The Tennessee Titans drafted Cam Ward first overall this year, but no team took a quarterback before the Minnesota Vikings picked at 24. The Vikings weren’t going to take a quarterback after trading up to take J.J. McCarthy last year. However, a reporter asked Kwesi Adofo-Mensah if the lack of quarterbacks taken in the first round justified moving up for McCarthy a year ago.
“I don’t really walk the earth trying to justify things I did,” he responded. “I’d probably say the same thing. We go into every decision knowing exactly why you do something, the intent behind it, the collective and collaborative environment we create, where we know what we’re doing, and you can live with the results either way.”
Minnesota traded up for McCarthy and Dallas Turner last year, and we don’t know how they’ll pan out. McCarthy suffered a meniscus tear in the preseason and missed the rest of the year. Dallas Turner played a rotational role behind Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel.
Adofo-Mensah knew that trading up for both players left Minnesota with only four picks this year. However, he didn’t want to be left wondering what could have been had he stood pat and not traded up for McCarthy and Turner.
“I just know when a player is that much of an outlier standing out, we trust our board, and our evaluation process is pretty good,” he said.
“We saw how things were going. We knew that there were teams coming up, and we confirmed that there was a team that had a deal with the team, and I had to go a little bit more aggressive. But for players like that, who we would have taken at 11, who we thought were gonna go before we picked, you don’t end up regretting those decisions.”
Adofo-Mensah said he doesn’t want to walk the earth trying to justify past decisions, but he used his ill-fated first draft as a learning opportunity. Minnesota used its first three picks on Lewis Cine, Andrew Booth, and Ed Ingram, who are no longer with the organization.
After waiving Cine in August last year, Adofo-Mensah admitted he was trying to do too much at once in the 2022 draft. He had an aging roster with multiple team needs. Instead of sticking and picking Jordan Davis or Kyle Hamilton, he traded down to try to add a safety, a cornerback, and a guard.
“I think at times I might have been guilty of trying to maybe have a 33-point play all at once,” Adofo-Mensah said, reflecting on the 2022 draft, referencing Minnesota’s 33-point comeback against the Indianapolis Colts that year. “And I think once I identified that, I kind of … you’ve seen since then [the Vikings draft process] has been really foundationally just taking good steps, building to a certain critical point where I think we can compete over the long term.”
Safety, cornerback, and guard were three of Minnesota’s biggest needs entering this offseason. Harrison Smith is 36 and contemplated retirement last year, and Camryn Bynum signed with Indianapolis. The Vikings’ cornerback room is uncertain again. Kevin O’Connell said their interior offensive line must improve after the Los Angeles Rams blitzed Sam Darnold relentlessly in the playoffs last year.
However, Adofo-Mensah was trying to do too much at once. Hamilton could have become Smith’s heir apparent; Davis would have been the first defensive lineman the Vikings had taken since Sharrif Floyd in 2013.
Hamilton came with injury risk, and PFF ranked Davis 49th among 219 defensive linemen this year. Still, Cine was a lesser safety prospect, Booth had significant injury risk, and Ingram had character concerns. Ultimately, the Vikings came up empty-handed.
The Vikings focused on the trenches in free agency. They filled most of their roster holes before the draft, allowing Adofo-Mensah to take the best player available with any of Minnesota’s picks. Instead, he reached for versatile offensive lineman Donovan Jackson at 24.
Drafting Jackson aligns with Minnesota’s plan to develop McCarthy with clean hands. Jackson completes the infrastructure plan around him. However, Adofo-Mensah didn’t trade down to acquire Jackson, who was 36th on the consensus board. He also drafted for need instead of value.
“It’s the nature of picking 24,” Adofo-Mensah explained. “You can’t control what happens before you, and, ultimately, you just got to identify players that fit your team, fit your wants, how you want to play, and he was somebody that we identified and we were really excited to have.”
Adofo-Mensah could have traded back with a quarterback-needy team like the New York Giants and hoped that Jackson fell to them in the mid-30s. They would have gotten better value for the pick, but they may not have gotten the player.
We won’t know if Jackson pans out for a while, and we also don’t know if McCarthy will thrive in an almost ideal situation for a quarterback. However, we know that the Vikings changed their draft process. They’re adapting their process because they don’t want to walk the earth with regret.
