The Twin Cities received its first dusting of snow in the hours leading up to the 2023 trade deadline, and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah proceeded to offer up a couple flurries of his own. But the Minnesota Vikings’ activity was nowhere near the blizzard of trades some expected.
In an ultimately un-splashy trade deadline, the Vikings made a late-round pick swap to acquire QB Joshua Dobbs and solidify the team’s passing depth without Kirk Cousins (Achilles), who they officially placed on injured reserve. Shortly after, they dealt fourth-year guard Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after Dalton Risner stepped in and made Cleveland a superfluous asset in his contract year.
Net, the Vikings slightly diminished their interior offensive line depth and slightly improved their quarterback depth while exchanging late Day 3 draft picks of little consequence.
However, the biggest story of the lukewarm deadline day was what Adofo-Mensah didn’t do: commit to being a buyer or a seller.
You could’ve made a strong argument in either direction.
Without Cousins, the Vikings’ Super Bowl odds dropped to 120/1 via FanDuel. That’s worse than the reeling Green Bay Packers (110/1). Even with talented yet polarizing veteran quarterback Cousins, the Vikings were longshots to make a run all the way to Las Vegas. Now, to make a Super Bowl trip, they would need Dobbs to be the next Kurt Warner or Hall to be the next Tom Brady.
Longshot might be too mild a term.
On the other hand, Adofo-Mensah’s football team is playing its best ball of the season and sitting in playoff position with a soft schedule up ahead. Therefore, a case could’ve been made to add complementary talent and/or find a bigger-name quarterback, one to preside over the high-functioning offense and get the ball to Justin Jefferson upon his return from a hamstring injury. But the Jameis Winston rumors, among others, will have to rest.
In what amounts to more or less a free rental, the inexpensive Dobbs gives the Vikings an extra body in the short term while Nick Mullens recovers from a back injury. He’s also a potential fallback for rookie Jaren Hall if he struggles. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has already committed to Hall as his Week 9 starter at Atlanta while Dobbs gets familiar with the playbook. The future beyond that is uncertain. However, by acquiring Dobbs for virtually nothing, the team should have the flexibility to play whichever quarterback gives them the best chance to win.
And winning ostensibly remains the goal, even though Adofo-Mensah did nothing to fortify the team’s skill positions or defense. (And if you have as many as three quarterback options, do you really have any at all?)
Wins against San Francisco and Green Bay may have saved the Vikings from an inevitable sell-off; four-and-four, it turns out, looks infinitely better than 2-6. Vikings ownership would’ve been hard-pressed to green-light a firesale at any record, let alone a .500 standing and a credible path to the playoffs. Likewise, Adofo-Mensah called tanking “unconscionable” earlier in the year. Two big wins in the span of six days may have saved Adofo-Mensah from the obligation to shop some of his better veterans.
Still, Cousins’ injury casts a pall over what would’ve otherwise been an exciting Tuesday full of opportunity.
Defensive linemen Leonard Williams, Montez Sweat, and Chase Young — all traded in the last 48 hours — would’ve been talent boosters to the Vikings defensive line that has lacked interior rush and has missed Marcus Davenport for the majority of six games. But Minnesota stood idly by and watched a division rival and two other NFC playoff contenders scoop up the pass-rushing help.
Danielle Hunter can only get so many sacks by himself.
And yes, Hunter will be getting those sacks in purple after being retained for at least another nine games with the franchise that drafted him in 2015.
Perpetually at odds about his contract and the source of trade rumors, Hunter and the Vikings have survived yet another deadline together. Dealing Hunter might’ve been perceived as a waving of the white flag on the 2023 season. That said, after seeing Sweat go the Chicago Bears for a second-round pick, it was hard not to envision Hunter going for the same or better to a pass-rush-starved franchise.
Social media commentators will assuredly roast Adofo-Mensah for not trading Hunter as fervently as those who lobbied for the Vikings to find him a new cohort. Unenviable might be the word to describe the GM’s position.
It doesn’t look like a stockpile of picks is coming the Vikings way in next April’s draft, when one assumes they need to make a move for a quarterback of the future. Minnesota is equipped with a first-round pick, a second-round pick, no third, and a decent arsenal of Day 3 currency. Nothing fancy. The Vikings had almost nothing to show for losing Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen, and Za’Darius Smith last offseason. Now Hunter may be added to that list unless Minnesota springs for an unlikely in-season extension. As veteran talent leaves the organization or ages out of their productive years, the Vikings badly need a talent injection. Sans a horde of high draft picks, Adofo-Mensah will have to go about things more creatively.
Fans are still learning his modus operandi after less than two years on the job. To summarize so far: Adofo-Mensah doesn’t like going full tilt in any direction.
The GM tossed both sides of the aisle a bone on Tuesday. He got a quarterback with just enough juice to keep the playoff fire burning and dealt a left guard with barely enough value to move the meter. Adofo-Mensah often refers to personnel decisions as “making bets.” But on deadline day, he held most of his chips and checked after seeing the turn, to steal a poker phrase.
Adofo-Mensah can’t meaningfully change the roster again until free agency in March. Therefore, it will be a while before we get to see the proverbial river card. It wouldn’t be out of character for Kwesi to check after that one, too.
