The Vikings Future Is Very Promising
Henrique Gucciardi
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One year ago, the Minnesota Vikings made the decision to hire former Los Angeles Rams OC Kevin O’Connell as the 10th head coach in team history. This happened a couple of weeks after the ownership hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as the new general manager.
Together they launched the Vikings into a new era, with a GM driven by an analytics and mathematics background and an HC part of a new, young generation with innovative offenses who can easily connect with his players. It wasn’t a perfect first season – obviously, as the team didn’t win the Super Bowl – for them but more than enough to make the Vikings future look very promising.
Adofo-Mensah got heavily criticized after his first Draft, especially for trading with two division rivals and passing on Kyle Hamilton to select another safety later in the first round. However, he did his part in trying to boost a secondary that ended up being one of the worst in the entire league.
It’s not his fault that Lewis Cine, his first pick, had a gruesome leg injury, or that the two cornerbacks selected couldn’t stay on the field. Andrew Booth was a great prospect but missed a lot of practice in the offseason, and Akayleb Evans showed some flashes before suffering 3 concussions.
During free agency, he was able to bring in Za’Darius Smith, who was having a great season prior to a knee injury that bugged him for weeks. Then mid-season, he swung a trade to acquire T.J. Hockenson, a Pro Bowl-caliber tight end with potential to be All-Pro and was the second-best pass catcher on the team.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Rob Brzezinski, and the front office will have a tough time creating cap space – the team is more than 20 million over the cap -, but there are a lot of ways to do it.
O’Connell inherited an older roster (especially on defense), took a team that combined for 16 wins in 2020 and 2021, and won 13 games and the division in his first season. Again, it wasn’t perfect. He can still improve as a play caller and play designer but those are understandable issues if you consider that it was his first time calling plays.
For 2023 he’ll have a year of experience under his belt, already went through things that most coaches never get to experience – like the games against the Bills and Colts -, got a taste of the playoffs, and will also have a brand new defensive coordinator in Brian Flores. The new DC’s philosophy is the exact opposite of former coordinator Ed Donatell, believing in a blitz-happy approach to create pressure on the QB.
The offense has all the tools to improve, with Cousins getting more comfortable on it, Jefferson wanting to improve on his 1800 yards season, Hockenson having a full offseason with the team, and the possibility to add another receiver.
On the other side, it’s basically impossible for the defense to get worse, but we’ll see Cine back (his recovery is amazing), the secondary will see improvements, Brian Asamoah hopefully will develop, and, if the pass coverage is improved, Hunter and Smith can create havoc in opposing backfields.
