By Jim Souhan

Kevin O’Connell is the offensive-minded head coach of a team that is winning with defense and special teams. This could get awkward. We’ve seen this before.

Twice, the Vikings have had future Hall of Fame coaches as their defensive coordinators, working under offensive-minded head coaches – Tony Dungy under Dennis Green, and Mike Tomlin under Brad Childress.

Dungy and Tomlin left for head coaching jobs and won Super Bowls. Green and Childress famously fell short in NFC championship games.

Now O’Connell, recently known as “The Quarterback Whisperer,’’ has Brian Flores as his defensive coordinator. O’Connell’s offense has generally looked not only terrible, but unsuited to the quarterback he chose, Kyler Murray. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores looks more impressive by the week.

This Vikings team very well could win a lot of games without playing well on offense. There would be two ways to view such an eventuality:

1. As in the case of former Vikings offensive coordinator Brian Billick, you can win with an offensive-minded head coach whose offense doesn’t perform well. He won a Super Bowl with the Ravens with defense and special teams.
2. If the Vikings win big with defense, shouldn’t the architect of that success run the whole team?

I’ve mostly supported and defended O’Connell over the years, because so many complaints about NFL head coaches are unrealistic, and he’s generally done good work. But he has mismanaged the quarterback position, which is a bad look for an alleged whisperer of pass-throwers.

I was in favor of him moving on from Kirk Cousins because I thought O’Connell could do wonders with a younger, more talented player. I was in favor of moving on from Sam Darnold because Darnold looked incapable of winning a big game.

But those opinions were based on the belief that O’Connell would find someone better. He hasn’t. He drafted the wrong guy, failed to develop him, gave him half the reps during an offseason that should have been dedicated to acclimating Murray, then asked Murray to run an offense that doesn’t suit his skills.

O’Connell can quell doubts by helping Murray succeed this season, but if the offense continues to look awkward and inefficient, the Wilfs will have a big decision to make at the end of the season:

Keep O’Connell and possibly lose Flores, or pay attention to Vikings history and promote the all-world defensive coordinator?

-The hot listen: Jon Krawczynski, Alec Lewis and I argued about Murray on the Viking Update podcast.

-The Bears have ensured that the Vikings have no margin for error, winning their last two games with reserve quarterbacks. They’re 3-1 and dangerous.

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