Vikings’ culture is being built by first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell through his effortless genuineness and keen intuition.

EAGAN, Minnesota. Last week, after a combined practice with the 49ers, first-year Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell reclined back while sitting on one of the four immaculate grass fields at the team’s training complex. It appeared as though his long legs extended all the way from the 30-yard line to the end zone. Rap music gushed from the weight room’s elevated, garage-style doors while he donned jogging trousers, a T-shirt, and a laid-back smile.

For the twenty minutes that O’Connell spoke with a guest about his professional path, he was not visible to the spectators, players, and reporters that walked by. It seemed like a carefree summer day spent lounging on one of O’Connell’s childhood San Diego beaches. Fans of the Vikings should feel more at peace since he was so laid back and at ease.

While O’Connell’s manner did not ensure success in the future, it was a sign of someone being authentic, which many in the industry feel is the first step in laying a solid foundation. The current NFL head coaches that he has worked or played for—Sean McVay of the Rams, Josh McDaniels of the Raiders, and Bill Belichick of the Patriots—as well as Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers coach who has led his team to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl during his first five seasons in the big chair, have all expressed this belief to him.

Seeing O’Connell kick back in full view of everyone on a practice field while cutting it up with a reporter was… surprising in an era when decision-makers often major in the minor for no other reason than to project an air of control and coaches are hypersensitive about appearing too close to the media.Additionally, it demonstrated his sincerity and willingness to pursue his own plan rather than that of others.

When O’Connell, a quarterback, was selected by the Patriots in the third round in 2008, McDaniels, the offensive coordinator for New England, remarked, “Kevin is extraordinarily brilliant and one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.” “Those two qualities—intelligence and self-awareness—can accomplish a lot for you. People will like playing and working for him since he is a consummate professional. If he succeeds and succeeds early, I won’t be shocked.”

After leaving San Diego State, where he finished his senior year with 3,063 yards and 15 touchdowns passing, O’Connell, 37, envisioned himself taking a different route. He appeared to have the necessary characteristics, standing at 6-foot-5 with strong arm power and a high football IQ, to fulfill his ambition of becoming an NFL starter. However, he was discarded by New England after just one season. After Detroit removed him from waivers, the Lions dealt him to the Jets in a matter of days.

Although O’Connell did not play a single official snap during his three seasons with the Jets, Mike Pettine, the team’s defensive coordinator at the time, created a clear image of O’Connell’s football future in case he was unable to see that coaching was his true calling.

The close friend and current assistant head coach of O’Connell in Minnesota, Pettine, remembered, “I believe I might have said, ‘You’re not worth a damn as a quarterback’—and I don’t know if I used the ord ‘damn’—’however, however, you’re going to make a heck of a coach one day.” “It was evident how easily the conversation about football came to him.”

That was especially clear in the weeks leading up to New York’s match against New England. The Patriots were well-known to divisional opponents due to their tremendous success, so the Jets tried to take advantage of O’Connell’s knowledge of the Evil Empire by searching through his memory bank for any information about quarterback Tom Brady and the Pats.

The offensive coordinator for the Jets at the time, Brian Schottenheimer, stated that “he would spend the entire week with the defense.” “He would attend staff and team meetings. He would lead the team of scouts. He had been around Tom, so he would imitate all of his behaviors. He was a real asset in helping us create blitzes to breach their defenses. He could tell us what Tom would do since he was so familiar with Tom’s emotions.”This is our response to him coming here if we placed a piece here.”Because of the free runners Kevin gave us on Tom during the protection phase, we were able to defeat New England at least twice.”

Although O’Connell maintains that Pettine and the Jets anticipated his future before he did, things remained unclear when New York cut him after the 2011 campaign. It didn’t surprise anyone close to him that he had a lot of talent when he tried his hand at broadcasting. His father, Bill O’Connell, narrates the performance in real time while sharing the narrative of Kevin tossing passes to himself when he was three or four years old.

Broadcasting, while cool, did not satisfy the need to be close to the action. Behind the scenes, he was looking at other possibilities, but the ideal coaching match didn’t work out. At last, the phone rung in 2015. As the Browns’ head coach heading into his second season, Pettine needed a quarterbacks coach with the people skills to possibly connect with Johnny Manziel, the young quarterback Cleveland had selected in the first round the previous year, and the communication skills to take intricate schemes and break them down into manageable chunks for the players.