Vikings' big picture plan takes center stage during camp-opening pressers
Contract extensions and the team's 'time horizon' dominated the discussion before the Vikings hit the field for the first practice of 2023
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — When Kwesi Adofo-Mensah arrived in Minnesota prior to the 2022 season, he used the phrase “competitive rebuild.” He probably didn’t know at the time that it was really going to stick.
On Tuesday, Adofo-Mensah may have become the first general manager to hold a camp-opening press conference and not get asked about a single positional battle or new offseason acquisition, aside from reacting to Jordan Addison’s speeding citation. There were no questions about the cornerback position being up for grabs or the young running back room or whether Dean Lowry and Marcus Davenport can add a little extra juice to the D-line. The focus was almost entirely on the “competitive rebuild.”
That makes sense since the Vikings took a unique direction this offseason. Normally teams that win 13 games look to do it again. They often make all-in moves, blow out their future salary caps and drink the Kool-Aid of media offseason hype. But Adofo-Mensah’s front office did not take that route. Instead they overhauled the roster. It’s worth saying out loud the list of players they let go since last touching TCO Performance Center’s grass for a real practice: Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Patrick Peterson, Dalvin Cook and Za’Darius Smith. That group has 18 Pro Bowls combined.
Not to mention that Danielle Hunter is participating in a “hold in,” and Kirk Cousins does not have a contract after this year.
Adofo-Mensah said that this was the way they wanted to go from Day 1.
“It is a competitive rebuild in terms of how I viewed it when I got here,” he said. “If you look back at a three-year time horizon, that’s the plan we set.”
Three years is notable. Year 1 was clearly an all-in attempt to take one last swing at winning with a veteran-laden team and they came away with 13 victories and a home playoff game. Year 2 is the roster refresh. Year 3 is….when they draft a quarterback, maybe?
Let’s stick with Year 2, i.e. 2023, for a minute.
To Adofo-Mensah there is truth in both words of the phrase “competitive rebuild.” This was not a complete teardown like what we saw from the Chicago Bears last season. That is evidenced by the fact the Vikings did not trade quarterback Kirk Cousins, who has guaranteed a baseline of high-quality play from the position over his career. In a tank mode, they would have moved him.
“When we made the playoffs, I’ll never forget, Kevin and I, that’s our first time together, we make the playoffs and we look at each other, like ‘Man, this is too great,’ Adofo-Mensah said. “We want to be great every year and give ourselves a chance, so that’s kind of what it was. It was, how do you shape shift while still winning?”
That’s exactly what the Vikings are trying to do. In a division that’s highly questionable, they are a few young players hitting away from hosting another playoff game. With the key parts of the offense back and a defensive coordinator who is willing to toss in a blitz (or 20), you can squint a little and see double-digit wins despite all the Pro Bowls lost.
Still, Adofo-Mensah admitted something very interesting: That it’s harder to do it this way than tanking.
“That’s a little riskier than tearing everything down and being bad for a while then coming back up, but we know that,” he said. “I can tell you the mathematical probability of doing it that way and that’s the way other teams may have chosen, but that’s not the way we’re trying to do it. We’re trying to be good, figure out a way to be competitive, give ourselves many chances at it so that we can get one or more championships. That’s what we believe in here, and we’ll always try to pursue that.”
One of the reasons it’s hard to straddle the middle is because being very bad results in drafting quarterbacks high. Justin Herbert just landed a massive contract extension. Joe Burrow is next. Trevor Lawrence is a rising star. Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes weren’t first overall but they were high picks nonetheless. Jared Goff made a Super Bowl. Andrew Luck was a Pro Bowler four times in six seasons. You get the picture. Everyone knows that what comes next at QB is likely to determine whether Year 3 and beyond of the “competitive rebuild” ends up working.
“You always have to be scenario driven in this job,” Adofo-Mensah said of the QB position’s future. “When you go to the draft, you have to be prepared for who’s there, who’s available, what happens if they are not available? Trade back, trade up? So, that’s what we do in this job. The quarterback position is extremely important but it’s no different in terms of being able to prepare for those plans. Again, I’ll always say it, there is a certain level that you need to have to win a championship, so you are trying to make sure you can have that within the confines of within putting the rest of the team around him, and that’s what we’re always continuing to do as we’re here.”
Only a few minutes before Adofo-Mensah opined about drafting quarterbacks, he heaped praise upon Kirk Cousins, saying that the Netflix series Quarterback showed everything he does to succeed in the NFL. A perfect juxtaposition, considering the competitive rebuild is kind of a walking contradiction in itself. During Cousins’s press conference, he mentioned telling his agent not to call him unless something was afoot with a new contract. After he said during the spring that the two sides are going to talk next March, it seems Cousins’s agent won’t be dialing him up any time soon.
The QB wasn’t the only thing that was tangentially connected to Adofo-Mensah’s competitive rebuild, by the way. He was forced to address Jordan Addison’s speeding citation. Later on, Harrison Smith talked about why it might be taking first-rounder Lewis Cine a while to catch on. There’s pressure during this training camp for the GM’s rebuild-y side to look like it’s coming along. The Vikings have almost no experience in the secondary behind Harrison Smith and Byron Murphy Jr. and receiver and running back rooms that hinge on inexperienced players.
The competitive side has a lot of decisions too, starting with Danielle Hunter. He held out of minicamp, presumably with the aim to get a new long-term contract and the team reportedly got phone calls with trade offers. He checked into camp but neither Adofo-Mensah or Kevin O’Connell could say if he will actually practice.
“There’s a lot of things we are trying to work through with Danielle,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Obviously, we haven’t seen him since last season, so that amongst many other issues we are trying to work through with his representatives. Those conversations are ongoing. I don’t want to give you an answer and tell you yes or no.”
That decision impacts how competitive they can be.
Other extensions impact what they have to build around in the future, including Justin Jefferson and TJ Hockenson, who are both up for extensions. The Vikings’ GM wasn’t shy about expressing his admiration for each. He told a story of meeting Jefferson and talking to him about winning and noted that he’s already spoken to Hockenson.
“I actually called TJ in when he got here,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Another person who fits what we want as a Viking here long-term. We’re going to try to find a solution for that as well.”
Contract clouds will be lingering over the opening weeks of camp. We can only wait and see what happens from here and how decisions — or lack thereof — impact the “time horizons.” But we can say that the Vikings are blazing a unique trail that has opened the door to a fascinating summer in Eagan. The most interesting summer in a long time, in fact.
On Wednesday, the team hits the practice fields and begins forging the next phase of the plan.
“I believe we’ve done a lot to get ourselves in a position, but ultimately, we focus on the five feet in front of our face, going out every day and trying to make sure that happens,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’re going to have new players at different positions, and we’ll see what happens, but we’re encouraged by what we’ve seen to this point.”
It sounds like the Wilfs motto in a nutshell to me. We never want to be bad, and we want to figure out how to get better without losing. Which has always meant, and will continue to mean, we stay in the that mediocre middle. We'll win the division a fair bit, we'll make the playoffs now and then, but we'll not really go farther. It sounded that way to me last year a bit, but it feels like all the pieces are proving this to be the case more and more. Doesn't mean the team won't be fun to watch, but if you're looking for a Super Bowl, meh. Kinda the same old, same old in terms of the future, methinks.