Comparing the Friendship of Jeff Hafley and Kevin O’Connell | Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Kevin O’Connell wasn’t fairly 30 years previous in 2015 when he obtained his first NFL teaching job as quarterbacks coach of the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns’ 36-year-old defensive backs coach was Jeff Hafley.

On Sunday, O’Connell will lead his Minnesota Vikings into Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers. O’Connell is the head coach and offensive play-caller for the undefeated Vikings. Hafley is the defensive coordinator for the one-loss Packers.

“From the first day I met him, we kind of hit it off,” O’Connell advised reporters in Minneapolis this week. “I really do respect him as much as anybody in this league, and a very smart hire by Matt (LaFleur) to bring him in there. You can see it, it’s all over the tape. They’re playing really, really good defense.”

A decade in the past in Cleveland, they lived proper throughout the road from one another.

“His wife, Leah, and my wife, Gina, we hung out a lot,” Hafley stated on Thursday. “We really hit it off. Great, great human being. It was his first year coaching because he had just finished playing, and you could just tell right away [that he would be a successful coach].

“The way he carried himself, just a special guy, a man of integrity, first class in everything he does, the way he approaches people. He’s a guy I would’ve bet early on and said I’d pick that guy to be a head coach pretty quickly. He has that aura about him.”

Hafley and O’Connell spent the 2015 season collectively, then moved onto San Francisco in 2016 earlier than they went their separate methods.

In 2019, O’Connell obtained his first huge probability as offensive coordinator in Washington. He then served as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2020 and 2021 earlier than being employed by the Vikings in 2022.

In 2019, Hafley additionally obtained his first huge probability as defensive coordinator at Ohio State. After one season with the Buckeyes, he spent the final 4 years as head coach at Boston College.

Through all of it, they remained shut.

“He’s smart. We spent a lot of time talking football, offense, defense,” Hafley stated. “Our families hung out on vacation and just got to know him really well. He’s got a great family. He’s a really good football coach, but he’s even a better person. So, yeah, a good friend of mine.”

Said O’Connell: “I think the world of him as a person.”

While Jordan Love’s potential return to the lineup in opposition to a dominant Vikings protection and Aaron Jones’ return to Lambeau Field are the main storylines this week, Hafley’s protection in opposition to O’Connell’s offense is simply as intriguing.

Sam Darnold, a former first-round bust, has resurrected his profession and enters Sunday’s sport ranked second in passer ranking. The Vikings are third in scoring. Green Bay’s protection is twelfth in factors allowed due partly to rating No. 1 in interception proportion and No. 6 on third down.

As all the time, it is going to be gamers, not X’s and O’s, that decide the consequence of the sport. But O’Connell and Hafley know one another nicely and have had the week to arrange for this important NFC North sport.

“I think the scheme’s really good,” Hafley stated. “They’re running the ball really well – really well. And then his pass game, it’s not just the players, I think it’s also the scheme and then he’s got really good players, too.”

Hafley stated Justin Jefferson is “probably the best wide receiver in the league” and fellow receiver Jordan Addison has “special” expertise. The signing of Jones added the run-game dynamic the Vikings lacked final yr, once they completed twenty ninth in dashing.

“Obviously, the running back’s a phenomenal player and, from what everybody around here says, is one of the most special human beings ever,” Hafley stated. “Everyone seems to rave about him, so I’m sad I never got a chance to meet him.”

Left deal with Christian Darrisaw and proper deal with Brian O’Neill are “really good players” in offering bookend safety for Darnold. They will pose a powerful problem to a Packers entrance that produced eight sacks in opposition to the Titans final week.

“They’ve really kind of pieced it all together,” Hafley stated. “They’re a talented team with a really good scheme, so they present a challenge. They’ve been scoring a lot of points.”

It will probably be as much as Hafley to discover a option to cease all of that firepower.

That will begin with making an attempt to get inside the head of one of his shut associates.

“We talk often,” Hafley stated. “Obviously, we won’t this week, but I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

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