Vikings' Kevin O'Connell Awkwardly Avoids Naming Kyler Murray Starting QB
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell is at the 2026 American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, looking to enjoy his final three weeks of freedom before the Vikings open training camp.
But Dan Patrick wouldn’t let O’Connell forget about the Vikings’ looming quarterback competition between J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray.
After Patrick asked for an explanation on what an open QB competition actually means, O’Connell rattled off a handful of coaching cliches to talk around the elephant in the room. “The Dan Patrick Show” producer Paul Pabst playfully called out O’Connell for squeezing “six cliches in two minutes.”
Two minutes later, O’Connell resumed his coach-speak, saying, “We want the guys to push to find exactly what they can become as players, and it’s OK to be uncomfortable doing that sometimes. […] I’m excited to see what it looks like. We have a good plan in place to try to make sure we allow this thing to get to a place where we feel good about it, but also prepare the guy that’s gonna be our starter for the regular season.”
“I think Kyler will do a good job as your starter,” Patrick said.
O’Connell sat silently with an awkward grin on his face.
The Vikings took a big swing on McCarthy with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. He missed his rookie year after suffering a torn meniscus in the preseason. That opened the door for Sam Darnold, who exploded for over 4,300 yards and led the Vikings to a 14-3 record.
The Vikings let Darnold walk out the door, in part, because of their commitment to McCarthy as their QB1 of the future. McCarthy did not inspire confidence last season, however, and that’s putting it kindly.
McCarthy suffered a high-ankle sprain, concussion, and hand injury at different points of the season, which cost him seven games. When playing, he looked entirely out of sorts - finishing with 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions on 57.6% completion, plus four rushing touchdowns and six fumbles. McCarthy's QBR (35.6) ranked 35th among all qualified quarterbacks.
McCarthy’s disastrous debut season was made all the worse by Darnold winning Super Bowl LX with the Seattle Seahawks in February.
Come March, the Vikings licked their wounds by signing Murray to a one-year contract following his release from the Arizona Cardinals. Murray has had an up-and-down career since Arizona made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, but the bar is low in Minnesota. Can you competently run O’Connell’s offense? Can you get the ball to Justin Jefferson? Yes? Great.
During Vikings’ OTAs in April, McCarthy was even more clumsy than O’Connell in addressing his dynamic with Murray.
"It's just like two guys in a classroom," McCarthy said. "He sits on one side. I sit on the side. And it's the coaches' responsibility to teach us and coach us.”
Murray, meanwhile, said that it had been “great” so far, noting that he wanted to mentor McCarthy and felt confident that he and McCarthy “both want what’s best for the team.”
It’s all but confirmed that O’Connell will decide that Murray is what’s best for the Vikings in 2026, but we’ll get to see it all play out later this month and into August. For now, watch O’Connell’s full “Dan Patrick Show” spot below.
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This story was originally published July 11, 2026 at 9:16 AM.