How do the Vikings find their future QB?

Re the original question of "How do we find a QB?", I think this team has had a fundamental problem the past 20 years: QB identification and coaching. I don't care if this has been due to the HC or GM - none of the guys in either job have known how to find and foster one since Denny Green. Interestingly, Denny only drafted one (Daunte) high, but despite his small hands, Culpepper looked like he would have been fantastic for years before he got injured. But Denny pulled guys off the street (Cunningham) or who had been bouncing around the league (George, McMahon) and made them better.

I used to rail about Rick Spielman for various reasons, but IMO the biggest reason was that he COULD NOT FIND A QB. Maybe he was a wizard with trades or the salary cap or identifying athletic pass rushers or whatever else; he couldn't get this team a QB. Ponder was crap, Bridgewater was never going to be more than the mediocre backup he is now, and he passed on many QBs. He hired coaches (Frazier, Zimmer) who didn't have the skillset to pick and develop a QB, so it was up to the GM. By 2016 he knew he couldn't find and develop one so he became totally committed to acquiring QBs that seemed to have already been developed in the NFL (Bradford, Cousins). But when you limit yourself to others' leftovers, you only eat scraps. I don't know if the Wilfs realized or acted for this reason, but he needed to go as soon as it was clear he could not find a winning QB.

IMO the "trade up to get the best or nearly-best QB in a draft" is not a necessary approach. Plenty of #1 QBs in any draft have busted, mostly because they were picked by an incompetent coach. Few people thought Josh Allen was the best QB in the 2018 draft. Daniel Jones, not Kyler Murray, might end up the best QB from the 2020 draft. It's all about coaching. Trevor Lawrence looked like a potential bust with Urban Meyer; one year with Doug Pederson and he's a star. Pat Mahomes: do you really think he's a superstar if he was picked by the Bears?? (Or Browns or Jets or...) No. Andy Reid identified him and then fostered his talent. Few if any QBs become superstars on a team with bad QB coaching.

So I believe the answer to "how do we get a great QB?" is to get a coach who can identify a prospect that they know they can mold into a success. So the Vikings have already taken the action they believe will succeed in hiring O'Connell. We don't know if he really is able to do it, but they need to trust him now. If KOC looks at this year's prospects and says, "I'm CERTAIN that Will Levis (or Anthony Richardson or Tanner McKee or whoever) is THE GUY and I can coach him into the next Josh Allen or Justin Herbert", they need to skip all those LB or CB needs and move up to get his guy, even if that takes trading next year's picks. No one looks back and says, "Oh the Chiefs really needed that 2018 #1 pick they gave up for Mahomes" or "Geez the Bills could have filled some defensive holes if they didn't trade 2 2nd-rounders to get Allen". (And if KOC says "no one great is in this draft, wait until 2024", trust that too.)

If you hired a coach that you believe can find and develop a franchise quarterback, then you better support him when he wants his guy. It doesn't matter what we fans or draft journalists think of the guy he picks. If he's wrong, you hired the wrong coach. Now we need to find out if we hired the right one.