Kevin O’Connell’s quote from Thursday night was not about Sam Darnold

On By Littum

After Thursday evening’s NFL -Honours ceremony, things got a little weird for Minnesota Vikings fans when a reporter from Detroit Free Press reported that head coach Kevin O’Connell, fresh out of winning his first NFL trainer for the year, said Quarterback Sam Sam Darnold would be a “huge part” of bringing a championship to Minnesota.

This was the news for most Vikings fans, considering that Darnold is ready to hit the free agency in just over a month and the team has JJ McCarthy waiting to take over the team. The feeling among many fans seems to be that moving on to McCarthy has been the plan all the time, so the news that Darnold could be back came as a bit of a shock.

As it turns out Kevin O’Connell did Say there was a player who would be a huge part of bringing a championship to Minnesota. But that player was not Sam Darnold. In fact, it was the broad recipient Justin Jefferson, who is a revelation that would come as a surprise to none.

Here is the video of O’Connell’s statement after his award presentation at Thursday’s ceremony.

Yes, you have to go to YouTube to watch the video, but it’s only about five minutes long. The relevant part starts around at. 02:30 in when a female reporter (whose name I did not catch or was not identified) asks a question where she makes it clear that she will talk to O’Connell about Jefferson. It was in the middle of the answer to Question that O’Connell says that Jefferson Will be a huge part of bringing a championship to Minnesota.

After seeing the way O’Connell handled the questions at the press conference, I’m really not sure how it was misunderstood that he was talking about Darnold and not Jefferson. There was a pretty clear separation between the questions that had been asked, and the first question was clearly about Darnold, while the second (where the quote came from) was just as clear about Jefferson.

So to summarize, Justin Jefferson will be a huge part of bringing a championship to Minnesota (because DUH), while Sam Darnold may not consider that there is a better than average chance that Darnold won’t be a Minnesota Viking at all about a few months.