Vikings’ biggest offseason loss might be the coach thriving in Jacksonville
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell received a ton of credit for winning 14 games and helping Sam Darnold revive his career last season.
The reigning AP NFL Coach of the Year would be the first to admit, though, that the 2024 Vikings had a star-studded group of offensive coaches on the rise.
O’Connell’s brain trust included longtime offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, and assistant offensive coordinator Grant Udinski. That group helped groom and develop a stacked quarterback depth chart that at one point included Darnold, then-rookie J.J. McCarthy, Daniel Jones, and Nick Mullens.
Minnesota’s staff, especially those working closely with the quarterbacks, was a hot commodity during the NFL's 2025 hiring cycle. Both McCown and Udinski had opportunities to leave for offensive coordinator roles; McCown actually interviewed with the New York Jets for their vacant head coach opening in January.
The Vikings ultimately lost Udinski, who was poached by Liam Coen and the Jacksonville Jaguars as their new offensive coordinator.
Udinski is still a young pup in the league — just 29 years old — but as the Vikings enter their bye week, it’s fair to question how much they’re missing O’Connell’s protégé, who has hit the ground running in Duval County.
Gamble on former Minnesota Vikings assistant Grant Udinski is paying off early for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2025
The Jaguars quietly have a chance to accomplish something their franchise hasn’t sniffed in over 25 years — a 5-1 start to the season.
That Udinski and company will first have to beat old field Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks this week makes it a little too perfect.
Udinski isn’t calling the plays for Jacksonville — similar to O’Connell, Coen handles that job from the sideline on game days — but it’s been hard not to notice the young coach’s impact over the first month-plus of the season.
The Jaguars have climbed from the dregs of the league to respectability on offense; they enter Week 6 ranked 16th overall in yards per play and 10th in scoring.
Another feather in Udinski’s cap? Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has shown signs of turning the corner in recent wins over the Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers, and Kansas City Chiefs.
Udinski’s exact role with the Vikings was unclear, but we do know he was a right-hand man of O’Connell and served as a mentor to McCarthy during his lost rookie season due to injury.
McCarthy and the Vikings haven’t exactly hit the ground running on offense this season. Injuries up front have forced O’Connell to adjust to more of a quick passing game. McCarthy himself has been out since Week 3 with an ankle injury.
Minnesota hits its bye week ranked 25th in yards per game, 19th in yards per play, and 14th in scoring; the Vikings ranked 12th, 13th, and ninth, respectively, in those categories with Darnold and Udinski in 2024.
It may be Week 6 already, but it’s still very early for the 2025 Vikings. We haven’t yet seen McCarthy on the field with his full starting offensive line or top two wide receivers.
But as we see around the NFL on a weekly basis, coaching and continuity matters. The Vikings helped develop a rising star in Udinski, and the Jaguars are the ones reaping the benefits now.
The upcoming and underrated Canucks bounce back season belongs to Quinn Hughes
A lot of ink has been spilled about ‘bounce backs’ and the need for them if the Vancouver Canucks
But there’s another bounce back season in the making that no one is really talking about, and that’s the one that is almost certainly
Now, we’ve got to couch this concept in a whole lot of caveats. By no means are we, or anyone reasonable, suggesting that Hughes had a bad season in 2024-25. But by his own, incredibly lofty standards, he did have a worse season in 2024-25 than he did in 2023-24 – and we have to imagine that Hughes is both aware of that fact and prepared to do something about it in the present day.
If we run the most basic numerical comparison, the drop-off can be hard to see. Here’s a quick Hughes head-to-head:
| Games | Goals | Assists | Points | PPG | TOI | |
| 2023-24 | 82 | 17 |
75 | 92 | 1.12 | 24:41 |
| 2024-25 | 68 | 16 | 60 | 76 | 1.12 | 25:44 |
From NHL.com
In comparing last season to the season prior, Hughes obviously played fewer games, but that’s the only visually apparent difference. He scored goals at a higher rate, earned assists at a lower rate, but wound up with the exact same points-per-game. The 2024-25 Hughes actually played a full 1:03 more per night on average than the previous edition.
