Jay Glazer defends reporting Kevin O’Connell trade rumors

The Minnesota Vikings and Kevin O’Connell on Tuesday agreed to terms on a multi-year extension, ending the possibility that O’Connell would be coaching in 2025 on the final year of his current deal.

Shortly after the news became official, FOX NFL Insider Jay Glazer went to social media to defend his reporting on teams being interested in trading for O’Connell.

The Timeline

What we know: Glazer did his annual coaching carousel segment on FOX NFL Sunday, before the noon slate of games on the final weekend of the regular season. In addition to coordinators and assistant coaches being contacted for interviews, Glazer reported multiple teams would be interested in trading with the Vikings for O’Connell.

That night, with the NFC North Division title at stake and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, the Vikings lost at Detroit 31-9. Glazer said on social media he had that news well before Sunday, but FOX NFL Sunday was his first opportunity to make it public.

"I never reported he’s being traded bc that’s up to Vikings. Just that he was on several team’s to try to trade for. They did the smart thing by moving quickly to ensure he would happily be the Vikings head coach for years," Glazer said. "Did my job reporting what was going on behind the scenes in some of these searches. This narrative that I reported it to screw the Vikings when they were going to play the Lions is the dumbest s**t I’ve ever read."

What we don’t know: If the Vikings were ever actually contacted with a trade offer.

Pro Football Talk doubles down?

What Florio reported: Mike Florio of Pro Football talk reported the day before O’Connell’s season-ending news conference that there was tension between the coach and the Vikings’ ownership group about his contract. O’Connell reportedly wanted a contract extension before the 2024 season, and the Wilf ownership group wanted to wait and see how the season played out.

O’Connell wouldn’t directly address that reporting.

"What I would say is I love being the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. I love our ownership, I have a great relationship with our ownership," O’Connell said.

O’Connell’s early success at Minnesota

By the numbers: O’Connell is 34-19 in three seasons with the Vikings. He’s the only coach in franchise history to have multiple 13-win seasons in his first three years. He’s also the fastest coach in franchise history to 30 wins, in 46 games.

The black eye? O’Connell is 0-2 in the playoffs so far, losing to the Giants in his first season and to the Rams this year.

Minnesota VikingsSports