Kevin O’Connell Grilled Over Vikings QB Questions and Draft Plans… at Church

Church football guy: “When you’re comparing Drake Maye and you can see JJ [McCarthy] operating in the Harbaugh system. He’s got really good feet, but then Drake Maye, the arm talent, and the throws and the anticipating windows… How do you sort of compare, you know, that even though [his footwork isn’t exactly how you need it to be] he could be, say, a Josh Allen or something?”

It was a great question, even if it wasn’t the best place deliver such a great football question. Nonetheless, when you ask great questions, sometimes, you get a great answer, especially when speaking with Kevin O’Connell.

And that’s what we got, as KOC opened the window a bit into his QB evaluation process. Unsurprisingly, O’Connell admits that he does struggle a bit with trying to find the best and most sure-fire QB option, instead of seeing how great a quarterback could be once he fixes a lot of their issues, especially with lower half mechanics.

Just football guys being football guys (at church)

Remember, as you read/listen to this part, that there is one QB in-particular (Drake Maye) who supposedly needs a lot more coaching up on his lower half mechanics and footwork than the other three quarterbacks who are pretty much considered locks in the top-5 of the draft.

“I think about the things that are fixable, think about the things that are coachable and then you think about the things that, you know, I you could coach another 15 years with a player and you might not be able to fix. Hope and faith are wonderful things, but I do like them to not necessarily be strategies [in football evaluations]. So I do very much believe in certain principles of playing the quarterback position. I believe footwork and [mechanical issues] in the lower half of any quarterback can be fixed with the proper coaching and teaching.”

So then, KOC confirms what most of us already know. The Minnesota Vikings are probably going to trade up next week. After blurting out an often used football phrase about how “31 other teams have to be complicit” with your plans on draft night, a lot of times, in order to get the target player. But then he corrects himself and says, “well, we only need one team to be complicit”

Walk-off, right? The crowd cheers, etc? Nope, church football guy wasn’t done yet. “you mean like the Patriots at No. 3? But again, instead of going Mike Zimmer on the bit… KOC gives the guy (and the rest of us) what he wants again.

KOC: “I think that when you see the good things on tape, you see things that they can do better on tape, 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 gotta hope that 31 other teams are complicit in making sure that they can be can become a Minnesota Viking… but we only need one team to be complicit and hopefully we’ll find that team…”

CFG: “Like the Patriots? Maybe you can work your Patriots connection at No.3?”

KOC: “You know, I may have sent a nice bouquet of flowers to Robert Craft the other day…”

If you want to dive into all 1 hour and 25 minutes of Kevin O’Connell at church, you can find the full video here.