Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell discusses a revolutionized approach to Minnesota’s offense

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Tyler Forness discusses the recent comments made by Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell regarding a new way he could be approaching the game plan on offense for the upcoming 2025 season

Transcript

00:00Kevin O'Connell just mentioned one key point that could elevate the Vikings offense to another

00:05level. Let's talk about it. The Minnesota Vikings offense is one that is going to be

00:13under the microscope this year. We know it's going to be a huge factor with J.J. McCarthy

00:17taking over as the starting quarterback, but it's mainly going to be the pieces around him

00:21that are going to have the most intrigue. How is Kevin O'Connell's offense going to change with

00:25McCarthy under center versus what he ran with Sam Darnold, Kirk Cousins, and the Marriott of

00:30backups who have had to play when Cousins was hurt? He's always had little wrinkles for each guy,

00:36and McCarthy is bound to have them, especially because he's a first-time starter. That presents

00:41different challenges than you would have with a guy like Darnold, albeit he was relatively a failure

00:47up to that point, and Kirk Cousins, who was an established veteran. One of the things you can

00:51do is maximize the running game. Maximize the running backs you have behind you, and an interesting

00:58way to do that is 21 personnel, or as some would prefer to call it, pony personnel. Now, this quote

01:04from Kevin O'Connell really emphasizes that point. Quote, but how C.J. Hamm and his role in the two-back

01:10groupings, maybe we activate some two-back groupings where we've got Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones in the

01:16game at the same time. There's a lot of things schematically that we're going to try, and then

01:21as we get towards the season, what gives us advantages? What allows us to play the most

01:25multiple way that all circles back to the number one question of what makes the quarterback's job

01:30easier and more likely to be quarterback-friendly to apply to our whole system? This is a really

01:36interesting idea, and I firmly believe that if you have the right players, 21 personnel is the most

01:42lethal because running backs out of the backfield that can run routes and take advantage of that

01:47while also being able to pass, protect, and run the ball is the easiest way possible in order to

01:54be able to manipulate defenses and take advantage of linebackers who aren't good in coverage.

01:59When you have two running backs in the game and one tight end, the defense is going to think,

02:04run, run, run. Well, you can take advantage of that in itself, like Texas routes, which is also

02:08called an angle route, where you're angling out on a 45 to 60 degree angle toward the sideline,

02:12boom, you cut it right back inside. And 21 personnel is not something that the Minnesota Vikings have

02:17used a lot. When we take a look at Sumer Sports' charting, over 1,054 snaps, they used it last

02:24season just 129 times or 12.24%. Now, they didn't really have the confidence in their RB2 last year

02:33in both Cam Akers and Ty Chandler to be able to maximize some of this stuff. But Jordan Mason and

02:37Aaron Jones, they can do a lot of these things. Now, Jordan Mason isn't this lethal route runner,

02:41but he's more than capable to run your basic route tree. And Aaron Jones can do a little bit

02:46more of the advanced stuff. So if you want one guy blocking, one guy going out into the route,

02:50you can achieve that and give McCarthy some shallower options and some easy dink and dunks.

02:57I'm not advocating for a true dink and dunk system. But at the end of the day, if you make McCarthy's

03:02job easier on the outset, guess what? You can make things better on a long-term basis.

03:08I think that is going to be huge for McCarthy. And activating both Jones and Mason could be

03:14massive for this team in 2025. I'm Tyler Fornes with ADZ Sports. It's called Vikings.

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