Vikings’ Top Decision Maker Points Toward “Preferred Scenario” in 2024 NFL Draft
K. Joudry
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Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn’t like being boxed into a corner. Even still, the Vikings’ top decision maker has a certain outcome that he’s most interested in seeing come to fruition in the 2024 NFL Draft.
While chatting with KFAN’s Paul Allen, Adofo-Mensah addressed the issue. The GM explains that he “would say at this point there’s a preferred scenario.” But, of course, the team’s “process is ongoing” while the team continues running through its “evaluations.” “Right now, there’s a preference, but these are things that update in real time as we get new information,” Adofo-Mensah further clarifies.
Vikings’ Top Decision Maker is Looking for a Certain Outcome in 2024 NFL Draft
Currently, Minnesota is armed with nine draft picks for the 2024 NFL Draft.
The most obvious recent change involves the blockbuster deal that Adofo-Mensah pulled off with Nick Caserio of the Houston Texans. For a pair of 2nd-round selections (’24 & ’25) alongside a late-round pick swap, the Vikings were able to scoop up an extra 1st in 2024. The end result involves Minnesota being the proud owners of the 11th and 23rd going into late April.
Earlier in the interview, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah says that he made the move with the Texans to ratchet up his team’s flexibility. Allen asks if the “buzz word around here [is] flexibility” leading the GM to confidently say “absolutely.”
On this point, Adofo-Mensah has been quite consistent. He has always tried to confront an uncertain future by leaving his team with the opportunity to pivot when necessary.
That’s a major reason why he was willing to say “no” when navigating contract negotiations with long-time Vikings players like Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter. Not sinking major money into these veterans allows the Vikings to move into the near future with a hearty amount of cap space.
But even though the team’s top decision maker will leave all possibilities open, the consensus from outside of Eagan is that the Vikings are gearing up for a run at a quarterback. Most assume that bringing in a second 1st-round selection is meant to equip Adofo-Mensah with the ammo to shoot his shot, potentially climbing up to somewhere in the 3-5 range to snag someone like Drake Maye or J.J. McCarthy.
Cousins’ departure alongside the unsettled nature of the QB position — Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens, & Jaren Hall are all jostling for position in the passer hierarchy, though none are a sure thing — create a clear need to find some sort of lasting solution at the NFL’s most important position.
All of the uncertainty can go by the wayside once April 25th, 2024 arrives.
On that Thursday night, the NFL will participate in the opening round of the NFL Draft. Left unchanged, the Vikings will walk away from that evening with a pair of excellent players. One wonders, though, if the “preferred scenario” for Kwesi involves sinking a very high pick into a QB with very high upside.
Since taking over in January of 2022, Adofo-Mensah has pulled off a whopping twenty trades. He’ll very likely need to push that total to twenty-one if he’s going to land one of this year’s best passers.
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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.