09-07-2024, 09:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-07-2024, 09:56 AM by purplefaithful.)
The Vikings had just signed J Jefferson to the four-year, $140 million deal that would make him the highest-paid non quarterback in NFL history before their mandatory minicamp in June. When asked to summarize all the activity he had overseen in the previous three months — drafting McCarthy and Turner to replace Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter, adding 14 URFA and signing Jefferson — General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah zoomed out even further.
“Honestly looking back at it, Kevin and I set forth a path two years ago,” Adofo-Mensah said on June 4, referring to Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. “We have a document that says all we wanted to accomplish, and I think for the most part, we did it in a big-picture thing.
There’s always moves where you feel like you could have been a little better here, a little better there, but big picture, I feel like we have a young roster with players before their prime, entering their prime, at positions that matter.”
The glee from Jefferson’s catch in Buffalo, or the 33-point comeback over the Colts to win the NFC North title in 2022? A welcome, but temporary, sugar rush. The malaise of a 2023 season marred by turnovers early, injuries in the middle and defensive inexperience late? A pernicious cost of doing business.
It was always about 2024, when the Vikings’ decision makers felt they’d have a refreshed roster built around players brought in to fit a particular culture and the spending room to pursue high-level talent. They’ve arrived with a quarterback (McCarthy), left tackle (Christian Darrisaw), wide receiver (Jefferson) and pass rusher (Turner) signed through at least 2027, and a projected $65 million of cap space for 2025.
Just 12 of the players on the roster predate Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in Minnesota.
That list includes cornerstones like Jefferson and Darrisaw, a player (safety Harrison Smith) who will be in Hall of Fame consideration and three of Darrisaw’s colleagues on the offensive line (Blake Brandel, Garrett Bradbury and Brian O’Neill). But the Vikings dispatched veterans with hefty contracts like Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook last year, before saying goodbye to Hunter and letting Cousins sign a larger deal with Atlanta than he was offered to stay in Minnesota.
According to Over the Cap, the Vikings return only 56.5% of their players from the 2023 season, the fifth-smallest percentage in the NFL.
Of the 12 holdovers from Rick Spielman’s final team in 2021, the Vikings have signed nine to new or restructured deals since Adofo-Mensah became GM. It means that in Year 3, Adofo-Mensah has built a roster almost exclusively of players he acquired or decided to keep.
“I never want to make things about myself in terms of fingerprint or input and things like that. It has been a process to get to this point, but the process never stops, right?” Adofo-Mensah said in July. “It’s this never ending pursuit of building the team you want to build and being able to do the things you want to do on a football field. But I do think it feels like a different place than it has been in the previous [two years].”
Now comes the hard part.
Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell are entering the third season of four-year contracts; co-owner Mark Wilf said on Aug. 6 the Vikings are not currently discussing extensions for either the coach or the GM, adding, “We’re focusing on the season ahead.”
While the Vikings have plenty of time to revisit deals for their football leadership, McCarthy’s injury means Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell won’t be able to point to tangible results from the quarterback while making their case.
The Vikings employed one-year extensions in the past for Leslie Frazier, Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer; they could use the same option to give their current group more time with McCarthy before making a long-term commitment. Wilf repeated ownership’s oft-stated goal of competing for championships; the Vikings’ move to sign Stephon Gilmore to a one-year, $7 million contract last month shows they don’t view 2024 as a rebuilding year.
They are more optimistic about their roster, and Darnold, than most of the preseason predictors.
During his offseason survey of the roster, Adofo-Mensah identified several players he believes are on the verge of taking off. “I don’t want to say them specifically to you, just not to put undue pressure on certain people,” he said. “But we just believe in this team.”
It is the first team, in a sense, that Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell have built free of the moorings from the Vikings’ past. There will be others, as the Vikings explore the financial freedom that comes with a young quarterback, and there will be futures for the coach and GM staked solely on their progress toward ownership’s mandate of contention.
The course is theirs to chart; the results are theirs to own.
“When we get hired to do these jobs, they ask us to do them in a certain way to a certain level,” Adofo-Mensah said. “In essence, you’re trying to win championships. And that’s the question, Kevin and I always ask ourselves: are we setting the team up to do that? It’s not, ‘Can we win a championship with [me] as the GM?’
