INDIANAPOLIS — After walking back some of his comments on the interior of the offensive line, head coach Kevin O’Connell still made clear Tuesday at the 2025 NFL Combine that he’s looking for more out of the Vikings in the trenches.

“We need to have a level of execution and a level of physicality,” O’Connell said. “After playing really well in December, which was a goal of ours, we’ve got to find a way to get back in the dance and put our best foot forward in January.”

The good news for the Vikings is it sounds as if star left tackle Christian Darrisaw is trending in the right direction as he recovers from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He suffered the injury while getting rolled up on during a Week 8 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

“It was a huge loss for a lot of aspects of our play style and what we really wanted to play like through the totality of 2024,” O’Connell said. “Even if we were able to overcome it, we’re very much looking forward to getting CD back.”

Where exactly is Darrisaw with his recovery?

“He’s absolutely killing it every step of the way,” O’Connell said. “I look forward to seeing how the spring and the summer go.”

Carter added to coaching staff

After losing Shaun Sarrett to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Vikings have hired Keith Carter as an offensive line coach.

In his past, Carter has spent time as the offensive line coach of Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets. In his new role, Carter will report directly to Chris Kuper, who has been the Vikings’ offensive line coach since O’Connell took over.

“I wanted to take the opportunity to get a former No. 1 and a guy that’s been involved in some of the best rushing attacks,” O’Connell said. “He really wanted to come to Minnesota and he’s going to be able to help us a lot and infuse some things into our run game.”

Though some have criticized Carter for his approach, the Vikings did their due diligence and felt comfortable hiring him.

“You’ll find some things about him in regards to being tough on his players,” O’Connell said. “I think in the No. 2 role, he’s going to be really good for us, and he’s in a great spot in his career to really help us.”

Udinski will be missed

Maybe the biggest loss for the Vikings so far this offseason came when Grant Udinski was hired as the offensive coordinator of the Jaguars. In his previous role, Udinski served as the Vikings’ assistant quarterbacks coach, meaning he worked closely with O’Connell.

“Just getting to work with Grant over these past three years has been absolutely one of the highlights of my time in Minnesota,” O’Connell said. “I’ve joked that if we added up all the hours that I’ve spent with Grant one on one, and then we added up all the hours that I’ve spent with my wife over the past three years — even if I’d like to think Leah won out — it’s probably going to be a pretty close finish there.”

The confidence that O’Connell has in Udinski was palpable as he talked about him taking the next step in his career.

“He’s prepared for this opportunity,” O’Connell said. “He’s going to do great things for them.”

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The Loop Ten Special Edition: Super Bowl LIX

By BYRON TAU and BERNARD CONDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A satellite company owned by Elon Musk has the inside track to potentially take over a large federal contract to modernize the nation’s air traffic communications system.

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Equipment from Musk’s Starlink has been installed in Federal Aviation Administration facilities as a prelude to a takeover of a $2 billion contract held by Verizon, according to government employees, contractors and people familiar with the work.

Musk said that the network used by air traffic controllers is aging and requires drastic and quick action to modernize it.

“The Verizon system is not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk,” Musk on Monday posted on X, the social media site he has owned since 2022.

The emergence of Starlink as a potential replacement for the Verizon-led effort underscores the extraordinary conflicts of interest inherent in Musk’s position as both a senior White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a business mogul in charge of a sprawling array of companies. It is not clear what role Musk might be playing in helping Starlink parent company SpaceX win such business.

“There’s very limited transparency,” said Jessica Tillipman, a contracting law expert at George Washington University. Referring to Musk, she said: “Without that transparency, we have no idea how much non-public information he has access to or what role he’s playing in what contracts are being awarded.”

Former FAA officials also told The Associated Press that they were alarmed at the prospect of Starlink being used as a critical part of the nation’s aviation system without adequate testing, review and debate about its benefits and drawbacks.

SpaceX is angling to use its constellation of satellites to replace an aging ground-based communications system that facilitates the FAA’s text and voice communication, the sources said. The Verizon contract, awarded in 2023, was to update part of that system to a more modern standard relying on fiber optic cables.

Contracting records show that nearly $200 million in work has already been done on Verizon’s 15-year modernization effort to update the FAA’s communications system. A Verizon representative said the company is unaware that the contract is being amended or terminated.

The FAA announced on X on Monday that the agency is testing a Starlink terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska. Terminals are ground-based receivers that connect devices or computers to orbiting satellites.

Another FAA contractor, L3 Harris, confirmed it was responsible for acquiring and testing Starlink terminals for incorporation into the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure network. An L3 Harris spokesperson said the company has been working with SpaceX on the initiative for many months.

