Kwesi Has Trained Us to Prepare for the Unexpected
K. Joudry
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Before devoting my time toward Vikings writing, I studied poetry. Yes, it was a love of prosody that helped me land a gig covering Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Kevin O’Connell, and the rest of the gang in Minnesota.
One of the best professors I had while in university advised me to be sensitive to how a poet deploys their diction (a fancy word for, well, words). Oftentimes, the poet will train us how to understand certain words. The basic idea was that words aren’t static. On the contrary, they’re constantly shifting, moving around and acquiring new meanings depending on context, repetition, and a variety of other factors.
Over the course of a poem — or perhaps even an author’s entire oeuvre — specific words can become associated with certain images or themes, different meanings and resonances. Part of becoming a better literary critic, then, involved being sensitive to how poets use their language, allowing for more sophisticated analysis that can (hopefully) unlock new meanings for the work we’re studying.
Alas, that’s maybe an overly long-winded, nerdy way of coming around to the main point of this morning’s piece. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the young general manager of the Minnesota Vikings, has trained us since taking over for Rick Spielman. More specifically, he has prompted fan and analyst alike to prepare for the controversial, strange, and unexpected.
Kwesi and The Unexpected Move for the Vikings
Be honest: you didn’t foresee the Lions trade, did you? Some of you will ask about which one I’m discussing and that simply reinforces the point. Neither deal was easy to predict.
Initially, there was the trade that I still don’t like but maybe should start admitting it appears to favor the Vikings: the draft-day trade that involved shipping out picks #12 and #46 in exchange for #32, #34, and #66. Undeterred by the pessimism from hacks like yours truly, Kwesi again did business with Detroit, bamboozling the division rival into handing over T.J. Hockenson (with a pair of 4ths in his back pocket) for just a 2nd and a 3rd.
Surprising stuff from the analytics GM.
What about the deal for Josh Oliver? Did anyone really expect Minnesota to make the former Jag and Raven such a priority? Bringing Hockenson into the purple fold meant that the team was basically set at tight end, right?
And what about the move for Jordan Addison in the opening round? Deonte Banks and Joey Porter Jr. were both on the board when Minnesota hit the clock. I, for one, was telling everyone within earshot (mostly just my wife and dogs) that the Vikings would be walking away with one of the highly-regarded corners. Instead, the rich got richer: Minnesota’s wealthy offense got even more wealthy by bringing the young playmaker to Minneapolis.
Clearing off some of Kirk Cousins’ cap hit during the offseason wasn’t unforeseen. What was surprising, however, was the manner in which Kwesi got those cap savings. He simply converted $20 million of Cousins’ compensation into a signing bonus, saving $16 million in 2023 while tossing that number onto the debt pile in 2024.
What about subtracting 5 veteran corners — Patrick Peterson, Cameron Dantzler, Chandon Sullivan, Duke Shelley, Kris Boyd — and only onboarding a pair of veteran corners: Byron Murphy and Joejuan Williams. That’s certainly not how fans would have approached the situation.
Waiting until June to cut Dalvin Cook was odd, deciding to retain Jordan Hicks caught many by surprise, and leaning so heavily on void years was a potentially dangerous move. Kwesi didn’t seem to care about the outside perception, though.
The Vikings have found a way to keep Danielle Hunter around and there’s potential for signing Dalton Risner. Extensions should arrive soon for Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson but the Vikings’ GM isn’t beholden to anyone’s timeline except his own. Even his continued allegiance to the competitive rebuild ethos is controversial, a uniquely balanced approach that ruffles feathers since it fails to fit into a neat and tidy method of team building.
Never shy about pulling off a trade or moving money around, Adofo-Mensah probably has a couple more tricks up his sleeve before the season arrives on September 10th. Keep an eye on the GM but don’t fool yourself into believing that you know exactly how things will unfold.
Stay tuned.
