Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell mentioned “time” in over 15 instances during their end-of-season press conference. They said “chance” five times and “leadership” four. Naturally, “competitive rebuild” made an appearance. Curiously, however, Adofo-Mensah used the word “tournament” twice.
“We faced a lot of adversity this season,” Adofo-Mensah said in his opening statement, “but you want to get to a point in your program where you can overcome that adversity and still be playing in the tournament. Obviously, we didn’t meet that, and we are going to spend this offseason working our butts off to get there.”
Adofo-Mensah mentioned “the tournament” again when a reporter asked where the Minnesota Vikings were in their competitive rebuild. “When you look at that,” he said, “the point of that was to still provide ourselves a chance in the tournament every year while regaining financial flexibility, finding the next generation of great Vikings players.”
By “the tournament,” Adofo-Mensah is talking about the playoffs. He does that sometimes, talking about odds, chance, and variance like he’s counting cards at the Bellagio. We should expect that from someone with a Wall Street background. Adofo-Mensah tries to break things into elements to increase the probability of positive outcomes.
“The playoffs” are something Adofo-Mensah watched as a child growing up outside Philadelphia. “The tournament” is a series of single-elimination games after the season that the Vikings must win to the Super Bowl. Suppose Adofo-Mensah can effectively apply what he learned at Princeton and Stanford, trading commodities on Wall Street, and working for the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns. Then, he should give the Vikings the best odds to enter the playoffs with home-field advantage and win their first championship in franchise history.
However, part of the fanbase is already tired of Adofo-Mensah’s approach. He may never go “Full Rams.” But the Wolf of Chicago Ave. acted like he was on the trading floor during the 2022 NFL draft and hasn’t gotten much value in return. Adofo-Mensah traded down instead of drafting Jordan Davis or Kyle Hamilton at No. 12. The Vikings chose Lewis Cine with pick No. 32 and Andrew Booth 10 selections later; neither has become an impact player.
Brian Flores made the most of an undermanned defense. He maximized each player’s strengths to turn around a unit that was dead last in the yardage under Ed Donatell in 2022. Minnesota’s defense finished 11th in DVOA under Flores but gave up 30-plus points in the final three games against the Detroit Lions (twice) and Green Bay Packers. It probably wasn’t good enough to allow the Vikings to go on a playoff run this year.
Brian Asamoah (Pick 66) and Akayleb Evans (118) looked like value selections last year, but they still need to build off their rookie season. Perhaps they fit better in Dontell’s system than the one Flores implemented. Donatell ran a version of Vic Fangio’s defense, which emphasizes keeping the play in front of the defense and getting multiple players to the ball carrier. Flores places most of the defensive players at the line of scrimmage and then drops eight into coverage or rushes six.
Players like Evans, who don’t tackle as effectively, tend to get less playing time under Flores. And undrafted rookie Ivan Pace Jr. usurped Asamoah on the depth chart this season. The Vikings deserve credit for identifying Pace as a UDFA and Mekhi Blackmon at 102. But Davis would have been Minnesota’s first Round 1 defensive line pick since Sharrif Floyd in 2013; Hamilton could have been Harrison Smith’s heir apparent at safety.
Cine and Booth were exciting picks on draft day, but their lack of development has hampered Minnesota’s defense. The Vikings could have used a hard-hitting safety and a lockdown corner this year. “When you talk about young players, the path isn’t always linear, right?” Adofo-Mensah asked rhetorically. “When you study these things, first and foremost, you know that when you study development curves, nobody is peaking in Year 1. That’s not how it happens.”
Minnesota’s playoff chances may have ended when Cousins tore his Achilles on the Lambeau Field grass in Week 8. But Adofo-Mensah wants to reach a point where the Vikings can overcome adversity. To do so, they needed the defense to step up.
Nick Mullens had injured his back, so they traded for Joshua Dobbs. The Vikings won two games with Dobbs before he returned to Earth. Mullens turned the ball over too often, and Jaren Hall looked unprepared. But it may not have mattered because Flores could only do so much with the defensive talent he had. Minnesota lost six of their past seven games because of inconsistent quarterback play.
However, they could have stolen the Cincinnati Bengals game and the Lions game at home with better defense. And they would have needed stout defense to pull off an upset in the playoffs. Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings enter a pivotal offseason. They don’t have a long time horizon to return to the postseason. But with sound decision-making from their leadership, they can drop “rebuild” from their competitive rebuild. And with a better defense, they’ll give themselves better odds to reach the tournament and win it all.