Bloomberg News reported earlier about the FAA installing Starlink terminals at its facilities.

Details about SpaceX employees deployed to work on the project are unclear, but three of its software developers appeared on a Trump administration list of government workers given “ethics waivers” to do work that could benefit Musk’s company.

Government ethics laws require that people who could profit from government work either recuse themselves from specific projects or first sell their financial holdings or sever ties with the company that could benefit. Waivers can be granted by the heads of government departments or other officials, but only in limited circumstances.

Ted Malaska, a senior director of application software at SpaceX, got a waiver along with two software engineers, Brady Glantz and Thomas Kiernan, according to the waiver list and LinkedIn profiles. The AP could not determine if the three are still working for SpaceX or the precise nature of work for the federal government.

Malaska posted on social media on Thursday that he had been meeting at FAA headquarters with officials responsible for implementation of the telecommunications modernization.

The FAA contract is not Musk’s only conflict. His acolytes have also taken over many of the operations at the General Services Administration, which controls real estate and contracting for numerous government agencies. GSA currently offers other agencies the ability to launch payloads through an existing SpaceX contract —- putting the agency in a position to direct business toward Musk. The Department of Transportation regulates aspects of SpaceX and his electric car company Tesla. NASA and the Department of Defense are major customers of SpaceX. His brain-computer interface company Neuralink has regulatory issues in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

AP writer Kimberly Kindy contributed from Washington.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and ABBY SEWELL

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli and Hamas officials said Tuesday they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of dead hostages for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, keeping their fragile ceasefire intact for at least a few more days.

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Israel has delayed the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it says is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release. Hamas has said the delay is a “serious violation” of their ceasefire and that talks on a second phase are not possible until they are freed.

The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current six-week first phase of the deal expires this weekend.

But late Tuesday, Hamas said an agreement had been reached to resolve the dispute during a visit to Cairo by a delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, a top political official in the group.

The breakthrough appeared to clear the way for the return of the bodies of four more dead hostages and hundreds of additional prisoners scheduled to be released under the ceasefire.

People wave Israeli flags before the funeral of former hostage Oded Lifshitz in Rishon Lezion, central Israel, on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Lifshitz was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and his remains were returned from Gaza to Israel last week as part of a ceasefire with Hamas. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The prisoners previously slated for release “will be released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners who were agreed to be handed over,” along with the release of a new set of Palestinian prisoners, the statement said.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed an agreement to bring home the bodies in the coming days. He gave no further details.

The agreement could clear the way for the an expected visit for the White House’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region.

Witkoff has said he wants the sides to move into negotiations on the second phase, during which all remaining hostages held by Hamas are to be released and an end to the war is to be negotiated.

Sewell reported from Beirut.

If negotiations with the county are unsuccessful Monday, Ramsey County probation officers and Teamsters Local 320, the union representing more than 200 probation officers in the county, plan to strike, according to union officials.

The Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services received a notice of intent to strike from the union last week following mediation. The bureau will have both parties meet Monday in state-facilitated mediation before officers can begin a strike.

If negotiations are unsuccessful, probation officers would then have until the end of March 24 to initiate a strike.

Teamsters Local 320 represents 213 probation officers in the county.

Union officials say they want wage parity with Hennepin County probation officers and overtime parity with other correctional institution personnel in Ramsey County. Their other concerns involve professional development and seniority issues.

Negotiations stalled when the parties could not come to an agreement on professional development, according to Gus Froemke, lead negotiator with Teamsters Local 320.

Currently, probation officers are able to move up probation officer classification grades in a five-year period, Froemke said.

“Unfortunately, the employer wants it so that they have full authority over who gets to promote from probation officer to senior probation officer in the new restructured proposal,” he said.

Ramsey County’s minimum entry-level pay and maximum experience pay for probation officers are currently the lowest in the seven-county metro area, according to union officials.

“Ramsey County values its 213 probation officers represented by Teamsters Local 320 and the critical work they do,” county officials said in a statement Tuesday. “We look forward to continuing our conversations with Teamsters Local 320 at the bargaining table. Like other recently negotiated contracts, county leaders are committed to reaching a fair, equitable, and competitive agreement while ensuring high-quality service and fiscal responsibility. In preparation for a potential strike, county leaders have made arrangements to ensure uninterrupted care and well-being for staff, residents in county facilities, and the public.”

The county and the union have been negotiating since October. Represented employees with settled union contracts and most unrepresented employees receive annual wage increases of 3% in 2025, 3.5% in 2026 and 4.5% in 2027. A modernization of job classifications also has county government wages increasing by an average of 2%.

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