Daily Norseman
And it was provided by the coach, of all people
UPDATE: O’Connell has clarified his remarks, courtesy of Alec Lewis of The Athletic. Apparently the quote from Dave Birkett (the Lions’ beat writer from the Detroit Free Press) was completely out of context.
Here’s what O’Connell said when asked to clarify his comments:
I don’t necessarily think that was 100 percent accurate. It was in the spirit of answering a question about Sam’s season, and what he was able to do this year. And then the follow up in regards to what it’s going to take to win a championship. Look, you guys know how I feel about Sam. He is a guy who we identified last year as someone who could come in and be successful, and really no matter where he was before he arrived, it was about maximizing our time together. And I think we did that. I think it was a very special year for Sam, and what that earned him is that everybody in our league thinks he’s a bonafide, legitimate starting quarterback in our league and can win a lot of football games. He won 14 of them. So, he’s earned the right to be a free agent. But we will continue to have ongoing dialogue and discussions with him and his representation as well as being really excited about J.J. McCarthy, and where he’s at in his rehab. He’s really hit the ground running as the true offseason has begun. We feel very fortunate, and even considering Daniel Jones was in that quarterback room as well with Brett Rypien and Nick Mullens. I talked about it all season long — the depth. Now, we’ve got to see what that room is going to look like as we try to put together the best possible team for 2025. That’s really what the answer should’ve been, and probably was closer to that. That doesn’t take away from my feelings about Sam Darnold, or what I believe he accomplished this year, and how proud I was to be right alongside him.
So, after all of that, it appears that there is no twist or anything like that. We’re right back were we started from.
I’m going to leave the story up along with the clarification, along with my apologies about jumping the gun a little bit without the additional context that O’Connell’s later clarification provided. The original story is below the break here.
At Thursday night’s NFL Honors ceremony, Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year for the 2024 season. That wasn’t surprising.
What O’Connell said in the press conference afterward? Quite the opposite.
In his press conference, O’Connell gave us the following quote:
“Our goal is to win a championship and Sam Darnold is going to be a huge part of it when we do it.”
Well. . .gotta say I didn’t see that coming.
Darnold, as we know, is set to hit free agency after...
