INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Sean McVay has grown a healthy coaching tree in his eight seasons with the Los Angeles Rams. Five of his former assistants have become NFL head coaches, while several more have been poached for bigger jobs in college and the pros.
One of the biggest branches on that tree looms in front of McVay for the first time Thursday night when Kevin O’Connell leads his Minnesota Vikings (5-1) into SoFi Stadium.
O’Connell won a Super Bowl ring as McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams (2-4). He also learned much of what he needed to succeed in Minnesota, where he has built the Vikings into a winner while putting USC product Sam Darnold in position to finally reach his NFL potential.
O’Connell realizes the debt he owes to his excitable ex-boss on the opposite sideline.
“He’s one of my closest friends in this league,” O’Connell said. “I have so much respect for him, how he runs that organization, his leadership, his football intellect. He’s as good as he gets. I’ve got nothing but love for him, and we’ll always be like that.”
O’Connell’s Vikings just took their first loss of the season to Detroit last weekend, but they still look like a Super Bowl contender. McVay’s Rams don’t appear close to contention in their third season after their championship run, but they’re coming off an encouraging win over Las Vegas.
“I’m not surprised,” McVay said of the Vikings’ success. “I think he’s done a great job with a variety of different situations. … Kevin’s a guy that made a tremendous influence and impact as a coach here. I’m happy for those guys.”
McVay has always been vocal about his desire for his assistant coaches to advance in their careers. His top assistants usually emerge from the Rams with a comprehensive knowledge of what it takes to manage the innumerable moving parts of an NFL team.
“That’s one of the things that probably made me feel so prepared for this job was his willingness to allow me to be a part of things that maybe at other places, offensive coordinators aren’t a part of,” O’Connell said. “I got to see a lot, learn a lot, ask a lot of questions — probably one too many for his liking.”
Kupp’s comeback
Super Bowl 56 MVP Cooper Kupp is expected to return from a four-game absence with an ankle injury, and the Rams badly need his help. Their offense has struggled without top options Kupp and Puka Nacua for Matthew Stafford, whose 154 yards passing last week against Vegas were his fewest in his four-year Rams tenure.
Kupp has been in trade rumors this week, and it wouldn’t be shocking for the decidedly unsentimental Rams front office to move a beloved player who’s been a franchise mainstay since 2017. But Kupp will get at least one more game in front of his home fans against the Vikings, whose pass defense ranks 30th in the NFL at 260.3 yards allowed per game.
Receiver respect
When O’Connell arrived in Minnesota, the first question he fielded from Justin Jefferson was: “How is Cooper Kupp so open?”
Kupp’s success in the 2021 season was a significant part of the Rams’ title run, and one of the reasons the Vikings hired O’Connell was his acumen with play design and the passing game to benefit Jefferson. O’Connell and Jefferson speak continually about ways to beat the double teams that frequently come Jefferson’s way, but the first step upon their introduction three years ago was a challenge to the precocious receiver.
“It was pretty much, ‘You’ve got to learn the whole offense, you’ve got to learn every single position, you’ve got to be dialed in to this concept, if you want to be one of the best receivers you want to be,’” Jefferson said this week. “Ever since that day, I definitely was dialed in. I wanted to be on that same level. I wanted to be running wide open, even if I’m getting doubled and tripled. It’s just all part of the system, all part of the process.”
Thursday night lights
McVay has a history of doing well on a short week: His Rams went 6-2 in Thursday night games during his first seven seasons — and one of those losses was a Week 1 blowout by Buffalo in 2022. His only short-rest Thursday loss was a one-point comeback win in 2019 by Seattle.
Coming home
Darnold will relish the familiar sights of home and the chance for friends and family to be in attendance at SoFi, but the nostalgic feelings will end there.
Darnold, who starred at San Clemente High School in southern Orange County and again at USC before being the third overall pick by the New York Jets in the 2018 draft, has only played in Southern California once since turning pro. That was in fan-free 2020, when the then-winless Jets improbably beat the Rams in one of McVay’s most embarrassing defeats.
“We’re just going there on a business trip, especially on a short week, but it will be nice to just see some family members and stuff before and after the game that I haven’t seen in quite some time,” Darnold said. “I don’t have everyone flying out here every single weekend to come watch us play, so it’ll be nice for them to have a short drive to come and watch me play.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed.
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