After years of playing it old-school, the Minnesota Vikings committed to a modern, innovative front office. Kwesi Adofo-Menasa and Kevin O’Connell will lead this team to the new generation of NFL management, and I’m here for it.
Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead put it best after the Super Bowl win via t-shirt:
The Rams haven’t had a first-rounder since 2016 and won’t again until at least 2024. Teams may be more willing to trade their first-round picks after seeing the Rams win the Super Bowl. But that doesn’t mean the Vikings will.
The new GM and HC have different backgrounds in pro football. So, will the Vikings tap into O’Connell’s background and mimic the Rams? Or does Adofo-Mensah want to build a team through the draft as his former teams have done? What are the other alternatives?
Here are three paths I can imagine the front office taking:
The Les Snead approach
I’ve been skeptical of LA’s team-building since the madness started in 2018. There is a shortlist of players the Rams have gotten from trading their first-round picks, and most are wins.
The Rams used five first-round picks to bring Brandin Cooks, Jalen Ramsey, and Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles. That’s before mentioning Sammy Watkins, Marcus Peters, and Von Miller. Snead has a clear strategy in place.
There’s some merit to using the first-round picks and clogging the cap in the future to win now. That’s because this is not akin to a get rich quick scheme, but rather a taking out student loans and the classic dying-broke scenario.
But don’t get wrapped up in the recent trend. Many competitive teams use their first-round picks to get generational players on affordable contracts. The problem is that’s not guaranteed, and the Rams wanted results. Cooks, Watkins, and Peters didn’t win the Super Bowl with them this year, but the Rams got assets in return from trading them away. Those are far more valuable than what the Vikings got for Laquon Treadwell, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Jeff Gladney.
The fact that this strategy has resulted in a Super Bowl for the Rams and, to some extent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s worth it. A Super Bowl cures all ailments. So I say give it a shot.
The Browns and 49ers strategy
Adofo-Mensah comes from the San Francisco 49ers, the Cleveland Browns, and Wall Street. And no, I don’t mean r/WallStreetBets. I mean the real deal. That means he’s not just a gambling addict but a Princeton grad who will effectively use data to make critical decisions. And the two teams he’s worked for have had pretty damn good results lately.
The Browns and 49ers have been two of the premier teams in the league the last few seasons. Before you roast me for saying the Browns have been a premier team, remember they are the Browns, a winning season is premier for them.
The most notable thing these two teams have done is focus on the offensive and defensive lines – two elements in which the Vikings are sorely lacking. Not only that but the cliché that games are won and lost in the trenches is true in most cases.
Cleveland and San Francisco were both top-11 in pass-blocking and top-four in run-blocking this year, per PFF. That makes quarterbacks like Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo look much better than they are while limiting the opposing quarterback.
The Browns/Niners approach will surely make the Vikings a competitor, but it takes some time, and isn’t as flashy. Nobody wants to draft offensive linemen early or trade for them, but that’s the reality of what it takes to build an effective pocket for Kirk Cousins to succeed.
Or perhaps a new QB?
The sell-out for an elite quarterback strategy
Drafting Tom Brady probably solved whatever problems the New England Patriots had at the time. So the Vikings should just do that, right?
The point is they should at least try to take a swing at QB within the next two seasons unless Cousins and O’Connell are going to turn into some sort of Megazord when they start working together.
There are some big names floating around. Kyler Murray wants a trade, Deshaun Watson is reportedly interested in the Vikings, and then there are QBs becoming free agents. I don’t think any of these are likely, but they are fun to fantasize about.
What I see in the near future is the team investing in a QB through the draft. I imagine O’Connell wants his own guy to orchestrate his offense. Sure, Cousins will probably fit it well, but he’s expensive. By drafting a franchise QB, they can emulate what the Kansas City Chiefs, Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks, and even the Cincinnati Bengals have done.
The Vikings are hiring people from many different NFL backgrounds, so their strategy may combine all of these. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they start doing what the Browns and 49ers have done while keeping Cousins as their QB.
O’Connell has said he likes what Cousins brings to the table, and he’s under contract. No matter how you feel about Cousins, there is a lot of indication that he’s staying. The thing is, a top-10ish QB can make it work, as we just saw with Stafford leading the Rams to a Lombardi. He just needs an O-line to help him do it.
I want the Vikings to ultimately build a team as the Browns and 49ers have, but with one caveat. They need to be more aggressive. That includes getting a QB if the front office moves on from Cousins.
