Adam Thielen on KOC's lack of screaming: 'It's kind of almost awkward'
The Minnesota Vikings are entering a new era with Kevin O'Connell and the difference can be heard during training camp.
During a press conference with reporters last week, Adam Thielen commented on O'Connell's demeanor during practice. While he said his new head coach gets frustrated when he drops a pass, he also said it was "awkward" not having his coach erupt after making a mistake.
"It's kind of almost awkward when things aren't going well and you're waiting for a coach to blow up," Thielen said. "But the positivity and the energy that they bring even when things aren't going well is something that is really going to set us up to handle adversity."
Purple Insider's Matthew Coller also noticed the change, noting the "lack of yelling" during his latest camp recap.
It's hard to blame Thielen for feeling this way. For the past eight seasons, the Vikings were led by the mercurial Mike Zimmer, who had a tendency to blow a gasket during practice.
While the style worked for the first four seasons with a pair of division titles and a trip to the NFC Championship Game, the Vikings made just one playoff appearance over his final four seasons and Zimmer was replaced by O'Connell.
O'Connell has a different approach to handling adversity after his time with the Los Angeles Rams. At one point last season, the Rams went 32 days without winning a game and Matthew Stafford threw five interceptions in three games before Los Angeles won nine of their last 10 on their way to winning the Super Bowl.
"That's enough to bury any and all positive feelings [and] morale that might help you feel good going into a game that particular week," O'Connell said of the stretch during a July interview with SKOR North.
"But that did not happen because we were able to assess a couple of things. We had an unbelievable culture in the building ... but we were also able to situationally manage the game a little bit and understand that not every snap is the same. Treat each one as its own entity and continue to just preach the consistency of [Stafford] doing his job and the plays coming to fruition from that."
That even-keeled approach is something that can not only help the Vikings during training camp but as they head into the regular season. For as successful as Zimmer's teams were, they also had issues navigating through adversity.
In 2014, Adrian Peterson's child abuse incident led the Vikings to a 7-9 record. In 2016, Teddy Bridgewater's knee injury, Norv Turner's resignation and a slew of other issues led Minnesota to an 8-8 campaign.
The Vikings successfully reached the NFC Championship Game after Sam Bradford and Dalvin Cook suffered knee injuries in 2017, but the death of Tony Sparano and the firing of John DeFilippo kept the Vikings from returning to the playoffs the following season.
After a playoff appearance in 2019, the wheels came off as injuries derailed the Vikings in 2020 and more off-the-field issues led the Vikings to miss the playoffs again last season.
The turmoil caused Eric Kendricks to label Zimmer's regime as "a culture of fear" and ultimately led to his dismissal.
With O'Connell taking a different approach this summer, Thielen already sees how it can translate this fall.
"The way that they can coach through those tough moments when we put a couple of balls on the ground or things are a little lackadaisical, there's a sense of urgency...but the way that they can coach through those is something that is really going to set us up to handle that adversity through a season."
