At owner's meetings, Vikings say they are staying the course

The Vikings owner and head coach talked about their decision to roll with JJ McCarthy

By Matthew Coller

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Since the Wilfs took control of the Minnesota Vikings, they have had 11 different quarterbacks lead the team in passing and seven different quarterbacks start playoff games. At the owner’s meetings in Florida on Monday, owner Mark Wilf seemed as ready to find the guy at quarterback as the fans who have followed all the pop-up seasons over the last two decades.

Speaking with Purple Insider and reporters from The Athletic, ESPN, the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune, Wilf talked excitedly about 2024 10th overall draft pick JJ McCarthy and the supporting cast that they have been building around him to give the former Michigan star the best chance at success.

“The fact that we even had to move up [in the draft] to make sure that we weren’t going to lose JJ for any reason says a lot about the dynamic we had with him,” Wilf said. “He’s been a winner at every level and… how he’s approached his rehab, how he’s approached everything has given everyone a lot of confidence in the building.”

Wilf pointed toward what he saw from Sam Darnold’s emergence last year under head coach Kevin O’Connell as a reason for confidence that they can give McCarthy everything he needs to become the young, rising star quarterback that’s been missing for all these years. And the Vikings’ ownership certainly spent in free agency (and via trade) to give McCarthy the best supporting cast possible. They acquired interior linemen Ryan Kelly and Will Fries and added violent runner Jordan Mason to the backfield.

“It’s a whole team dynamic and where we’ve come with free agency especially shoring up both lines, the interior is a hugely positive development,” Wilf said. “Looking forward to seeing what JJ can do. We as an ownership are going to make sure all the resources are in place to maximize his potential.”

When the Vikings hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell, this was the position that they hoped the franchise would be entering 2025. They found the “QB whisperer” head coach who changed the culture and created a roster conducive to maximizing the quarterback’s performance.

“You see how coach O’Connell has worked with quarterbacks in his time even before the Vikings,” Wilf said. “That was a big reason why we brought him in, we knew how important the QB position was. It’s not just the coach, it’s the entire support around the position and how we work with players. You take Sam Darnold as a great example in 2024. We loved having him in the building and seeing how coach O’Connell worked with him cemented what we knew in the interview process how special coach is with the quarterback position. Looking forward to great things going forward.”

So why were the Vikings talking to Aaron Rodgers when they A) are happy with McCarthy’s recovery B) have the QB whisperer and supporting cast and C) turning the ball over to McCarthy was the plan all along?

On Monday, O’Connell discussed the Rodgers conversations that were confirmed by Adofo-Mensah last week and explained why they would consider the 41-year-old legendary QB.

“Aaron and I have had a relationship for a long time and when he initially reached out and we were able to have some conversations as we are on the hunt to always improve our football team and put our football team in the best possible chance to win,” O’Connell said. “You're constantly acknowledging and evaluating all of the opportunities that may be out there. And certainly that was one that I found to be interesting just because it speaks to what our place has kind of turned into for quarterbacks.”

“At the same time we've had a quarterback plan in place with JJ McCarthy and really like where he's at in that journey right now.”

Rodgers always seemed antithetical to the plan and thematic to the past that the Vikings are trying to escape. Having built a team with expensive free agents around a rookie quarterback contract, thinking about a big-name veteran who would be costly and limit the development of the first-round pick did not fit with the idea of using the rookie QB contract advantage.

Wilf and O’Connell sought to made it clear in West Palm Beach that they want to stick to that path. However, the discussions with a future Hall of Famer were bound to bring about a bunch of questions. Are they really sold on JJ if they are thinking about Rodgers? How is McCarthy going to feel about them discussing other options? O’Connell said that he talked with his young quarterback about the heavily-discussed topic of Rodgers.

“JJ knew of those conversations almost in real time just because I do see him every day throughout the week and thought it was important just so that he was hearing it from me and my perspective from the very first time I had any communication really in regards to Aaron,” O’Connell said.

The head coach still wouldn’t make any type of grandiose QB1 declarations when it comes to McCarthy but he did go into detail about what he saw last year that would give confidence about going with him rather than bringing Rodgers to Minnesota.

“I think the physical traits that we saw, the mental ability to handle high capacity in our offense, I think his aptitude to taking coaching and applying it directly are all things based upon my experience of working with other guys that normally lead to positive outcomes,” O’Connell said. “I think the other part of it that was really exciting to see was the off the field, the way he takes notes, the way he absorbs things in meetings, the way he walks into a room full of teammates and they respond really positive to him, his style, it seems to really resonate with the guys.”

As far as McCarthy’s rehab goes and whether he will be ready to begin the offseason program and pick up where he left off when he suffered a torn meniscus, O’Connell said that they have tailored his recovery to fit what he will be asked to do in his scheme.

“He's been applying [the offense] to a lot of his rehab and we're not allowed to be around and be a part of that right now, but that's where the resources that we do have from Tyler, some of his staff, some of the folks that JJ works with maybe away from the building, there's an umbrella there that we can feel pretty good about the work he's putting in the volume of work that he's put in where he's at from throw count and taking the reps of drops and things like that,” O’Connell said.

As much as the owner and HC shifted the focus to McCarthy as their guy and did their best to put the Rodgers discussion out of the forefront, the reality is that the Vikings won’t really know what McCarthy looks like as the franchise QB until it happens. Adofo-Mensah acknowledged that they couldn’t close the door on the possibility or Rodgers coming to Minnesota unless he signs with another team. However, the way it was phrased, you could reasonably conclude that they wouldn’t consider Rodgers unless something went sideways with McCarthy.

“I feel really, really positive about the path we're going to take with JJ from a development standpoint, from an acceleration of reps,” O’Connell said. “He's going to benefit from an off season worth of reps from the off season program to training camp and being in a competitive situation when our quarterback room is all finalized.”

The bottom line from KOC and Mark Wilf’s comments on the quarterback situation appears to be that — despite a brief consideration of another option — they are staying on track.

That also seems to be the case with Adofo-Mensah’s contract situation. It’s rare that a GM’s contract ever comes into the limelight but the fact that O’Connell signed his new deal almost instantly after the season ended and Adofo-Mensah doesn’t yet have an extension has left some questions about if/when it’s going to happen.

It is particularly notable because they are coming off a 14-win season and have executed this offseason to the point where the roster is significantly more talented and set up well for the future. Usually under those circumstances, there isn’t much left to doubt about where the leadership stands.

Well, Wilf said that we should not doubt where the leadership stands at all. Not only did he say definitively that the team wants to have Adofo-Mensah as its GM going forward but that he does not foresee any changes in the structure of decision making either.

When asked if a contract was something they wanted to get done this offseason, Wilf said, “yes it is,” and expanded by saying:

“Kwesi is part of our football leadership and we feel great about the moves Kwesi has made in terms of positioning — along with coach O’Connell and Rob Brzezinski — of our salary cap position, draft position potential and we have all the faith in Kwesi and we’ve had very, very positive conversations and it’s something we’ll continue to work toward this offseason as far as making sure he’s part of our leadership.”

Wilf continued:

“We don’t want to be a knee-jerk type of ownership, we want to give long-term stability to our football leadership and that’s why that happened….we want to get Kevin and Kwesi done.”

The Wilfs have every reason to sustain the current leadership, particularly because of the reputation they have built over the last three years around the NFL. When Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman were fired, Wilf said that building a “culture of collaboration” was at the forefront of their goals for the next regime and the KAM/KOC building has come through with that in spades.

“We as ownership provide resources with what we think are the state-of-the-art facilities in the NFL and sports world and that’s important but buildings are only one part of it, it’s about people,” Wilf said. “We have the right leaders in the room and players around the league are recognizing that and I think that’s important and this free agency showed that…it’s starting to become a place where people say, ‘this is a place we can compete, my family can be taken care of and I can also hone my craft and I can be taken care of the right way.’ All the kudos to our football leadership for making that happen.”

One interesting wrinkle to the ability to woo free agents to Minnesota is that the salary cap has taken enormous jumps over the last two years. Wilf said that has allowed them to view free agency differently than in the past.

“We feel free agency is also more and more — it’s not just a plug, it can be a team-building tool and we were very methodical these last few seasons in using free agency,” Wilf said. “Ideally you want draft and free agency to work well but with free agents, you have to hit on those guys. They are veterans and seeing those guys hit was a really big part of why we were successful last year.”

All said and done, when Adofo-Mensah’s contract is completed, all the Vikings’ ducks will be essentially in a row. Alignment between ownership, head coach, GM and quarterback along with long-term contracts for superstar players like Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw and Jonathan Greenard and a chance to be a top buyer in free agency each year gives the Vikings a chance to remain highly competitive in the NFL’s best division. That’s what they set out to become in 2022 and it seems they are staying the course with their plan going forward.

“It’s only March but we think we’re in the right direction,” Wilf said.

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