Kevin O’Connell Clarifies Why Star Receiver Was Benched for the 1st Quarter
So far, the only thing holding back Jordan Addison from on-field success has been off-field issues. Most notably, there have been the driving-related infractions, but a different one came up while in London.
Kevin O’Connell stepped in front of the media after the game. The Addison question arose, leading to the head coach offering some details: “Yeah, we’re always going to keep a lot of those details in-house, but I do think I want to share with you guys. He missed a walkthrough this week, and those types of things aren’t in alignment with our standards.”
Kevin O’Connell Talks Jordan Addison on the Bench
Purely as a football player, Jordan Addison is excellent.
He has been available in Week 4 and Week 5. The opening game involved turning 4 catches into 114 yards; were it not for an underthrown Carson Wentz deep ball, the long completion is probably a score. The second game involved 5 catches for 41 yards. Crucially, there was the game-winning touchdown.
Keep in mind the context for those statistics.
Justin Jefferson (very sensibly) demands the bulk of the targets. So, too, does the revamped running game demand touches, siphoning off more opportunities from Addison. And then the offensive line was operating with just a pair of the five starters. Eventually, Christian Darrisaw was removed in an effort to manage his workload coming off the torn ACL, depleting the front five even more.
All of these factors coalesce to corral Jordan Addison. But, crucially, there’s one factor that arises above all others: the off-field issues.
After the game, Addison spoke to the media. The playmaker spoke about the “brotherhood” that exists within the team. Not too long afterwards, the WR2 declined to explain why he was benched, deferring to his head coach to get into some of the details: “I’ll let my coach talk about it a little bit but I talked to the team and stuff and we embrace each other.”
A quick recap.
In Week 4, Kevin O’Connell benched one of the team’s foremost weapons for the opening quarter. The reason is because Jordan Addison wasn’t in attendance for a walkthrough. The player addressed the team and the coach clarified at the podium that everyone supports the receiver.
Once in the game, Addison was excellent, as per usual. In fact, he caught the game-winning touchdown. The 3-2 record feels considerably more optimistic than a 2-3 record, so that was a huge play in a huge moment.
Now, here’s where the rubber meets the road. Kevin O’Connell appears to have made the correct decision: a player missing some of the team’s preparation can’t go unaddressed. Similarly, Coach O’Connell deserves respect for being consistently committed to someone who is still just 23.
The key issue at this stage rests in making the off-field problems few and far between. Or, better yet, completely non-existent. As a human being, Addison will make mistakes. What can’t happen, however, are mistakes that rise to a level where he’s hurting his team.
More crucially, there are the driving problems that put the safety of others (and himself) at risk. Those need to be firmly in his past, having nothing to do with his future.
The third-year player will be capable of signing an extension in the upcoming offseason. The only thing holding him back from landing megabucks are the off-field concerns.
Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings are moving into the bye week. After a week to rest, the team will be taking on the Eagles.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
