Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is Looking for Minnesota to Become a Contender, But There’s a Caveat
In a lot of ways, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah thinks Minnesota is turning a corner.
An earlier conversation with Tatum Everett involved Adofo-Mensah reflecting on his competitive rebuild mantra, joking that he won’t be using those words in tandem anymore. More fascinating was his insistence that the current offseason always looked like a major one in terms of Minnesota’s ability to compete (it’s a “turning point,” per the GM). But within that objective is a caveat that is central to how Adofo-Mensah approaches his job.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Competing with a Caveat
Kwesi is consistent on this point, folks: he will not be boxed into a corner.
The GM knows the future is uncertain and so he’s constantly setting up contingency plans in case things go well, poorly, or somewhere in between.
“You always want to give yourself outs and options,” Adofo-Mensah explains. He clarifies that he feels “fortunate to execute a plan but right now, again, those are just plans and optimism.” Indeed, all the Vikings have is possible success and the hope of competitiveness. Everything from here forward will need to be earned.
Now, it’s worth explaining that much of Adofo-Mensah’s answer is about the past. He’s reflecting on these past couple years and how things could have gone in different directions. Since 2022, the hope was that the 2024 offseason would function as a key moment in the Vikings’ ascent toward being among the NFL’s very best teams.
Crucially, though, Adofo-Mensah brings some of the present into the mix at the tail end of this answer.
Yes, the GM has been hard at work bringing the plan through to completion, but “right now” he is confronting the reality of being left with mere “plans and optimism.” In other words, there’s excitement about how things have unfolded but there’s also a sober-minded understanding that there’s considerable work ahead.
Earlier in the same conversation, Adofo-Mensah speaks to being thankful for accomplishing the “goals” he has established with Kevin O’Connell. The idea gets balanced by the understanding that “you still got to go out every day and work” while proclaiming that “team building is eternal.”
The major takeaway is simply that Minnesota’s top executive is stepping into the future with a pair of truths. In one hand, Adofo-Mensah is holding onto the belief that his team has been successful in turning the 2024 offseason into a critical turning point for the Vikings. In the other hand, he is holding onto the reality that success is no certainty and that more needs to be done.
So, look for the Vikings to be competitive in 2024. It’s their self-stated goal, one that has been in the works for a little while. And yet there must also be a simultaneous understanding that winning isn’t a foregone conclusion, a truth that Adofo-Mensah unpacked a couple weeks ago.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.