Vikings Hire McCown as QBs Coach

The Minnesota Vikings are uncertain if Kirk Cousins will return as their starting quarterback for the 2024 season, but they do know for a fact who their starter’s position coach will be.

Known for making his presence felt during his lengthy quarterback career, Josh McCown has landed a second job as a quarterbacks coach in as many years.

The Vikings hired McCown as their quarterbacks coach, the team announced Tuesday. This comes months after the Carolina Panthers fired him in the aftermath of head coach Frank Reich‘s early dismissal in Week 11. That was McCown’s first NFL coaching job, although he interviewed for the Houston Texans head coaching job, which ultimately went to DeMeco Ryans, on multiple occasions before getting the job on Reich’s staff. Minnesota is among the cities McCown, 44, did not stop through as a player, but he will get to work under third-year coach Kevin O’Connell.

The Vikings also announced that Chris O’Hara has been hired as their pass game specialist.

A candidate to become the Texans’ head coach in two offseasons, McCown did not get that job. Such a hiring would have caused heads to turn due to his inexperience coaching except on a high school level. Following interviews for the Houston job in consecutive years, McCown landed in Carolina. That turned into a glaring mistake.

In an attempt to assemble an all-star staff around Reich, owner David Tepper allowed a complex Bryce Young developmental effort to commence. This included marrying concepts from Reich and OC Thomas Brown, with McCown having an influence in the offense’s direction as well. The experiment was a complete and utter failure, and after Jim Caldwell and interim HC Chris Tabor orchestrated McCown’s firing, the Panthers have a new staff in place.

McCown played 18 NFL seasons, skipping the 2010 campaign while playing in the original United Football League, and bounced around the league. While the journeyman has no prior history in Minnesota, he did throw a rather important pass in Vikings history. McCown’s final-seconds toss to Nate Poole produced a game-winning Cardinals touchdown that eliminated the Vikings out of the 2003 playoffs. That was McCown’s second season; he will now aim to use the Vikings as a bounce-back opportunity in his second coaching season.

The Vikings are moving Chris O’Hara from quarterbacks coach to pass-game specialist. O’Hara has been on O’Connell’s staff throughout the latter’s Twin Cities tenure. He came over from the Los Angeles Rams along with O’Connell and OC Wes Phillips.