In other words, Hughes scored as much and took on even more responsibility.
Once we get into the fancier stats, a slight difference begins to emerge, but with emphasis on the ‘slight.’ Take a look:
| Corsi | Expected Goals | Shot Control | Scoring Chance Control | High-Danger Chance Control | |
| 2023-24 | 57.15% | 54.64% | 53.24% | 57.66% | 53.92% |
| 2024-25 | 55.71% | 54.19% | 54.51% | 55.33% | 51.94% |
From NaturalStatTrick.com, representing 5v5 play
Here we have some perceptible, roughly 2% drops in things like Corsi, control of scoring chances, and control of high-danger scoring chances in particular. Hughes’ rate of Expected Goals stayed roughly the same, and his shot control actually increased.
You can see why we felt the need for all those caveats. Both statlines listed above are elite. One is just slightly more elite than the other.
Where Hughes’ ‘room for improvement’ – if we can call it that – is most clearly shown is in his direct on-ice results. To some extent, that includes the Canucks’ overall record. But we’re talking more about goals for and goals against here:
| On-Ice Goals For | On-Ice Goals Against | Difference | |
| 2023-24 | 92 | 55 | +27 |
| 2024-25 | 65 | 57 | +8 |
From NaturalStatTrick.com, representing 5v5 play
The 2023-24 Hughes played in 14 fewer games, and somehow allowed two more goals against at evens, to go along with 27 more goals for. It’s an enormous difference. And, yes, this is more of a team result than something that can be laid at the feet of any individual.
But we have to think that Hughes himself takes personal responsibility for it, and is personally dedicated to turning that result around in 2025-26.
We haven’t said the word ‘Norris’ yet, and that’s with intention. Hughes went from Norris Trophy winner in 2023-24 to Norris Trophy nominee (and third-place finisher) in 2024-25, which, again, cannot be called much of a drop-off. But the lack of any pushback from the Canucks faithful about Hughes losing out to both Cale Makar and Zach Werenski last year should speak volumes.
There would have been an uproar had Hughes lost the Norris race in 2023-24. That’s what a true bounce back for Hughes means – getting back to the point where he’s very much in the running as the best overall defender in the sport of hockey.
And here’s how we really know that Hughes had a worse season in 2024-25 than he did in 2023-24: we all saw it. The eye-test has its strengths and weaknesses, but the Hughes of last season just did not look as complete out there as did the Hughes of the previous year. And, as we eventually learned, that was with good reason.
Hughes tore a ligament in his hand in December 2024, missed minimal time, and played through until January with that odd, web-shooter-esque cast on his hand. That’s something that will obviously impact the game of someone who handles the puck so frequently and so deftly.
Then in late January, Hughes suffered an oblique tear. That forced him to miss the 4 Nations Face-Off, much to his disappointment. He returned in late February, but another injury in early March, possibly related to the oblique again, knocked him out for ten days again.
To call it an injury-plagued season might be a touch dramatic. But it was a season in which injuries impacted Hughes performances essentially throughout.
Hughes now enters the 2025-26 season healthy, happy, and fully aware that he can do better this year than he did last year. Of all the ‘bounce backs’ we’re counting on, this one seems the most certain to happen. And while the other potential bounce backs, like those we’re waiting on from Pettersson and Demko, will make a discernable difference, we can’t discount the difference made by a Hughes returning back to his old Norris Trophy standards.
Hughes is, and will remain, the Canucks’ most important player. Even a slight uptick in his individual performance should translate very directly into team success. And if Hughes can take it one step further, and improve not just on his 2024-25 campaign, but even upon his 2023-24 campaign?
Well, that’s just an exciting notion to think about.
