With brash Kyler Murray plan, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is doubling down on himself

He is one of the world’s foremost Quarterback Whisperers, a man credited with spurring Sam Darnold’s stunning career turnaround and kick-starting Daniel Jones’ compelling revival.

On Thursday, Kevin O’Connell made a statement to the football world that was the opposite of a whisper. O’Connell, in essence, grabbed a microphone, cranked up the volume and channeled fellow Twin Cities icon Lizzo.

New man on the Minnesota Vikings. Truth hurts, needed something more exciting …

Welcome to the North Star State, Kyler Murray.

As O’Connell heads into his fifth season as the Vikings’ coach, he’s doubling down on his reputational superpower. A former San Diego State quarterback who had a brief career as an NFL backup, O’Connell has demonstrated an aptitude for getting the most out of players at the sport’s most important position, from Matthew Stafford (as a coordinator) to Kirk Cousins to Darnold.

Now, he’s moving on to Murray, an elite talent just released Wednesday by the Arizona Cardinals, the team that drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2019.

It wasn’t a dip of the toe into the free-agency pool.

This was O’Connell, in a skin-tight Speedo, doing a double-flip off the high dive.

O’Connell and the Vikings could have been more conservative. They could have tried harder to trade for San Francisco 49ers backup Mac Jones or swing a deal for former New Orleans Saints (and longtime Las Vegas Raiders) starter Derek Carr. They could have targeted a stopgap veteran like Geno Smith (who was traded to the Jets Tuesday) or Joe Flacco. Or they could have initiated a schmaltzy reunion with Cousins, who’ll turn 38 this summer.

Instead, O’Connell will roll with Murray, who’s nine years younger than Cousins and possesses a far more dynamic skill set.

In doing so, O’Connell will demonstrate vulnerability by essentially admitting a failure. Despite a dramatic debut last September, J.J. McCarthy, the 10th selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, clearly isn’t regarded (by O’Connell or anyone else) as the Vikings’ long-term answer at quarterback.

Some of that blame fell on Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was fired in January after four years as Minnesota’s general manager. Yet it’s also apparent O’Connell wasn’t able to develop McCarthy into the player the organization hoped he’d become. And that misfire accentuated a run of regrettable choices — including passing on four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers last spring — that created the mess the Vikings are trying to clean up by signing Murray.

As much as O’Connell may have winced watching Darnold help the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl LX victory last month — given that the QB was essentially gifted to the eventual champions the previous March — getting drowned by regret is not a winning strategy.

Reviving a motivated Murray, who’s reeling from a midseason benching that ended his six-and-a-half-year stint as the Cardinals’ starter, absolutely could be.

For O’Connell, who remains the most powerful presence in the Vikings’ universe, it better be.

The Vikings are expected to hire a new GM after the draft, but this is very much O’Connell’s show — and it will either be a “Hamilton”-level Broadway smash or a flop akin to Elton John’s “Tammy Faye.”

O’Connell could have chosen a safer option with a higher floor and lower ceiling, but he locked in on the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner who’s so athletically adept that he went ninth in the 2018 MLB Draft. Murray doesn’t have the height most NFL teams desire when choosing a QB (he’s listed at 5-10), but he’s fast and elusive and has an amazing arm.

Remember the Hail Murray? How many humans could even dream about making that throw?

Murray had two Pro Bowl seasons with the Cardinals, but he only went to the playoffs once, and it did not go well. O’Connell, who’s 43-25 in the regular season but 0-2 in the postseason, has a similar stigma to erase.

Together, perhaps, they can blow up those narratives and strive to create a Sean Payton/Drew Brees-type vibe.

Undoubtedly, that is what O’Connell envisions. Signing Murray is a move born of arrogance, and I say that lovingly. As someone who approaches his own craft with, shall we say, a heightened sense of self, I have a soft spot for driven people who take big swings rooted in an immense faith in their own capacities.

Like O’Connell, I can also relate to experiencing extreme disappointment and swallowing the accompanying fallout. Murray, too, has been humbled, and that should work to the Vikings’ advantage.

He has absorbed a healthy share of scrutiny and criticism, some of it self-inflicted. In a 2021 New York Times profile, Murray leaned into his reputation for not being a grinder, saying, “I think I was blessed with the cognitive skills to just go out there and just see it before it happens. I’m not one of those guys that’s going to sit there and kill myself watching film. I don’t sit there for 24 hours and break down this team and that team and watch every game because, in my head, I see so much.”

The next spring, Murray engaged in a messy contract fight that ended up further damaging his reputation, unless the goal was to impress fellow video-game aficionados. Murray’s five-year, $230.5 million contract included an “independent study addendum” requiring him to review four hours of game film per week on his own time.

The Cardinals later removed the clause in the face of public backlash, but they’d obviously put it in there for a reason, and the damage was done. As one Arizona veteran told me the following January, near the end of a miserable 4-13 season, “It was like they created a monster.” Once paid, the veteran said, Murray felt less pressure to study or behave like a typical franchise quarterback, and the disastrous campaign that followed felt predictable.

It’s tough to predict exactly how Murray’s second act will play out, but to me, it feels promising. Two motivated men, a coach and a quarterback, have joined forces to try to bring out the best in one another and prove their worth.

O’Connell will push Murray to deconstruct his game and work hard to perfect his craft. I believe the quarterback, who’ll turn 29 during training camp, will channel his competitive spirit and respond positively.

If this goes the way the Quarterback Whisperer thinks it will, both he and Murray will be made men in Minnesota — and throughout the football world.

So yes, by going for it, O’Connell is making a statement. Don’t be shocked if he ends up making one hell of a mic drop.