Chris O'Hara enters his third season with the Minnesota Vikings and his first as pass game specialist in 2024. Prior to joining the Vikings, he served as the offensive assistant during the 2021 season for the Los Angeles Rams, who won Super Bowl LVI.
O'Hara navigated the 2023 season with four different starting quarterbacks, the most in franchise history, due to a season-ending injury to QB Kirk Cousins in Week 8. In addition to Cousins, O'Hara coached rookie Jaren Hall, Joshua Dobbs and Nick Mullens, who each started multiple games for the Vikings in 2023. Minnesota won three consecutive games with a different starting quarterback in Weeks 8-10 (Cousins, Hall and Dobbs).Â
Despite the quarterback carousel in 2023, O'Hara helped the Vikings finished the season fifth in the league in passing yards per game (256.4). Minnesota was one of just three teams to rank inside the top six in the league in passing yards per game in each of the past two seasons, joining Miami (fourth in 2022, first in 2023) and Kansas City (first in 2022, sixth in 2023). The Vikings finished sixth in passing yards per game during O'Hara's first year as quarterbacks coach.
In his first season as a position coach in 2022, O'Hara helped Cousins finish the regular season with the fourth-most passing yards (4,457), the fourth-most completions (424) and tied for the fifth-most passing touchdowns (29). Cousins has eight consecutive seasons with at least 25 touchdown passes thrown, becoming the fifth player in NFL history to accomplish this feat in eight-straight seasons. O'Hara also had a hand in helping Cousins orchestrate a league-leading eight fourth-quarter comebacks, which tied Matthew Stafford (2016) for the NFL record. Cousins was named to his second-consecutive Pro Bowl and fourth overall in 2022.
With Rams in 2021, O'Hara assisted QB Matthew Stafford's first season with the team, helping him throw for the third-most passing yards (4,886) and second-most touchdowns (41) in the NFL, all while achieving his career-best 102.9 passer rating (in seasons with more than eight starts). As offensive assistant, O'Hara had a hand in helping wide receiver Cooper Kupp have one of the best receiving seasons in NFL history, leading the NFL in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16), earning AP First-Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors.
O'Hara spent the 2020 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, after spending the previous three seasons working with Jay Gruden in Washington (2017-19) as an offensive quality control coach. Prior to his stint in Washington, O'Hara worked as an offensive coaching associate with the Jaguars from 2014-16. In 2015, the Jaguars' offense accounted for 35 touchdown passes, shattering the previous team record of 28 set in 2007.
Before entering the NFL ranks, O'Hara spent three seasons coaching on the defensive side of the ball at the University of Miami from 2011-13, including one season as a graduate assistant and two as a student assistant. In his final season with the Hurricanes, O'Hara helped Miami finish third in the ACC with 27 takeaways.
Prior to working at Miami, O'Hara spent two seasons at Temple, serving as a student assistant with the school's football team.
A native of Swoyersville, Pa., O'Hara graduated from Miami in December 2012 with a degree in sports administration. He and his wife Cynthia married in 2019 and have a son, Lincoln.
