ASHBURN — It resembled Alex Smith’s weekly press conference — last season’s ritual before the starting quarterback’s gruesome November injury — when Kevin O’Connell stepped behind the podium Tuesday for the first time as offensive coordinator.
After all, O’Connell is 34 years old; Smith turned 35 last month. And both are built out of the same quarterback mold.
The Redskins’ quarterbacks coach for the past two seasons, O’Connell was promoted to coordinator in January, while Matt Cavanaugh was retained but given a less weighty title of senior offensive assistant.
In O’Connell’s first season as a coordinator, he is charged with overseeing a competition between two new quarterbacks, one of them first-round draft pick Dwayne Haskins, as well as the intriguing running back tandem of Adrian Peterson and Derrius Guice plus an offensive line that can never stay healthy.
It’s no small task for a man some people are already comparing to Sean McVay, former Redskins coordinator-turned-coaching prodigy.
“The big thing for me was just trying to make sure we were getting the fundamentals and techniques taught on our base offense,” said O’Connell about his first offseason installing an offense. “Sometimes you get enamored with plays, you get enamored with install 10 and making sure are we highlighting the install sheet, and you get through this playbook and you say, ’Well, what did we really accomplish?’ So for me, it’s been making sure that we’re circling back on install one.”
Play-calling duties on offense still belong to coach Jay Gruden, himself a former offensive coordinator, but O’Connell said he is ready when Gruden asks for his opinion.
“Coach Gruden’s going to call those plays, and if he ever needs a call I’ve learned really quickly to have a call ready for him,” O’Connell said. “I’m always trying to develop and being around some of the coaches that I’ve got to be around as a player and a coach; it gives me that opportunity to give us every day to learn.
“Potentially, when he needs a call, it might be three calls in a game. It might be 10 calls. It might be no calls, but I’ll be ready because I’m constantly evaluating myself.”
O’Connell backed up the likes of Tom Brady and Philip Rivers in the course of his five-year NFL career with the Patriots, Lions, Jets, Dolphins and Chargers. A few years after his playing days ended, he spent a season apiece on the Browns’ and 49ers’ staffs before making his way to the Redskins.
Gruden and running backs coach Randy Jordan separately singled out O’Connell’s communication skills.
“It has been a great communication process with him, (offensive line coach) Bill (Callahan), (tight ends coach Brian) Angelichio, Randy Jordan, (receivers coach) Ike Hilliard,” Gruden said. “All of these guys are doing a great job of communicating what they want to see out on the practice field, coaching it, then seeing it on the practice field. (O’Connell) has done an outstanding job. We expect great things from the offense.”
Jordan called O’Connell’s transition to the new role “seamless.”
“He knows he’s a young guy, so he has a relationship, a rapport with those guys in terms of what he wants from the offense, when he gets up there and he talks about the offense,” Jordan said.
The age factor shouldn’t go overlooked. At 34, O’Connell is the same age as Adrian Peterson, a year younger than Vernon Davis and just 16 months older than Colt McCoy. One of Washington’s positional coaches under O’Connell’s purview now, Callahan, coached the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII when O’Connell was just a high school junior.
“He’s kind of carrying the torch, he’s implementing the offense and adding some variety to it,” Callahan said. “So it’s kind of some new-age thinking. It’s been fun, it’s been interesting.”
Cavanaugh, four months after being essentially demoted, showed no ill will about O’Connell and even compared his acumen to McVay and young offensive coaches like him.
“I think he’s very bright,” Cavanaugh said. “He’s played the game. He’s studied it. He’s spent time talking with defensive coaches, asking them their philosophies. He understands defensive techniques and can relate it to the offense.”
It’s fair to think O’Connell will have a lot of influence as the staff adjudicates whether Haskins or Case Keenum will win the starting quarterback battle this summer. With the offensive line as beleaguered as it is, between Trent Williams’ reported holdout and other injuries across the board, O’Connell said the Redskins will put Haskins in “the best possible situation” when he’s deemed ready to play.
“This whole team hopefully comes together, and if he’s the best guy, if he’s won the quarterback job I think we all will be confident putting him out there day one,” O’Connell said.
At OTAs last month, Haskins said he wanted to learn the vocabulary to keep up with O’Connell and company.
“It’s different terminology and it’s like speaking the same language,” Haskins said. “This is what we need to be able to do … having Coach O’Connell, Coach Gruden and (quarterbacks coach Tim) Rattay, they all speak the same language and right now I don’t. So, it’s just trying to get on the same page as them.”
Even though you can’t classify O’Connell as a member of Haskins’ Generation Z, his youthfulness might smooth out Haskins’ communication concerns and help him relate with the rookie as the summer wears on.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.