Let’s Not Forget Kwesi’s Own Words About the Vikings’ Incoming Comp Picks
Turn back the clock and be rewarded with a clue from Kwesi’s own words.
Earlier in the week, the debate fire was lit when Over the Cap‘s Nick Korte published a piece detailing his projection for compensatory selections in 2025. Korte contends that the Vikings are getting a lonely 3rd after all of the numbers have been crunched. Seems fairly straightforward, so where’s the disagreement?
Before discussing that debate a bit, let’s give the microphone to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
Minnesota’s young GM had a long conversation with KFAN’s Paul Allen back in mid-March. Predictably, a lot of the focus was on free agency. Within that discussion was a prompt from Allen about potentially getting a pair of 3rd-Round comp picks. The GM’s response: “There’s a calculation. So it could be two 3rds, but we should, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least one 3rd. And then some other ones.”
Catch that on the back end? And then some other ones. Is the plural intentional?
Kwesi’s Own Words and the Vikings’ Comp Pick Potential
Korte is an authority on compensatory picks. In my experience, he does good work. The issue is simply that he’s dealing with a genuinely confusing topic.
The comp pick masterminds in the NFL are a mysterious crew.
And to his credit, Korte has pretty consistently asked for feedback and more information if there’s a blind spot in his analysis. In an iron sharpening iron moment, the reporting from The Star Tribune‘s Ben Goessling helps (something that Korte sees and responds to in an amicable manner).
Take a look at the word from the Vikings writer: “I’m told the team was always expecting one (and only one) third-round pick next year, from losing Kirk Cousins. The Vikings figured Jonathan Greenard’s deal would cancel out Danielle Hunter’s contract; they never expected two 3rds.”
Goessling goes on: “As I understand it, the Shaq Griffin signing on March 19 came after the Vikings had already estimated they’d get only one (not two) 3rd-rounders next year. They’d determined he wouldn’t cost them a second 3rd, because they never expected to have one in the first place.”
And finally: “If Griffin plays enough, it’s possible he’d factor into the calculations for a later-round comp pick. But the Vikings’ projections had already ruled out the possibility of a second 3rd before they signed Griffin.” The idea from Goessling about a potential impact from Griffin on a “later-round comp pick” aligns with Adofo-Mensah’s words from the Allen interview.
Keeping up? Korte’s work points toward a single 3rd coming to Minnesota with the Griffin signing potentially throwing a wrench into the plans if the hope was to snag a second 3rd. Goessling helps to nuance the conversation by noting that the Vikings never had another 3rd coming anyhow, so the Griffin addition was — in the words of Dr. Evil — inconsequential (relatively speaking).
Do Kwesi’s own words still help to guide us at all? I think so.
The aforementioned interview with Paul Allen went online on March 18th. The veteran corner was signed on March 20th (per Korte). In theory, Adofo-Mensah could have been right at the time — the Vikings were getting a 3rd and then possibly another late-round pick(s) — but they’ve since lost that chance due to the Griffin deal and Dalton Risner not signing prior to the draft.
In the end, we’re going to need to content ourselves with some uncertainty. Korte arrives at that conclusion, “The Vikings have one 3rd round 2025 comp pick & Griffin on their team, and we can leave it at that.”
There’s some wisdom there, folks.
Immediately after suggesting that the team is looking for a 3rd and then “some other ones,” Adofo-Mensah moved into some uncertainty, as well: “That math is something that Rob and Emily tell me about, they’re great at it. But we’ll see as the season goes.” In other words, there’s still some things we need to learn since we’ll need to “see as the season goes.”
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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.