Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell prioritized health over intensity this summer — will it work?

EAGAN, Minn. — Not lengthy after he was named the Minnesota Vikings’ new coach, Kevin O’Connell made a request. He needed a brand designed to seize the values he deliberate to impart on the workforce. The ultimate product was formed like a defend and carried these phrases: Our Approach, Our Course of, Our Group.

The Tradition Protect, as it’s recognized across the Vikings’ observe facility, offered a transparent metaphor for O’Connell’s first summer time in Minnesota. He stood behind it as he pursued an alternate coaching method that prioritized well being over preseason taking part in time, instructing over browbeating and method over hitting.

It revealed a coach who’s assured in his method however itching to justify it with some early success in a schedule that opens with consecutive opponents — the Inexperienced Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles — who’re thought-about consensus playoff groups.

“You by no means need to say [imposing culture] was simple,” O’Connell stated, “however I simply suppose it was the correct time and the correct place for me with these gamers.”

Initially, a minimum of, O’Connell’s model prompted whiplash amid a company inured to the cantankerous methods of former coach Mike Zimmer. Veteran gamers waited for emotional outbursts that by no means got here.

“Typically it nearly feels awkward,” receiver Adam Thielen stated. “You are like, ‘Is he not going to tear us? What is going on on right here?’ And it has nothing to do with the previous teaching workers we had right here. That is the way it’s been my entire life, whether or not highschool, school, first yr within the NFL after I had a unique coach. It is totally different, however it’s thrilling as a result of it is like now we will go in there and we will train. We are able to be taught. Even when we do some issues unsuitable, and have some psychological errors, it is like, ‘Hey, that wasn’t OK, however let’s concentrate on the method.’”

Additionally they appreciated the relative lack of pounding on their our bodies. No established starter performed greater than 14 snaps within the preseason, and all of them got here in Week 1. 9 of their top-line gamers — quarterback Kirk Cousins, operating again Dalvin Prepare dinner, receivers Thielen and Justin Jefferson, linebacker Eric Kendricks, pass-rushers Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith and defensive backs Patrick Peterson and Harrison Smith — had been wholesome scratches for all the preseason.

Cousins, for one, stated he would not have minded some preseason work. However he famous the Vikings misplaced tight finish Irv Smith Jr. for all the 2021 season due to a knee harm he suffered within the Vikings’ closing preseason sport final summer time.

“There’s a cause for what we’re doing,” Cousins stated. “There’s drawbacks to it too, however it’s a must to make the very best resolution you possibly can and go along with it. No excuses and be able to go [when the season begins].”

Practices had been not often grueling. Gamers adopted an individualized sports activities science plan designed to reduce accidents, particularly soft-tissue strains. There have been no “stay” durations, that means no tackling to the bottom, and key gamers repeatedly restricted their reps and typically took whole days off. Essentially the most intense durations of camp got here throughout two days of observe in opposition to the San Francisco 49ers.

There have been no fights, however it was notable that the one chippy moments got here when Vikings offensive gamers objected to the 49ers protection’s aggressive post-contact makes an attempt to wrap up ball carriers and punch out the ball.

“I feel it is a totally different model from what their protection [does],” 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans stated afterward. “We assault. We’re [an] attack-first mentality, so it is a totally different model I do know for his or her scheme, for his or her offense and our protection going in opposition to them.”

The instant outcomes, nevertheless, appear apparent. Just one Vikings participant suffered a major harm throughout coaching camp observe; Irv Smith Jr. injured a thumb ligament whereas blocking on the primary day of pads, requiring surgical procedure. In any other case, the workforce was so wholesome that common supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah didn’t must make a single roster transfer till the primary NFL-mandated cutdown.

The philosophy was not dissimilar from the one employed by the Los Angeles Rams when O’Connell was their offensive coordinator for the previous two seasons; he employed former Rams director of sports activities science Tyler Williams as his govt director of participant well being and efficiency in Minnesota. And by all metrics, the Rams had been prepared for Week 1. They began the 2020 season 7-1 and had been 4-1 after 5 video games in 2021 en path to profitable Tremendous Bowl LVI.

Za’Darius Smith stated there was a “massive distinction” within the O’Connell’s coaching camp in comparison with his different stops with the Baltimore Ravens and in Inexperienced Bay and added: “It was nice. It was massive for us. We did not have too many accidents, and it is good that coach confirmed us the system that he used beforehand with the Rams. It actually labored. … You possibly can see now that I am wholesome.”

These seasons, after all, had been the fourth and fifth of Rams coach Sean McVay’s tenure. A traditionalist may argue that the Vikings, within the first yr of a brand new teaching regime, would have benefitted from a extra bodily summer time.

O’Connell took a number of alternatives to notice the elements of camp that had been undeniably taxing, from the 49ers practices to an early stretch of 5 full-pads practices in six days to an Aug. 25 intrasquad scrimmage designed to simulate lengthy drives.

“There’s a constructive of preserving starters wholesome by not taking part in in preseason video games,” O’Connell stated. “Is there a detrimental? I feel it relies upon the way you take a look at it. In case you’re a workforce that simply type of practices in a typical manner, there’s so much that may be taken out of the normal mannequin of type of getting ready guys in regular observe, taking part in them barely in every sport build up.

“We select to type of do issues a little bit in a different way, a little bit bit totally different mannequin the place in the event you ask our guys bodily the place they’re at, they in all probability would say they’re as wholesome as they have been. However on the identical time, I feel they’d say they’re feeling an increasing number of ready by the day. … They need to really feel like they’re proper on schedule from a bodily standpoint, stamina-wise of with the ability to play a full sport.”

The Vikings have left no confusion this summer time about their postseason expectations. As an alternative of tearing down a roster that missed the playoffs 3 times previously 4 seasons, they retained and supplemented the core.

Once they waived second-year quarterback Kellen Mond final week, O’Connell famous the danger of an untested backup “being a snap away” on a workforce with a powerful aggressive outlook.

Did his “manner” and “course of” put the Vikings in place to open the season robust in opposition to two powerful opponents? We’re about to search out out.