Purple Rumor Mill: Kevin O’Connell Extension, Vikings’ Playoff Opponent, Brian Asamoah

Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports.

VikingsTerritory’s Purple Rumor Mill is a two-day chronicle each week. All the week’s Vikings rumors are lassoed and plopped in two spots — articles on Saturday and Sunday — for review. Today is the November 9th edition.

Purple Rumor Mill: Kevin O’Connell Extension, Vikings’ Playoff Opponent, Brian Asamoah

Remember — rumors are rumors. What you read on weekends in these pieces is what the world is talking about pertaining to the purple team, not necessarily items that will come to fruition.

Here’s the first batch of the week. All past rumors can be read here.

Rumor: The Vikings are eager to extend Kevin O’Connell’s contract and will do so during the offseason.

Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell takes the slime, a tradition for a player winning Nickelodeon’s NVP award for the week. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold won the award in Week 3 and slimed his coaches accordingly on September 25th, 2024.

On paper, 2025 will be O’Connell’s contract’s final year. And per KSTP’s Darren Wolfson, the organization actively wants to extend O’Connell, though any in-season dealings would’ve occurred by now. It’s evidently a matter for the 2025 calendar.

Wolfson said this week on SKOR North airwaves, “If it was going to happen in-season, it would’ve happened bye week … after starting off 5-0.”

He also stated, “It’s going to happen. I can’t stress enough. This organization thinks the world of Kevin O’Connell.”

It’s also worth noting that O’Connell’s boss, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, will likely be extended early in the 2025 offseason, especially if the club sprints to the postseason as the current trajectory suggests. While some Vikings enthusiasts vociferously complain about Adofo-Mensah’s 2022 draft class and damn near make it part of their personality, the young executive has done a commendable job on the whole.

Under the guidance of Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell, the Vikings have the NFL’s eighth-best win-loss record since the start of 2022.

It won’t happen this month or next, but January or February feel ripe for O’Connell’s inevitable extension.

Rumor: Minnesota will get the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs.

Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images.

Per NFL.com, Minnesota will likely inhabit the NFC’s sixth seed in January, destined for a road playoff game in Round 1 against the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, or perhaps the San Francisco 49ers (the NFC West is totally up in the air).

A panel of NFL.com pundits sized up the playoff chase at the NFL’s regular season midpoint this week, and its popular consensus plopped the Vikings at No. 6 in the NFC tournament. Nine percent said the fifth seed for the purple team, 55% at No. 6, and 36% claimed the Vikings would snag the No. 7 spot.

Minnesota’s defense has served as the special sauce in 2024, ranking second leaguewide per EPA/Play, only trailing the upstart Los Angeles Chargers. The purple defense ranked first in the sport — by a mile — through five games until an unceremonious tumble in games versus the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams. The club, however, got back on track in Week 9 versus the Indianapolis Colts.

On offense, the enterprise has played efficiently, led by Sam Darnold, who is fully experiencing a reclamation season. The playoff seeding and subsequent postseason fate will rest on Darnold’s ability to perform in clutch situations, an emphatic unknown at the moment because Darnold has never visited the playoffs as a starter.

And the league’s website believes the Vikings have the juice to reach the postseason. That wasn’t the case two or three months ago.

Rumor: Linebacker Brian Asamoah was nearly traded this week.

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports.

According to ESPN, the Vikings actively shopped linebacker Brian Asamoah, to no avail. “A few former Day 2 picks from the 2022 draft class who were on my radar but didn’t get traded were Broncos tight end Greg Dulcich and Vikings linebacker Brian Asamoah II,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler explained this week.

Asamoah is a third-year linebacker stuck behind men like Ivan Pace Jr., Blake Cashman, and Kamu Grugier-Hill on Minnesota’s depth chart.

Fowler added, “Both teams had trade discussions on the players, who are not in the mix for playing time. And there was interest, which deepened the intrigue on deadline day. But both teams decided to stand pat.”

In reality, had Asamoah received trade papers, the Vikings likely would’ve received a conditional 7th-Round draft pick or something similar. Therefore, it might’ve been more valuable to retain the young defender just in case injuries continue to affect the aforementioned Pace Jr. and Cashman, the team’s starters.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL. 

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.