Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Future in Minnesota is Beginning to Look Bleak
If you stand in front of U.S. Bank Stadium and look out into the distance, you see some dark clouds beginning to form. It’s a storm cloud of doubt, worry, and uncertainty that is beginning to loom over the glass ceiling of the stadium.
In that cloud, most predominantly is the concern regarding the Vikings’ young starting quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. Making up the rest of the storm is the lack of young talent on the current roster, Brian Flores’ lawsuit with the NFL eventually coming to a conclusion, and a rocky-looking cap situation next year in 2026.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah isn’t the culprit of all of these issues, but it’s hard to say he isn’t on most of them. Am I about to call for him to be fired? No, not yet, at least. But that crazy-sounding idea really isn’t all that crazy in the near future if things don’t improve soon.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in Year 4 as Vikings GM
We are in the fourth year of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah being the lead man of the Minnesota Vikings front office. It’s hard to say there’s much hope for the future when you take off the rose-tinted glasses of being a Vikings fan. Sure, there’s Jordan Addison, who is a stud. Jalen Redmond and Levi Drake Rodriguez (a Brian Flores call) are solid for how the Vikings acquired them. Dallas Turner is even showing improvement.
But take a look around the roster. Where is all the truly promising young talent? Wear the shoes of a fan from a different team; are the Vikings a team where you can see the long-term vision as Justin Jefferson gets older, among other talent?
The main argument for Adofo-Mensah is his strong free agency classes, specifically the 2024 group that included Blake Cashman and Andrew Van Ginkel. Yes, that was a great class. Yet, one question needs to be asked: why do the Vikings need these big-time free agency classes? Is it maybe because the Vikings haven’t been able to draft since the new regime took over?
Assessing the Drafts of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
Yes, Jordan Addison was a good pick. How much credit can you give for that, though? Addison was one of the most heavily-mocked prospects to the Vikings during the draft process, even by people who paid zero attention to USC football or didn’t watch film. No, I’m not saying the football mind is on any level as bad as people who don’t watch, but I don’t give my refrigerator a pat on the back for keeping the food inside of it cold.
I will spare going in depth on the 2022 NFL Draft class, as we are all well aware that that draft was one of the worst of the century in any major sport in hindsight. Throwing hindsight out of the window, the trade-down with the Lions was an awful decision in real-time and felt like a prank. I will throw a bone on one thing to Kwesi in this draft, though, and it’s that Andrew Booth Jr. out of Clemson did feel like the correct selection at the time.
The jury is still out, of course, on the 2024 and 2025 NFL Draft. McCarthy isn’t inspiring much confidence at the moment, as he has genuinely been one of the most inaccurate quarterbacks I’ve seen play the game of football. This can be changed, though, but fixing the mechanics that cause him to sail throws 5-7 yards over receivers’ heads takes some time to change.
Dallas Turner hasn’t made nearly the impact that the pick he was drafted at (as well as the trade capital used to obtain the pick) would be worth the investment. Though again, Turner had a good game this past Sunday and is stuck behind a couple of players from Adofo-Mensah’s fabled 2024 free agency haul.
It is obviously also hard to speak on the 2025 NFL Draft, as these kids are only half a season into their NFL careers. Donovan Jackson has looked good, and that selection was a good call by Kwesi, as many people didn’t see that selection coming, and all of the cornerbacks we mocked to Minnesota at the pick fell way past it.
Everyone else in the draft has done basically nothing, though. Third-round pick WR Tai Felton has been just a special teamer to this point. Fifth-round selection Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins may be a decent depth/rotational piece. Sixth-round picks LB Kobe King and TE Gavin Bartholomew haven’t done anything, with no fault to the latter. Bartholomew has been sidelined with a lower-back injury since early August, while King got released by the Vikings a month into the regular season in October.
It’s Not Too Late For a Turnaround
This isn’t to say things can’t get better under the watch of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. But I am saying that the Wilfs always want to win, and don’t practice much patience with rebuilds. The current rebuild sees the Vikings as a middling team that should be winning games. To be blunt, they aren’t, because their most important investment of the whole era struggles to complete passes to the wide-open best-receiver-in-the-world on the sideline. Is that Adofo-Mensah’s fault? No, but everyone knows that the future of his job relies on the success of McCarthy.
As I mentioned on a recent episode of VikesNow, the Vikings are losing games that they would win if they had quarterback play even just a little bit better than McCarthy’s rough outing the last couple of weeks, most specifically the Bears game. To give Kwesi credit, the team this year is actually good when healthy, but their biggest investment is holding them back.
To be clear, I am in no way declaring myself out on McCarthy or calling for him to be benched. What I am calling for is some attention to the way the Vikings are built. There are a couple of promising young players here and there, and Kevin O’Connell can make do with what he has.
But especially after the last free agency class, all of their best players outside of Justin Jefferson (a Spielman pick), Christian Darrisaw (a Spielman pick), Brian O’Neill (a Spielman pick), and Jordan Addison (Kwesi!) aren’t getting any younger. And there isn’t a ton of backup coming for them as they continue to age.
Thankfully, Darrisaw, Addison, and Jefferson are all relatively young themselves, but the window for the Vikings to win legitimate games and make deep runs needs to be open yesterday. I don’t think Adofo-Mensah needs to be fired effective immediately, and I’m not saying he’s never made a good move. What I am saying is that that conversation is starting to warm up a little bit, and no, it’s not just because J.J. McCarthy is struggling.
It’s because it’s Year 4, and there isn’t much evidence to prove that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah can legitimately draft well or win substantial trades. Like I said, the Wilf Family ownership group wants to win, not be mediocre, and that’s the exact kind of team you’ll have if you can’t draft and consistently lose in transactions with other teams, especially when two of the biggest trade blunders are with a team inside your division that is now an NFC powerhouse.