Obviously, that would be nice. But our sole focus is [championships], otherwise we wouldn’t be genuine or truthful to the team that we oversee or the people in this building. So that’s just gonna guide our logic.”
Source: Startribune
“Honestly looking back at it, Kevin and I set forth a path two years ago,” Adofo-Mensah said on June 4, referring to Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. “We have a document that says all we wanted to accomplish, and I think for the most part, we did it in a big-picture thing.
There’s always moves where you feel like you could have been a little better here, a little better there, but big picture, I feel like we have a young roster with players before their prime, entering their prime, at positions that matter.”
The glee from Jefferson’s catch in Buffalo, or the 33-point comeback over the Colts to win the NFC North title in 2022? A welcome, but temporary, sugar rush. The malaise of a 2023 season marred by turnovers early, injuries in the middle and defensive inexperience late? A pernicious cost of doing business.
It was always about 2024, when the Vikings’ decision makers felt they’d have a refreshed roster built around players brought in to fit a particular culture and the spending room to pursue high-level talent. They’ve arrived with a quarterback (McCarthy), left tackle (Christian Darrisaw), wide receiver (Jefferson) and pass rusher (Turner) signed through at least 2027, and a projected $65 million of cap space for 2025.
Just 12 of the players on the roster predate Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in Minnesota.
That list includes cornerstones like Jefferson and Darrisaw, a player (safety Harrison Smith) who will be in Hall of Fame consideration and three of Darrisaw’s colleagues on the offensive line (Blake Brandel, Garrett Bradbury and Brian O’Neill). But the Vikings dispatched veterans with hefty contracts like Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook last year, before saying goodbye to Hunter and letting Cousins sign a larger deal with Atlanta than he was offered to stay in Minnesota.
According to Over the Cap, the Vikings return only 56.5% of their players from the 2023 season, the fifth-smallest percentage in the NFL.
Of the 12 holdovers from Rick Spielman’s final team in 2021, the Vikings have signed nine to new or restructured deals since Adofo-Mensah became GM. It means that in Year 3, Adofo-Mensah has built a roster almost exclusively of players he acquired or decided to keep.
“I never want to make things about myself in terms of fingerprint or input and things like that. It has been a process to get to this point, but the process never stops, right?” Adofo-Mensah said in July. “It’s this never ending pursuit of building the team you want to build and being able to do the things you want to do on a football field. But I do think it feels like a different place than it has been in the previous [two years].”
Now comes the hard part.
Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell are entering the third season of four-year contracts; co-owner Mark Wilf said on Aug. 6 the Vikings are not currently discussing extensions for either the coach or the GM, adding, “We’re focusing on the season ahead.”
While the Vikings have plenty of time to revisit deals for their football leadership, McCarthy’s injury means Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell won’t be able to point to tangible results from the quarterback while making their case.
The Vikings employed one-year extensions in the past for Leslie Frazier, Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer; they could use the same option to give their current group more time with McCarthy before making a long-term commitment. Wilf repeated ownership’s oft-stated goal of competing for championships; the Vikings’ move to sign Stephon Gilmore to a one-year, $7 million contract last month shows they don’t view 2024 as a rebuilding year.
They are more optimistic about their roster, and Darnold, than most of the preseason predictors.
During his offseason survey of the roster, Adofo-Mensah identified several players he believes are on the verge of taking off. “I don’t want to say them specifically to you, just not to put undue pressure on certain people,” he said. “But we just believe in this team.”
It is the first team, in a sense, that Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell have built free of the moorings from the Vikings’ past. There will be others, as the Vikings explore the financial freedom that comes with a young quarterback, and there will be futures for the coach and GM staked solely on their progress toward ownership’s mandate of contention.
The course is theirs to chart; the results are theirs to own.
“When we get hired to do these jobs, they ask us to do them in a certain way to a certain level,” Adofo-Mensah said. “In essence, you’re trying to win championships. And that’s the question, Kevin and I always ask ourselves: are we setting the team up to do that? It’s not, ‘Can we win a championship with [me] as the GM?’
Obviously, that would be nice. But our sole focus is [championships], otherwise we wouldn’t be genuine or truthful to the team that we oversee or the people in this building. So that’s just gonna guide our logic.”
Source: Startribune
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