Adofo-Mensah talks, some mysteries solved, others left up in the air

The Vikings' GM talked at length about Aaron Rodgers interest and his contract situation

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings offseason to this point has made all sorts of sense from a roster-building perspective.

With a first-round quarterback ready to take over, the front office went on a spending spree in free agency and addressed every major weakness that held them back from going deeper in the playoffs in 2024. They landed two interior offensive linemen who can protect the young QB, two defensive tackles who can chase down other teams’ quarterbacks, retained their top cornerback, and built a more punishing backfield.

They accomplished the plan that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah set out to complete when he arrived with a “competitive rebuild” strategy.

So why does it all still feel unsettled?

Two reasons: 1) The Vikings had talks with future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers and 2) the GM does not have a contract extension yet, while the head coach landed his just days after the season.

Both of those subjects were at the center of Adofo-Mensah’s press conference on Wednesday. In fact, they were basically the entire press conference. That shouldn’t come as any surprise as reports of the Vikings interest in Rodgers have mostly overshadowed the moves that they made to improve the roster in the national news cycle.

On the matter of Rodgers, it seemed that many Vikings fans were hoping that the team considering the former Packers/Jets QB was a deep fake by Rodgers’s camp to drum up interest from the Vikings.

However, Adofo-Mensah did not hide from the fact that there was indeed truth to all rumors. The Athletic had reported interest between the Vikings and Rodgers for weeks during the opening of free agency and reports only surfaced recently from NFL Network that the Vikings had elected to stick with JJ McCarthy.

“[Kevin O’Connell] has got a great relationship with a lot of these guys, and he's got a relationship with Aaron, they've had a lot of conversations,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Obviously, he looped us in, and we kind of met, and [went] from there.”

The conversations between O’Connell and Rodgers and the subsequent internal discussions resulted in the Vikings arriving at the conclusion that rolling with McCarthy was the right plan. Does that mean that the possibility of Rodgers landing in Minnesota has officially concluded?

“I think we got to a place where we just said… ‘right now we feel good about where we're going,’ and that's really how it ended,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It's ultimately up to him what he decides to do with his future, but that's kind of where we left it. I know Kevin him have a great relationship, still have a relationship and keep talking and but right now, I'm focused on the two players that are in our room and my personnel process for going forward.”

Adofo-Mensah clarified that when he said “it’s up to him,” he meant whether Rodgers elects to sign somewhere else, which would clearly take him out of any consideration for the Vikings regardless of what happens with McCarthy this offseason. A reasonable translation for the rest of the answer would be: If something changed with the way the Vikings feel about McCarthy, they will keep Rodgers’s number on speed dial.

Still turning down Rodgers is telling about where they stand with McCarthy presently.

“At every checkpoint, whether it's been the draft process or practice until the injury or really the offseason, he's met the bar,” Adofo-Mensah said. “He's exceeded our expectations at every point.”

Of course, the checkpoints for McCarthy to meet thus far don’t make things particularly clear. The second-year quarterback spent his rookie season sidelined by knee surgery so the Vikings are only working with a sample size of last year’s training camp, a single preseason game and how he handled himself behind the scenes in 2024.

“I think at the end of the day, all you can do is look at the information you've given at the time you've been given it,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I would tell you that at this exact moment, he's passed every test with flying colors… so you have to go on what you know. And I know we're betting on this preparation, the person, the talent, again, it's shown in every single instance. I'm going to be comfortable with that.”

Adofo-Mensah has referred numerous times over the years to roster moves as bets with varying odds of outcomes. From that perspective, you can see why they would not eliminate the Rodgers option. The Vikings are coming off a 14-win season with high expectations and they just spent top dollar in free agency. If McCarthy were to get injured again or struggle in the spring/summer, Rodgers might be a better one-year bet in their minds.

“Given where we are scenario wise, we didn't think it was the right move at this time [to stick with McCarthy],” Adofo-Mensah said. “For me to sit here and say that anything's 100% forever, that's just not the job, right? We're responding to scenarios and different information as it comes so obviously things can change. But right now, we're really happy with our room, and we look to upgrade it in different ways.”

With that issue only somewhat resolved, we move onto the next subject: Adofo-Mensah’s contract.

In years past, there haven’t been many instances of the GM or HC’s contract being a point of discussion. In 2020, it took until July for Mike Zimmer to work out his deal with the Wilfs but there were plenty of circumstances that lent themselves to delays, from the drama within the 2019 season to COVID shutting down the world. In this instance, there isn’t anything clear from the outside that we can point toward to explain why the head coach signed a multi-year deal and the GM doesn’t have his situation resolved yet.

Adofo-Mensah did not exactly have an explanation on Wednesday.

“This is probably the busiest time of year for myself and my staff, and so I wake up every morning trying to make sure the Vikings get to the ultimate goal,” he said. “I'll make sure I call [my agent] and ask him how it's going and all that stuff. But just like what we said with player contacts, the process, these things take time.”

The Vikings GM made a comparison to a house getting built where 90% of the home can be finished but the last 10% takes the longest. Adofo-Mensah did say that he sees himself continuing to remain as general manager but when the final 10% gets finished, he could not say.

“I plan to be the person that's here when we ultimately accomplish our goals, and that's what I'm working towards,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I wish I could give you a simple, clean answer. I know that there's positive dialog happening with my representatives and theirs, and then me with them as well. It's probably on me that it's not going quicker, because, again, I wake up every morning focus on the things that I need to focus on to get this team.”

Having not yet reached April, there is plenty of time for Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings to work out a new deal and go forward. If a contract isn’t reached before the draft, it is worth wondering about the conflict of having a GM lead the way on the team’s future without him being locked into that future.

A trend over the last two years, whether it be with Justin Jefferson or Kevin O’Connell’s contracts, is that the drama lives until the deal is done. There were rumors that the Vikings could consider trading Jefferson and then the two sides signed a long-term extension in May. Similarly with O’Connell, there appeared to be some posturing and some buzz about potential trades emerged and then the deal was wrapped up right after the season. It still seems likely that the same thing will happen here. The Vikings’ owners have to be thrilled with the overall direction of the team and the 34 wins in three seasons produced since Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell were hired. But until things are worked out, there will be questions about Adofo-Mensah’s future and the offseason will remain unsettled.

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