

Through six games of his first full season as a starter, Levis has been a walking meme machine, frustrating his coach and taking out ball boys on the sideline.

O’Connell gave the green light to draft Jaren Hall out of BYU in the fifth round of that draft. However, he was never considered a true franchise prospect. When the Vikings limped toward the finish line, the pressure was on. They were reportedly interested in trading up for Drake Maye.

With everything that O’Connell wanted, Maye felt like a perfect fit. However, like Minnesota’s quest for Richardson, they ran into their slasher in a team that didn’t want to make a deal.

“You’re looking for a lot of different things and to check a lot of boxes, and ultimately when you feel like you find that guy, then you’ve got to hope that 31 other teams are complicit in making sure that they can become a Minnesota Viking, he said. "But we only need one team to be complicit, and hopefully, we find that team, and that person’s on it.”

The New England Patriots were not complicit, selecting Maye with the third-overall pick. But O’Connell found a willing accomplice on the back end of the top 10 when they traded up with the New York Jets to take McCarthy.

Like Richardson, McCarthy had questions about his experience after playing in Jim Harbaugh’s run-first (and -second and -third) offense at Michigan. But like O’Connell said, McCarthy’s deficiencies may be coachable, a common trait the Vikings have looked for in their next quarterback.

For example, many were appalled when the Vikings signed Sam Darnold to a one-year, $10 million contract hours after Cousins left for the Atlanta Falcons. However, after the first five games, he’s been one of the top quarterbacks in the league.

By limiting his deficiencies, O’Connell has taken Darnold, who was close to journeyman status entering the year, and increased his value to the point that Spotrac estimates he could command a four-year, $126.8 million contract when he hits free agency next spring.

To further O’Connell’s point, if he can do this for Darnold in five games, what can he do for McCarthy in 15 years?

That’s where O’Connell goes from quarterback killer to quarterback guru. While it may have meant bad things for those who didn’t end up in Minnesota, it could mean great things for the ones who did. That should leave Vikings fans optimistic that they finally found their franchise quarterback.