It’s Time to Grant Kwesi Adofo-Mensah His Draft Hit
The Minnesota Vikings undoubtedly haven’t had the best track record in the draft in recent years, dating back to the Rick Spielman era, pretty much since the phenomenal 2015 class. GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has received a ton of scrutiny for his contributions to the matter. He completely botched the 2022 class, 2023 delivered Jordan Addison (and pretty much T.J. Hockenson), and the jury is still out on the last two drafts.
It’s Time to Grant Kwesi Adofo-Mensah His Draft Hit
In 2024, J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner arrived early, and Adofo-Mensah skipped day two of the draft because he had spent the capital on trades for Hockenson and Turner. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see his vision for Khyree Jackson unfold.
On the same day, he acquired some solid football players in the sixth and seventh rounds. Walter Rouse and Michael Jurgens are depth players along the offensive line, and that should be the expectations for late-rounders. Kicker Will Reichard has been mostly excellent in his time in the Twin Cities.
And then there’s defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez, who surely looks like a draft hit about one-and-a-half seasons into his career.
While it’s still too early to tell whether the pair of first-rounders will turn out to be the cornerstones they were drafted to be, Rodriguez has already reached the baseline a seventh-rounder needs to clear to be called a success. He’s more than a backup nowadays; he can safely be called a rotational player.
A sweet aspect is that the Vikings have other players along the line, and he’s not just contributing by default. They employ a couple of expensive free agents in Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, as well as breakout star Jalen Redmond. One could count fifth-round rookie Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, too. Simply put, if he couldn’t play, the Vikings would just turn elsewhere.
Still, Rodriguez has played in all eight games (one start) with 208 defensive snaps. He’s still the fourth-ranked interior defender, but he’s playing a respectable 41.68% of the snaps and is a valuable player on Minnesota’s front. Those 41% are comparable to the number departed Viking Harrison Phillips played in his first three seasons in Buffalo. He logged between 38% and 41% in all three years.
In his opportunities, Rodriguez registered 24 tackles and one sack with seven tackles for loss. He’s also pressured opposing QBs eight times. According to PFF, the sophomore ranks 8th among 66 interior defenders with at least 100 run-defense snaps with a run-stop rate of 9.9%.
Now, add in the blocked field goal he generated on Sunday and you have a pretty nice asset. That play earned him the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors and played a significant role in the upset over the Detroit Lions.
Rodriguez’s development is certainly encouraging. About three months ago, it was fair to wonder whether he would even be around at the time of the season opener, with Hargrave and Allen arriving in free agency and Phillips still on the team at the time. Redmond and Ingram-Dawkins elevate the number of DTs to five, and suddenly, there might not even be room for him.
Last season, he was inactive in most games and only suited up twice, playing six snaps on defense and 11 on special teams. He made one tackle.
It turns out draft prospects require time to grow. Rodriguez also had to overcome the fact that he played at Texas A&M Commerce, which does not quite face the likes of Georgia or Ohio State.
The defender is 25 years old. His run-stopping ability will be tested on Sunday when Derrick Henry is on the other side of the line of scrimmage and wants to get past him.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.