EAGAN, Minn. — In his first team meeting as coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O’Connell did what coaches typically do: He turned on the film. It was the spring of 2022, and O’Connell wanted everyone — players, assistant coaches and staff members — to know what he thought of the starting quarterback he had inherited.

He chose a play from the Vikings’ 2021 game at the Los Angeles Chargers, where Kirk Cousins stood in against a fierce pass rush to fire a downfield strike to wide receiver Justin Jefferson. After showing it on the big screen, O’Connell paused the video.

“I remember him saying to everyone in that room that it takes a special ability to sit here, stare down the barrel, get hit in the face and throw with accuracy,” Cousins said. “He was empowering me in front of the whole team. That was kind of a funny moment where I was sitting there like, ‘Wow. He’s kind of just complimenting me and encouraging me.’ That was cool. He was doing it for a few other guys too. He didn’t just single me out. But those kinds of moments just empower you as a person and a player.

“You feel like he’s not just building a football team. He’s building people.”

That moment helped spark a coach-quarterback relationship that lies central to the Vikings’ 13-win season. Employing the sunny personality that Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf sought after firing former coach Mike Zimmer last year after eight seasons, O’Connell — a former NFL quarterback himself — has conjured the weirdest but most effective season of Cousins’ 11-year career with Minnesota and Washington.

O’Connell has trusted Cousins to throw as many passes per game as he ever has (37.9) in his seven seasons as a full-time starter. Cousins finished, however, with some of his worst numbers, including a career-high 14 interceptions and a career-low 49.9 total quarterback rating.