The Associated Press announced Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell has been voted the 2024 Associated Press Coach of the Year. O’Connell is the second Vikings head coach to win the award, joining Hall of Famer Bud Grant who won the honor in 1969.
O’Connell led the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season record and playoff appearance in 2024, the second-most wins in team history. The team’s nine game win streak from Week 9 to Week 17 tied the third-longest win streak in club history. O’Connell became the first head coach in NFL history since at least 1950 to win at least 14 games in a season with a quarterback who was in his first year with a team.
In 2024, O’Connell’s third season as offensive play caller in Minnesota, the Vikings finished ninth in scoring (25.4 points per game) and seventh in passing offense (237.8 yards per game). Minnesota was 9-1 in one-possession games in 2024, the second-best mark league wide this season, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs (11-0).
Despite his team being projected for an NFC North low 6.5 wins in 2024, Minnesota more than doubled their projected win total prior to the start of the season, capturing 7.5 more victories than expected, the most among all teams with a 2024 AP Coach of the Year finalist at the helm. Along with having a quarterback in his first season with the team, the Vikings achieved the feat with an active roster that included 14 defenders in their first season as Vikings. Minnesota was one of two teams (Houston) with at least five defensive players with 11+ starts in their first season with a team in 2024 (excluding rookies).
Seven Vikings were named to the Pro Bowl in 2024 – QB Sam Darnold, LS Andrew DePaola, OLB Jonathan Greenard, WR Justin Jefferson, CB Byron Murphy Jr., T Brian O’Neill and OLB Andrew Van Ginkel – four of which were selected for the first time in their careers. Minnesota’s six original selections were the most Vikings Pro Bowlers since 2009 when the team had eight. DePaola and Jefferson have each been named to multiple Pro Bowls and garnered multiple AP First-Team All-Pro recognitions under O’Connell.
Under O’Connell’s guidance, Darnold became the first quarterback in NFL history to record 14 wins in his first year with a team since at least 1950 when quarterback stats began being tracked. He had the best season of his career in 2024, setting new career highs in nearly every passing category and finishing fifth in the NFL in passing yards (4,319) and fifth in touchdown passes (35) and sixth in passer rating (102.5).
In three years at the helm, O’Connell has a 34-17 (.667) regular season record and is the first head coach in Vikings history to have multiple 13-win seasons (13 in ’22, 14 in ’24). He joined Matt LaFleur and George Seifert as the only head coaches in NFL history to achieve multiple 13-win seasons in his first three years as a head coach. Among active head coaches, O’Connell’s .667 winning percentage in his first three regular seasons is tied for fourth with John Harbaugh (2008-10) and Nick Sirianni (2021-23) and trails only LaFleur (.796, 2019-21), Jim Harbaugh (.760, 2011-13) and Sean McVay (.688, 2017-19). He became the fastest head coach in franchise history to win 30 games, doing so in just 46 games. He topped Dennis Green (48 games) and Bud Grant (50) among others.
(info courtesy of Vikings)
