The Minnesota Vikings are back on the practice field for OTAs, but one story about head coach Kevin O’Connell from last season has made waves in recent days. Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams wanted to get drafted by the Vikings.
O’Connell was a significant reason for that, a note that only bolsters Minnesota’s head coach’s resume as a “quarterback whisperer.”
This is all according to the player, who spoke on the matter for the first time on Wednesday.
“Yeah, I had a good visit at the other place, Minnesota, with Kevin O’Connell,” Williams told reporters on May 28. “Good staff and all of that. Obviously, he just won Coach of the Year award, and things like that. So, obviously, good staff and things like that.”
The Vikings sent quarterbacks coach Josh McCown to Williams’ pro day, despite his projections as the No. 1 pick and their holding the 11th selection in the 2024 draft.
Williams’ comments come in light of Seth Wickersham’s upcoming book, “American Kings: A Biography Of The Quarterback,” in which the author made the revelation that the QB wanted to avoid the Bears, with his camp even considering the United Football League as an option.
For his part, McCown frequented other pro days during the cycle.
The former Bears QB visited Drake Maye, who went third to the New England Patriots, and the Vikings’ eventual selection (after a trade up with the New York Jets), J.J. McCarthy.
Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell Made Strong First Impression on Caleb Williams
Per Wickersham, amid fears about the Bears’ history with quarterbacks and the uncertainty around the front office, Williams and his father, Carl, contemplated different options. After visiting the Vikings, Williams had his sights set on Minnesota.
“I need to go to the Vikings,” Williams told his father, per an excerpt from Wickersham’s book published via ESPN on May 15.
Williams clarified that, despite his pre-draft concerns, he left his visit to Chicago convinced.
“Something that keeps getting lost, something that keeps getting, I think, not being addressed the way it needs to be, is the fact that I went on that visit first, came here, and then after I came here, … I went back home talked to my dad and all of the things that were supposed to be these big things that everybody’s been talking about recently – one, never happened in the sense of they were all thoughts they were all ideas,” Williams said after practice on Wednesday.
“After I came on my visit here, it was a deliberate answer and – deliberate and determined answer – that I wanted to come here.”
Williams and O’Connell will meet again when the Bears and Vikings open the 2025 regular season on Monday Night Football in Chicago. Asked if he believed the story, the timing of which he lamented, would be a distraction again, Williams said he did not.
That was part of his reasoning for addressing the matter.
Notably, the Bears did not make Williams available following the Bears’ first OTAs practice open to the media on May 21.
Vikings’ Interest in QBs a Reminder About Key J.J. McCarthy Question
The Vikings visited with Williams, though their chances of getting into a position to draft him were always unlikely, with Wickersham revealing Bears general manager Ryan Poles was insistent upon selecting the 2022 Heisman Trophy Winner.
However, their interest in Maye, who had pre-existing ties to McCown, does raise questions about McCarthy.
The Vikings are fully behind him, as evidenced by the lack of a true threat in the room.
Still, there were questions about their decision to surrender the assets they gave New York to move up one spot for the quarterback who came with the most questions about his ceiling as a passer in the class.
It is encouraging for the Vikings, then, that McCarthy was impressive enough to potentially challenge for the starting job in 2024 before a knee injury ended his season.
Week 1 will allow both QBs to prove many people right and wrong.
