Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and the Game of O-Line Ping Pong
Any sense that Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah aren’t perfectly aligned in the 2025 offseason?
The pair have been playing some ping pong when it comes to the team’s interior offensive line, hitting answers back and forth about Minnesota’s approach to the roster weakness. A decent bit has been said by the team’s two main leaders, leading to some confusion about what free agency approach the Vikings will take next week.
Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, & The iOL
The LA Rams piled up 9 sacks while defeating the Vikings in the Wild Card Round. O’Connell, maybe in the heat of the moment, was quite forthright in his opinion that the iOL needed to take a step forward.
Consider some of what was said in his post-game press conference. Per O’Connell, Minnesota needs “to find a way to solidify just the interior of the pocket […] For me it’s the foundation of the interior of the pocket that we’re going to have to take a long look at.”
The overarching sense is that Blake Brandel, Garrett Bradbury, Ed Ingram, and Dalton Risner simply weren’t good enough last season, especially when it mattered the most in the playoffs. Can those players summon sufficient improvement in their own game or does there need to be more talent brought aboard?
Maybe predictably, Adofo-Mensah was asked about improving the front five in the GM’s press conference following the season. The GM was a bit more tepid in his response: “Having studied it, I would agree with what he said. What I would say is, though, I think a lot of times everybody hears that and thinks that it’s, that the answer is kind of simple. And the answer can come from different ways.”
The GM then notes several options, including different personnel, internal improvement, better/adjusted scheme, or even having better receiver talent.
At the NFL Combine, O’Connell was again asked about the interior offensive line. The head coach appeared to backtrack a bit, noting that he didn’t specifically promise to “replace” anyone. He then discussed the importance of “an emphasis on how I believe we need to play” alongside “a level of execution and a level of physicality that I think holds up.”
Finally, consider a bit of what Ryan Grigson — stretching the rules a bit by including the thoughts from Minnesota’s Senior VP of Player Personnel — had to say. Per Grigson, Adofo-Mensah is “really excited” about Walter Rouse, the 6th-Round lineman from the 2024 NFL Draft. Grigson goes on to describe how Rouse is getting a look at guard: “Rouse has got some reps at guard. With him being so big, he kind of fits the mold of someone that could body someone and get into their pads and be able to move them off the ball because he is physically strong, he’s got good quickness.”
Unfortunately for the Vikings, Trey Smith has been taken off the market due to the franchise tag. The young right guard appeared to be a great option, but Minnesota will need to look elsewhere if there’s an appetite to sink some major money into one of free agency’s top interior linemen.
Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will thus be debating the merits of pursuing players like Indianapolis’ Will Fries, Chicago’s Teven Jenkins, Detroit’s Kevin Zeitler, Pittsburgh’s James Daniels, Philadelphia’s Mekhi Becton, and/or Jacksonville’s Brandon Scherff (among others). A center like Atlanta’s Drew Dalman could also be of interest.
For whatever it’s worth, Adofo-Mensah hasn’t shown much willingness to sink major money into the center and guard spots. We’ll see if the trend changes during the 2025 offseason.
The team’s top leaders have always emphasized collaboration and having a positive work culture that thrives on communication, but it’s Adofo-Mensah who will get the final say on who is signed.
Minnesota has roughly $63 million in cap space.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap 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.