Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Best and Worst Draft Trades
Constrain things to just the swaps that have taken place during the actual drafts: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s history includes pulling off eleven trades.
No doubt, the GM isn’t afraid of pulling off a deal if he feels as though it’s in the best interest of his team. To be sure, some of the moves he likely regrets, but that’s part of the nature of pulling off swaps: some hit, others miss. What have been his best and worst deals?
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Draft Trades: The Good and Bad
An obvious point, perhaps, but one worth starting with: the J.J. McCarthy move has the potential to blow every other draft trade to smithereens.
Indeed, landing a true franchise quarterback at No. 10 after hopping up a single spot would be tremendous work if McCarthy fulfills his potential. An awful lot hinges on that tiny, two-letter word — if — but the truth remains. Landing a legit QB1 would prove to be the best trade that Adofo-Mensah has orchestrated, as long as things work out.
Next up could be the move up for Dallas Turner. Edge rusher is arguably the most important position in the sport once we eliminate quarterback from the mix. Getting a stud EDGE1 at No. 17 would be good work even if the hop up was costly.
Shrink things down, though, to trades that have more settled results. The one that is the GM’s best is the deal with San Francisco from 2023. Adofo-Mensah shipped No. 87 (3rd Round — S Ji’Ayir Brown) to his former employer, getting No. 102 (3rd Round — CB Mekhi Blackmon), No. 164 (5th Round — QB Jaren Hall), and No. 222 (7th Round — RB DeWayne McBride) in return. Yes, the actual players picked are somewhat underwhelming, but that’s a nice bit of business to turn one pick into three.
As for the worst trade? Well, there are a lot of contenders.
Without there being any sense of hyperbole, basically every trade from 2022 — all six — have aged poorly. Goodness, pretty much that whole draft class has aged poorly. The crown jewel is a 6th-Round receiver who has missed a ton of time due to injury, only recently putting in a full season where he cleared 400 receiving yards while hitting 6 touchdowns. Not bad, especially for a Day 3 receiver, but that’s the draft’s best player. Ugly, folks.
Some will instinctively insist that the Lewis Cine trade has been Adofo-Mensah’s worst. No doubt, it’s in contention for the dubious prize. From the outset, the deal itself looked very bad. A good rule to follow is that dropping a staggering twenty spots in the draft’s highest round — going from No. 12 to No. 32 — without getting an extra 1st is awful work. The rotten cherry on top is that the player selected at 32 didn’t work out at all, playing a whopping 10 defensive snaps before getting cut.
A small silver lining is that the Lions don’t seem to have gotten an elite weapon. Super speedy and explosive, Jameson Williams just topped 1,000 yards last season in Ben Johnson’s brilliant offense. Can he soar any higher? If not, then getting scooped up at No. 12 won’t age too well. His teammate, Amon-Ra St. Brown, is a much better receiver.
The worst trade from Adofo-Mensah, however, is the one for Andrew Booth. The GM moved up to grab the Clemson corner, doing business with the Colts. Getting No. 42 in 2022 meant giving Indianapolis picks No. 53 (2nd Round — WR Alec Pierce), No. 77 (3rd Round — OT Bernhard Raimann), and No. 192 (6th Round — TE Andrew Ogletree). Booth lasted just a pair of seasons and wasn’t very good. Before his third season arrived, Booth got sent to Dallas for Nahshon Wright, who has recently been cut.
In fairness, there was a mid-round pick that came back to Minnesota in that Colts trade, but that hardly offsets the poor outcome.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is hoping that his draft trades turned a corner last year with the moves for McCarthy and Turner. If so, then a lot of past sins will be forgiven. Excellent play from a quarterback and edge rusher can do that.
Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings will venture into the 2025 NFL Draft with just four picks. Most expect the GM to pull off at least a deal or two to push the pick total a bit higher.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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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 social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.