Vikings Hire Ex-NFL QB Josh McCown as Quarterbacks Coach

McCown was the Panthers' QB coach last season.

Will Ragatz | Feb 27, 2024

Vikings Hire Ex-NFL QB Josh McCown as Quarterbacks Coach /

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Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings have hired former NFL journeyman QB Josh McCown as their quarterbacks coach, the team announced on Tuesday. Chris O'Hara, who held that role last year, has been named their pass game specialist.

The #Vikings have named Josh McCown as quarterbacks coach and Chris O’Hara as pass game specialist.

📰: https://t.co/pwYvUiOGIM pic.twitter.com/Ls06I7tOYs
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) February 27, 2024

McCown, 44, spent last season working with Bryce Young and Andy Dalton as the Panthers' QB coach. He began his career coaching at the high school ranks and interviewed multiple times for the Texans' head coach vacancy, though he wasn't hired either time.

The Texas native was a third-round pick in the 2002 draft and had a playing career that spanned 12 NFL teams and nearly two decades. He appeared in 102 games in his career, starting 76 of them. A prolific journeyman, he threw at least ten touchdown passes in a season six times — for six different teams. McCown was with the Browns in 2015 when Kevin O'Connell got his first coaching job as Cleveland's quarterbacks coach. That team's head coach was Mike Pettine, who is also on O'Connell's staff as the assistant head coach.

Interestingly, McCown has a couple ties to some potential Vikings quarterback options this offseason. He was an assistant coach at Myers Park High School in Charlotte in 2019 when Drake Maye was the quarterback there. Maye went on to star at UNC and is the projected No. 2 or 3 overall pick in this year's draft. McCown also shares an agent, Mike McCartney, with Kirk Cousins.

As far as assistant coach hires go, this is an interesting one.