Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah says the Vikings have a “preferred scenario” for the NFL Draft but “everything’s on the table.”
The 42-year-old general manager, who is orchestrating his third offseason for the Vikings, is armed with enough draft capital following Friday’s trade for the Houston Texans’ No. 23 pick to potentially make a move into the top five, presumably to select a player who could become a franchise quarterback in Minnesota.
“That move gave us the best flexibility. I would say at this point there’s a preferred scenario but the process is ongoing, we’re still evaluating things at every position,” Adofo-Mensah told KFAN’s Paul Allen during a Monday morning interview. At the moment I would say there’s a preferred scenario but evaluation is ongoing.”
Adofo-Mensah also said “everything’s on the table,” essentially reiterating the point he made last week after the Vikings signed quarterback Sam Darnold that Minnesota is not locked into drafting a QB in the first round.
He then said Darnold is in a new situation with new pieces around him, perhaps the right kind of pieces to help him live up to the expectations that the Jets had when they drafted him third overall in 2018.
“I think all these terms like ‘bridge quarterback’ and ‘team manager’ have connotations that come with it,” Adofo-Mensah said of Darnold. “We like Sam, we like what he brings to the team. You think about the life cycle of the quarterback and when they hit their peak, then you talk about the context around them – what offensive line, what system, all those things matter – we looked at Sam as someone who could give us a performance in that position.”
Adofo-Mensah is armed with two first-round picks for the draft on April 25. He could package Nos. 11 and 23 and more to move into the top five to land one of the better quarterbacks in the draft. Caleb Williams is expected to go first overall to the Bears, and then the Commanders and Patriots could take a quarterback – perhaps Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye – with the second and third overall picks.
If Minnesota can’t get into the top three, they could negotiate a deal with the Cardinals for the No. 4 overall selection and take a quarterback. Who will be available at No. 4 is a mystery as the next month and change could see Daniels, Maye and J.J. McCarthy move up and down the board.
