Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Words Point to Some Vikings Corner Additions
K. Joudry
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Some of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s past comments suggest that the Vikings corner position is going to be addressed before too long.
Shortly after concluding his first draft, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah met with the Minnesota media. At times, the young executive expressed his excitement, revealing his optimism about the potential emanating from his ten selections.
Yes, the Vikings had made some great picks despite the controversial decisions to do business with a pair of division rivals. The hope was palpable.
After discussing the decision to aggressively move up to acquire CB Akayleb Evans, Adofo-Mensah shared a bit about his corner philosophy: “In this league, cornerback depth is important. You need four good ones, at least. You need depth, year-in and year-out that position will get challenged.”
Obviously, those words were being delivered in a different context. Of his initial six picks, five were spent on defense. And of those five, three were earmarked for the defensive backfield. At first a pick was used on safety Lewis Cine, but then it was a pair of corners: Andrew Booth Jr. in the 2nd and the aforementioned Evans in the 4th.
At the time, Patrick Peterson, Cameron Dantzler, and Chandon Sullivan sat atop the Vikings’ corner dept chart. Kris Boyd stuck around and the team was working with other depth players, as well. Tossing the two draft picks into the mix gave the GM enough confidence in being able to meet that “4 good corner” threshold (at the time, no one could foresee Duke Shelley blossoming in Minnesota).
More important for our purposes, perhaps, is the current state of the team’s corner room. Previously, I’ve argued that the overall CB room needs to double in size since they’re currently working with just five players.
Now, we’d be foolish to completely overlook Tay Gowan and Kalon Barnes. Shelley reminded us that sports are wonderfully unpredictable. At times, players overcome the odds to put up great play on the field. Gowan and Barnes face an uphill battle but can’t be outright overlooked. They own a roster spot and will have the chance to prove they can help the defense to thrive.
That being said, the GM still needs to do more. Simply hoping for a massive leap from depth players isn’t a wise strategy.
Ahead of them are Byron Murphy, Evans, and Booth. It’s a trio that offers a fair bit of potential but also quite a bit of uncertainty. All three missed significant time last season due to injury. Booth has a reputation for being injury prone and his rookie season did little to challenge that narrative.
By the GM’s own admission, a team needs at least four good corners. In other words, an ideal world would bring more than just four. Given some of the uncertainty in the top trio, Adofo-Mensah may feel inclined to add multiple corners in the draft.
Once the event is done, the GM will barrel towards undrafted free agency to attract some of the highly-regarded talent that slipped through the cracks. It feels like a near certainty that a CB or two will be among the UDFAs. Afterwards, free agency will re-enter the equation. Marcus Peters, Rock Ya-Sin, and Shaquill Griffin will be names to monitor (among others).
Mike Zimmer wasn’t a perfect coach, but he was onto something when he would ponder aloud about there being no such thing as too many corners (just one more, he’d insist). He understood that matching up with the other team’s receiving weapons – and, ideally, shutting them down – was instrumental to defensive success in the pass-first NFL. How can you do that without competent corners?
Quite often, the mock drafts send CB help to Minnesota (at least when a QB isn’t being shoehorned into Minnesota’s opening-round pick). Some of the top names to remember are Deonte Banks, Joey Porter Jr., Cam Smith, and Kelee Ringo.
Regardless of who gets picked, know that Minnesota’s GM believes the team needs to add more corners. The NFL Draft runs from April 27-29.
