The Minnesota Vikings were in the middle of a playoff chase during the 2021 season. After starting the season by losing three of their first four games before winning four of the next six, the Vikings were in a game that they absolutely needed to win against the Green Bay Packers.
Kirk Cousins tapped into the persona that would eventually become Kirko Chainz, throwing for 341 yards and gains of 56 and 43 yards in a 34-31 win at U.S. Bank Stadium that day. But the most important thing he would do this afternoon was not gaslight another fruitless playoff quest or the end of the Mike Zimmer era. It was describing a 26-yard pass to Adam Thielen on the final drive.
“I could kind of point to a half-dozen throws that were too aggressive. … I don’t think you want to live doing that,” Cousins said via The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling. “…I keep saying we’re [on a] razor’s edge, but that’s a play where it’s an example of it. The difference between him catching that and making the play he did, and it going the other way is very small.”
Zimmer would later retort that he wanted Cousins to “go for the jugular.” However, Cousins’ words exemplify what the Vikings could become. They were a team that needed to hit every pick, win every play, and execute flawlessly just to have a chance to win the game. If it didn’t, they were usually going home without a win.
Four years later, the Vikings are in a different spot, and it shows how Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has helped get his team off the razor’s edge.
The change dates back to the spring of 2020. The Vikings had just won their first (and only) playoff game with Cousins, but needed to reload the roster. Linval Joseph and Xavier Rhodes were aging out, and other players were following them out the door. Rick Spielman needed to find a solution fast, but a Cousins extension tied one hand behind their back.
That influenced Spielman’s draft strategy. The Vikings hit a tape-measure home run with Justin Jefferson, but swung and missed with most of their 15 selections. The strategy was accumulating multiple Day 3 picks to throw as many darts as possible. However, Minnesota backed itself into a corner; they needed most of them to become contributors.
The draft wasn’t a total wash. Ezra Cleveland, K.J. Osborn, Blake Brandel, and Josh Metellus became NFL contributors. But the Vikings didn’t just need contributors; they needed starters.
The 2021 draft didn’t provide much help. Christian Darrisaw was another home run, but it was too late to make up for the rest of the class. Kellen Mond, Chazz Surratt, and Wyatt Davis drew Zimmer’s ire, and the Day 3 picks only provided a starter (Camryn Bynum) that Zimmer would never be around to use.
Zimmer infamously described his team as “a house of cards” before the 2021 season, which showed in the results. Fourteen games would be decided by one score, and an 8-9 record cost Spielman and Zimmer their jobs. But it wasn’t just that Zimmer was losing the game, and lost control of the locker room. It was that the Vikings were playing a game of whack-a-mole.
If a starter went down with an injury, they were screwed. If Cousins made a bad play or Greg Joseph missed a field goal, they were screwed. And if the defense didn’t hold – you guessed it – they were screwed.
The problems ran so deep that Kevin O’Connell inherited them in his first season. O’Connell received credit for helping a roster that underachieved under Zimmer overachieve to a 13-4 record and an NFC North title. However, it was extremely fluky with 12 wins in one-possession games. When they lost, they lost big, and eventually the slot machine ran dry when Cousins checked down on a fourth-and-eight in a playoff loss to the New York Giants.
So, how do you solve the problem? You either find Patrick Mahomes or build a roster strong enough to withstand anything.
The Vikings didn’t have this roster in 2023. Faced with a 1-4 start, Cousins did his best to rally the troops before his Achilles snapped at Lambeau Field. With Jefferson nursing a hamstring injury, Minnesota charged ahead but came up short thanks to a lack of options at quarterback and a rash of injuries and fatigue that swept through the defense.
Minnesota had better luck a year ago when they used the savings from Cousins’ departure on Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard, Blake Cashman, and Aaron Jones. Sam Darnold’s $10 million contract also became a bargain, but the Vikings still ran on wishes and dreams.
After a strong start, the running game sputtered, and Darnold had to win the game in crucial moments. It worked on a third-down pass that sealed a Week 17 win over the Packers but went haywire when Darnold got the yips on national television. If he had a running game, he could have countered the Detroit Lions’ aggressive pass rush. Instead, they lost a 31-9 game that was closer than the score indicates.
The following week, the offensive line folded. Darnold was sacked nine times in a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and O’Connell didn’t hold back discussing the interior of the offensive line. The time to fix these problems was now, and Adofo-Mensah had been laying the foundation for it to happen.
The 2022 draft was a disaster, but Adofo-Mensah rebounded to find Jordan Addison in 2023. We don’t know if J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner will turn out, but it’s not the end of the world if they don’t, because of the infrastructure the Vikings have created.
O’Connell helps, but so does finding a UDFA gem like Ivan Pace Jr. Another free-agent haul, including Ryan Kelly, Will Fries, and Jonathan Allen, helped. Having adequate starters gives some of his previous draft picks to develop behind the scenes.
It’s a foundation that Detroit hasn’t figured out, as 13 injuries on defense sabotaged their dream season. It’s one where McCarthy can have a tough day but lean on a running game led by Jones and Jordan Mason. Even the defense is strong enough to win games, making life easier on a first-year starter at quarterback and throughout the whole team.
If something goes wrong, they have the chance to fix it. It’s something that Cousins wishes he had during that 2021 season.
