Two weeks before the draft, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said he accounted for irrational actions in his preparations. “You have to you have to build in some rationale,” he reasoned, “just because [of] the position and the need.” And while he couldn’t move up for Drake Maye at No. 3, he landed J.J. McCarthy at 10 without giving up significant draft capital.
“We’re really excited about what we were able to do tonight,” Adofo-Mensah said after the draft. “Obviously, there was a lot of things outside of our control, so we wanted to make sure that we were ready for every scenario.”
He likely called the New England Patriots about pick 3 so he could take Maye, and the Los Angeles Chargers reportedly gave him “a flat no” when he called about Justin Herbert. Then the Atlanta Falcons shocked everyone, including Kirk Cousins, by taking Michael Penix eighth overall. Cousins is on a four-year, $180 million contract ($100 million guaranteed), and many experts had Penix going in the middle of the first or early in the second round.
“I tell our players when we do deals, ‘There’s an uncomfortable middle,’” Adofo-Mensah said in mid-April. “I think this is one of those uncomfortable middle exercises. Maybe it’s to the right of the uncomfortable middle, maybe it’s to the left. So, I don’t think you’re supposed to sit there and say, ‘They’re gonna give Kwesi some great deal because we like him.’
“But I do think you’re supposed to price in, you know, a little bit of irrationality.”
However, the New York Jets picked up the phone when Adofo-Mesnsah called about the 10th pick. Minnesota’s war room had to be sweating as the New York Giants took Malik Nabers at 6, and the Jets reasonably could have taken McCarthy as Aaron Rodgers‘s successor. The Vikings traded No. 11, a fourth-rounder (129), and a fifth (157) for No. 10 and a sixth-round pick (203).
“There was certainly a range of emotions…kind of sitting in a place where you know that quarterbacks were going to be very popular in this draft,” Kevin O’Connell admitted. “That’s where you lean on that process. You lean on making sure that, you know, you feel comfortable with multiple scenarios because that’s really what it is when you go through a draft like this.”
Minnesota got McCarthy at value. Kiper had the Vikings trading picks 11, 23, and their first-round pick in 2025 for pick 5. Kevin Siefert had them trading picks 12, 23, 108, and their third-rounder in 2025 for pick 5; Field Yates had them trading picks 11, 129, and their 2025 third-rounder for pick 8. All three had them taking McCarthy.
The Jacksonville Jaguars also picked up the phone, trading pick 17 to the Vikings for No. 23, a fifth-round pick (167), and their third- and fourth-round picks next year. Minnesota used that pick on Dallas Turner, the first time they’ve taken a defensive lineman since Sharrif Floyd in 2013.
“Turner was a guy that we had identified once we had selected a quarterback, and we were able to hold on to first-round assets not only 23 this year but into the future,” said O’Connell. “We really identified Dallas among a very, very small group of defensive players that we thought were impact players in our front that in some other drafts…would not be around for us to possibly trade up for.”
Ultimately, the Vikings ceded control in the draft when they pushed to make the playoffs decided to push to make the playoffs despite starting 0-3. They added Dalton Risner and Cam Akers and chose not to trade Kirk Cousins when they could have bottomed out and tried to get a top pick.
Cousins’ masterclass against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football probably prevented them from tanking. The Vikings entered the Niners game at 2-4, with wins over the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears. Had they lost, they probably would have bottomed out. Instead, they won and pushed to make the postseason.
They couldn’t have known that Cousins would get hurt the following week at Lambeau Field. And nobody saw Joshua Dobbs demanding leaguewide attention after beating the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. However, the Vikings lost six of their next seven games and finished in the uncomfortable middle at 7-10.
By doing so, they ceded control. They couldn’t trade into the top three and must turn McCarthy into a championship quarterback. Getting Turner at No. 17 addresses a longstanding need. But that and anything else the Vikings do from here on out doesn’t matter unless McCarthy becomes the quarterback Minnesota has been looking for since Fran Tarkenton retired in 1978.
