When then-23-year-old Kevin O’Connell arrived in New England as a third-round draft pick, he thought he was in a good position to sit back, learn and enjoy life in the NFL. It was 2008, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was coming off the best season of his career. Matt Cassel was the backup and was entering the final year of his contract.
Advertisem*nt
So as the third-string quarterback, O’Connell could learn the ropes. It would be, he assumed, like a redshirt season after a standout collegiate career as a four-year starter at San Diego State. As a rookie, he wanted to blend in and watch how Brady and Cassel handled the quarterbacks room. All three are from California, so they bonded over that while watching film together.
Plus, Brady had never missed a game in his seven years as an NFL starter. It seemed hard to imagine a better place to be a third-string quarterback before, ideally, supplanting Cassel as the backup the following year.
“I was so ready to watch this artist go to work,” O’Connell said of Brady.
But, of course, Brady tore his ACL in the first game of that season. Suddenly O’Connell was Cassel’s backup and was left with the much bigger burden of assisting with game plans and offering guidance to Cassel between drives.
Yet his unexpected, new role served a deeper purpose, one that was impossible to realize at the time. While O’Connell still had visions of a lengthy professional playing career, his brief time in New England planted the seeds for a turn to coaching that led to him landing the Minnesota Vikings’ top job as a 36-year-old. Now, after guiding the Vikings to an 8-2 start this season, he’s a candidate for coach of the year heading into a Thanksgiving night showdown against the Patriots and Bill Belichick, the NFL coach from whom he first learned.
“It’s going to be really special,” O’Connell said. “But at the same time, I know that’s going to be as competitive as any game we’ll play all season because that team will be incredibly prepared. I’ve seen it firsthand.”
O’Connell initially saw what it took to be successful in the NFL during his time with the Patriots. Then, he was just a rookie thrust into a backup job. With the Patriots scrambling to get Cassel ready to play, Belichick would have had every right to pay little attention to O’Connell. But that wasn’t how it went.
Advertisem*nt
“It’s unbelievable thinking back,” O’Connell said. “We would have meetings with him, have a dialogue with him throughout the week, and then just the situational football side of things — how much you can learn just from having your ears open and being willing to listen and absorb what he was trying to teach. That will always stick with me — just the connection he makes with each player on the team no matter where you stand on the roster. Ultimately, you know what the expectations will be for you, and then ultimately you’ll know whether you did or didn’t reach those goals because the communication there is so good.”
O’Connell initially developed a good relationship with Brady, but after Brady’s injury, his main job became assisting Cassel. He stayed late with him, divvying up tasks. O’Connell tried to study the opponents’ red zone and third-down tendencies so Cassel could focus his attention elsewhere. And he gained the trust and respect of Cassel, so much so that Cassel could vent about however he was feeling without fear it might be relayed elsewhere.
“We spent so much time together that year,” Cassel said. “We developed such a tight, close friendship at that point because I always felt like he had my back whether it was a good day or a bad day. He was awesome on the sideline, always into it.”
But O’Connell had to prep as if he might play, too. He was suddenly one play away from having to enter after thinking he’d be largely inactive throughout the season. That meant ample time in the coaches’ offices.
“He understood that his opportunity could come at any time, and we really worked hard,” Cassel said. “Josh McDaniels was outstanding in helping him develop, spending extra time with him, speaking with us. We spent a ton of time in Belichick’s office breaking down film and defenses with him. It was just an introduction for him that was turned up to a whole other level very early in the season, which was not anticipated.”
Advertisem*nt
That 2008 season ended with the Cassel-led Pats posting an impressive 11-5 record but missing out on the playoffs. Still, O’Connell’s time in New England didn’t last long. The Patriots chose Brian Hoyer over him as their backup quarterback the following year, and O’Connell bounced around to a few teams after that. He hung up his cleats after the 2012 season and worked in television before getting into coaching in 2015.
He became Washington’s offensive coordinator in 2019, then the Rams’ OC in 2020, moves that caught the attention of his former coach.
“I followed his career from Washington, then out to the West Coast,” Belichick said. “He’s done a heck of a job and climbed through the coaching ranks quickly. Based on the way the Vikings are playing this year, you could see why he’s done it. He’s done a great job.”
O’Connell has had a lot of influences. He counts Mike Pettine and Bill Callahan among his mentors. And he learned a ton from Sean McVay, who became one of his closest friends. But Belichick, his first NFL coach, taught him how to do the job and inspired, at least in some small way, his career choice.
“Anybody who gets to go (to New England) as a young player has an understanding of what’s been put together by Coach Belichick there and the great players they’ve had come through there and the great coaches that Coach Belichick has had with him,” O’Connell said. “You get an opportunity on a daily basis for Football 501, learn at the highest level, be tested on that, be put in situations to really know where you’re at. Ultimately, what it did for me was enhance my love of football even more and probably plant that initial seed to get into the coaching profession in the first place.”
(Photo of Kevin O’Connell and Tom Brady: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
Chad Graff is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the New England Patriots since 2022 after five years on the Minnesota Vikings beat. Graff joined The Athletic in January 2018 after covering a bit of everything for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He won the Pro Football Writers of America’s 2022 Bob Oates Award for beat writing. He's a New Hampshire native and an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of New Hampshire. Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadGraff
