Takeaways from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's post-draft press conference

The Vikings' GM presented a new timeline with a young quarterback

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By Matthew Coller

At the end of Day 3 of the NFL Draft, Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah met with the Twin Cities media to talk about the draft and the big picture of where the organization stands as the roster building portion of the offseason is essentially over.

Here were the biggest takeaways:

‘How do you raise a quarterback?’

From the moment Kirk Cousins elected to sign with the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings’ sights have been set on finding a franchise quarterback that they can develop in the coming years. When they picked JJ McCarthy with the 10th overall selection, it became clear that the development part of this will be extremely important because he is inexperienced in college and only 21 years old.

Adofo-Mensah said they have been preparing for this very situation for years.

“It is something that we've been planning a long time and have put in a lot of work and the result of it is here,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Now all those plans that we've talked about since we first interviewed Kevin and all our two-year conversations of, ‘Now, how do you raise a quarterback?’ and all those things. Now we shifted that part of the plan, and I can't wait for that.”

Adofo-Mensah talked about the importance of being on the same page with head coach Kevin O’Connell when it came to this decision and the process ahead.

“There'll be ups and downs but I know that we always talk about buy-in being the biggest thing, we’ve got to be locked arm and arm so when he throws that pick in OTAs that were just laughing at each other,” Adofo-Mensah said. “That's what this takes, that me and him are OK with it. There's no finger pointing. This is just how we're gonna go, and we're gonna support this person and get the best version of him and see where that takes us.”

Goodbye competitive rebuild

Early in Adofo-Mensah’s tenure he used the phrase “competitive rebuild,” which has become the defining term for the team’s overall plan. While he joked about that term on Saturday, it actually turned out to be exactly what the Vikings did over the last two years by completely reshaping the roster from the old regime to the current one.

The final piece of the competitive rebuild puzzle was drafting a quarterback that they could continue to build around. That means that the end of the draft marks the end of the “competitive rebuild” phase and ideally onto the transition into being a contender year after year.

“Overhaul it's a better term than I used when I first got here,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Maybe that's the term I should have used. We did have a plan to kind of shape the roster and see what it looks like. And I think if you look big picture at it, you'll see what we were trying to intend and do. We're happy we've accomplished it.”

The Vikings’ GM did note that the team views the next part of its plan as being 2024 and 2025.

“We're really, really excited with what we're able to do,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Now that next part of the two-year vision starts and you keep going there and you hunt like you did the two years before it.”

It may end up being quite relevant to the continued construction of the squad that the Vikings did not have to give up their 2025 first-round draft pick.

Justin Jefferson negotiation update

Amidst draft season we saw receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and AJ Brown sign contract extensions. We are still waiting on Justin Jefferson and the Vikings to come to an agreement on a long-term deal. Is it on the way? Adofo-Mensah said that they have continued “dialogue” but put talks on pause for the draft.

“We did say, ‘Hey, this couple of days, the draft’s coming. Obviously they have players that they represent. We have our process, and either way, whenever we sign him, we want Justin to have his whole week,” Adofo-Mensah said. “You know that friend that has a birthday that takes the month, I think Justin would deserve his whole month if we signed a contract, to celebrate it. So you know, we're excited to work toward it. We're gonna keep going. You can't have all these plans where you talk about all these visions and not talk about the king linchpin, so we're going to keep working toward that end goal.”

For those who enjoy rumors about Jefferson being moved, the phrase “king linchpin” suggest very strongly that there is no truth to any rumors that the Vikings would consider anything other than extending their superstar receiver this summer. St. Brown’s deal made him the richest receiver in the NFL at $30 million per year. Expect Jefferson to clear that significantly.

Drafting a kicker

The Vikings’ track record of drafting kickers in recently history isn’t exactly convincing but they felt there was a unique opportunity with Alabama’s Will Reichard. It’s not often you run across college football’s all-time leading scorer.

Adofo-Mensah said that the special teams staff and analytics staff put together a list of potential targets and both came up with Reichard’s name.

“The key thing is to really adjust for context, distance, situation, you know, different elements and just kind of see where guys end up – and how does that relate to the NFL?” Adofo-Mensah said. “That's one of those great positions where, whether it's college or different leagues as you've seen in the NFL, it's kind of a clean transition. They're kicking a ball through an upright, and you want to kind of learn different things from that.”

Finding Levi Drake Rodriguez

Adofo-Mensah and Ryan Grigson seemed downright giddy about landing Rodriguez. They talked about how college scout Blaine Gramer presented the FCS standout from Texas A&M Commerce University to the staff and they brought him to TCO Performance Center on a top 30 visit.

Adofo-Mensah explained the whole process from the start to drafting the defensive tackle.

“These [scouts] are driving six hours, haven't seen their family, and then they drive to the school and they see something that looks different and then they get excited and then they call their college director, the college director tells [Ryan] Grigson and Grigson is probably the most excitable person I've ever met in my entire life when it comes to football players. Then he is now in my office, in my front door, asking me to stop whatever I'm doing to watch this player. So that's kind of how that chain goes up the building, and it's a really fun thing to watch. And, and then we have these meetings where we have our scouts present their players, like, ‘Who's the guy you know, we really want to get?’ And he was one of the players presented.”

“Going there late, we had a chance to maybe trade up and lose a pic. And we were thinking, ‘Well, we want to get both of our targets,’ which we ended up getting both. And the person was like, ‘Well, we can't lose out on Levi Drake because of all that you know all that's come to it.’ I’m not saying you do things for morale or culture or things like that, but you want to reward the hard work that all the people put into it. And we think he's a talented player, a growth-mindset player, I can't wait to get him in this build.”

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