Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell snubbed from list his credentials have earned him a place on, but there is a path forward to making it next year

Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell snubbed from top 10 coaches list

The list itself is quite interesting, as it is trying to figure out what ended up mattering to make it. Wasserman doesn't list a criterion for the list, which makes it a little more difficult to parse out.

It's obvious why Reid is at the top. He has the most wins of any active head coach, having been one since the 1999 season when the Philadelphia Eagles hired him away from the Green Bay Packers.

As you go down the list, it makes sense to see some of the names on the list. Payton, McVay, Harbaugh, and Tomlin all being in the top five resonate, especially with a Super Bowl win on their resume. It seems that the sheer depth of the resume matters more than what you've done for me lately. If that were the case, O'Connell should have gotten a lot more consideration.

There is one glaring thing missing from O'Connell's resume is the biggest piece of any coach's: success in the playoffs. That hasn't happened yet for the Vikings. Some of that is due to injuries and the fact that they were in the midst of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's competitive rebuild. However, it all comes down to the head coach.

O'Connell should get some serious consideration for this list, but not having a single playoff win is going to harm him until he gets one. That success is likely to come in the next few years.

Until then, despite elevating every quarterback on the roster to their highest form, O'Connell will have to wait his turn.