It would have been so easy for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Minnesota Vikings general manager who is still looking for an extension, to play it safe in the 2025 draft. Most believe Kwesi’s draft history — headlined by a disastrous 2022 class — is a big reason for the Vikings being slow to commit. How do you cover yourself in that situation? Don’t get cute, and take the best player available, particularly if it upgrades the secondary. If there’s no fit, trade down and get more picks.
No one in SKOLville would be angry at either outcome, and for a GM looking to improve his draft reputation, keeping the fan base from going, Here we go again, is a big first step.
Love it or hate it, you have to admire the sheer lack of fear Adofo-Mensah showed in the first round. The easy paths were available to him. He could have upgraded the secondary with Michigan’s Will Johnson (10th on Arif Hasan’s Consensus Big Board), the second-ranked cornerback in the draft behind Travis Hunter, or top-rated safety Malaki Starks (16th on the CBB). Adofo-Mensah could have also traded down to 34th, picking up third-rounders in 2025 and 2026 from the New York Giants.
Instead, he grabbed Donovan Jackson, a move that leaves the GM open to a lot of second-guessing. While the NFL’s newest trend is gravitating toward the interior offensive and defensive lines, guard is still not considered a premium position. Jackson landed at 36 on the CBB, which will be pointed at by many fans as evidence that Minnesota could have traded down and still got “their guy.”
But if Adofo-Mensah cared about that, he would have followed what the consensus opinion would have told him to do. Instead, he did what he thought was right. And if he’s right, then he solved his team’s biggest problem for the long term.
Jackson performed extremely well at left tackle when pushed to the outside in October, but his home with the Vikings is going to be at guard. And after suffering through years of the overmatched Ed Ingram, Blake Brandel, and Dalton “The Rizzner” Risner, this should be music to fans’ ears … if they’re not hung up on the pick being off the board.
The scouts back up Jackson’s tape: He’s the exact kind of run blocker up the middle the Vikings have lacked for years. According to NFL Draft Buzz, Jackson “shows nasty finishing instinct in the run game, consistently driving defenders five yards off the ball before planting them.” He’s a mauler, but Jackson is more than that. Bleacher Report notes, “In pass protection, Jackson shows good lower-half mobility and pad level to sink, brace, and root his feet against the bull rush.” He held his own at tackle for a reason, folks.
The Vikings are finally through playing offensive line roulette. They’ve got Jackson in between one of the league’s best tackles in Christian Darrisaw and a multi-time Pro Bowl center in Ryan Kelly. On the other side, guard Will Fries comes in with a fierce reputation as a run blocker and built-in chemistry with his fellow former Indianapolis Colt, Kelly. That’s it. We’re done here.
Or so they believe. If that is the case, though, their biggest weakness is solved. The Vikings aren’t going to get exploited up the middle by high-end defensive tackles. They’re finally going to be able to punch out some tough rushing yards, after being forced to lean too heavily on the pass because of their inferior interior.
Clearly, Adofo-Mensah believes Jackson is a Day 1 starter, and the Vikings very much need that for 2025. The team just went 14-3 last year. It’s win-now time. Minnesota may have J.J. McCarthy taking his first steps as a starting quarterback, but Aaron Jones isn’t getting younger. They traded for Jordan Mason in the offseason. Those investments need to pay off, and drafting Jackson is a solid bet to maximize their offense.
That’s all true, of course, only if Adofo-Mensah is correct about Jackson. If he ends up as the second coming of Ed Ingram, then the door is wide open to second-guessing the Vikings’ GM once again. Especially if, for example, someone like Starks becomes a star on the Baltimore Ravens’ defense. Kwesi’s draft history already makes him vulnerable, and whiffing on another high-profile pick — especially one that didn’t play “by the rules” — would put him on even thinner ice with Vikings fans.
But while that would scare other GMs into self-preservation mode, Adofo-Mensah is sticking to his guns and doing what he believes is best. Whether or not the pick works out, you have to give it to him: At least he will know that he did things exactly the way he wanted to.
