Kevin O’Connell wasn’t supposed to be catching heat, especially not after the solid 2024 season he had with Sam Darnold under center. But fast forward a bit, and here we are. The Minnesota Vikings sit at 3-4 after dropping the last couple of games. And to make matters worse, the locker room’s been hit hard by injuries, with J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz both sidelined.

Things have already started to look shaky in Minnesota. And to put that in perspective, the Vikings’ beat reporter, Matthew Coller, fears that the head coach is losing the locker room, based on the word he got from multiple league sources.

“I spent the last couple of hours just talking to a few people that I know, and I’ll just say… your reactions are a lot like their reactions,” Coller said on his Purple Insider podcast. “I’ll tell you one note that I got from a person with, I’ll just say with knowledge of the situation, said to me, quote, ‘This is more evidence of a bleep show with the training staff this year. So many mismanaged injuries: Van Ginkel, O’Neill, Darrisaw, Wentz, and McCarthy.’

“And another person that I talked to in the league said, ‘This is how you lose a locker room. Everyone is going to be in the cold tub saying, ‘What the heck are we doing?'”

The Vikings are in a deep hole due to injuries. For starters, McCarthy started a couple of games this season, sure. But he’s been out since then due to a high ankle sprain. For the time being, he’s expected to return next week against the Detroit Lions. But the issues for Kevin O’Connell are far from over.

Minnesota has been playing without its most important defensive player, Van Ginkel. The outside linebacker suited up in the team’s season opener but had to miss out in Week 2 due to a concussion. He returned in Week 3, recorded a few sacks, but has been out for the past four weeks due to a neck injury.

On top of that, the Vikings’ offensive tackles, Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill, are also dealing with injuries. O’Neill suffered a sprained MCL, missed one game, but returned in Week 7 against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, the OT missed last week’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

This raised a question: Did O’Connell and his staff rush him to return to the field after his injury? The same thing happened with Darrisaw, who had his surgically-repaired knee flare against the Eagles. Sure, he returned against the Chargers, but was limited to just nine snaps, per reports.

Meanwhile, the Vikings had been relying on Wentz under the center, who’d been running the offense in McCarthy’s absence. But ahead of the Lions clash, Wentz has also gone down with a shoulder injury, and is now unexpected to suit up for the rest of the season. No wonder multiple sources told Coller that O’Connell is losing the locker room. After all, many are raising questions about whether the head coach started with Wentz despite the injury.

Kevin O’Connell loses another quarterback to an injury

Carson Wentz is all set to miss out on next week’s Lions clash, and possibly the rest of the season as well. The crystal? A season-ending surgery on his non-throwing shoulder, per The Athletic. For the time being, the veteran quarterback has been placed on the injured reserve.

In his absence, McCarthy is now expected to return and continue his quarterbacking duties against the Lions. As for Wentz, let’s just say the veteran didn’t hurt his shoulder against the Chargers. Reports suggest he’d been playing with the injury for the past few weeks. Sadly, his arm gave up on Thursday.

“We kept on checking in and maybe getting Max ready to go,” Coach Kevin O’Connell said. “(Executive director of player health) Tyler Williams was coming to me a lot, and every time he seemed to update me on that. Carson was sore going into it. He took quite a few hits, but I asked him multiple times where he was at. He said he was good and wanted to keep going.”

Wentz reportedly picked up the injury back in Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns. But he played through all of it while being banged up. And that says a lot about where the Vikings are right now. And yes, why O’Connell and the medical staff are under fire.