Quality over quantity had to be the Minnesota Vikings’ mantra coming into the 2023 draft because they entered with only five draft picks.
By the time the dust settled on Day 3, they made a handful of trades and ended with six total selections and some extra capital for the 2024 draft. All six players were from positions where they had serious needs.
The draft appeared to be more cohesive than Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s first bite at the apple in 2022. There were no draft-chart debates because every chart said Adofo-Mensah got good value on his trades. There were no positional debates because four of the six picks came from the three of the four highest paid positions in the NFL (i.e. quarterback, wide receiver, cornerback).
In his press conference on Sunday, the Vikings’ GM said that he felt more prepared than last year. During his first draft, Adofo-Mensah was going through the hiring process while the rest of the league was getting ready for their offseasons. This time he had the benefit of an entire offseason to plan for every scenario.
“I watched so many more players, we were so much more strategic about parts of the board that we thought would be available to us, knowing our roster, knowing our needs, and every single player that was in our queue, we all had an idea, a good hypothesis for why they would make our team better, make our team to begin with, and then make our team better,” Adofo-Mensah said. “The character, all these different things, it just felt like we as an organization were just so much more aligned.”
So while the thematic draft landed the Vikings a partner for Justin Jefferson (and new toy for head coach Kevin O’Connell) and versatile defensive pieces for new defensive coordinator Brian Flores to mold into his shape-shifting scheme, the Vikings did not find an answer to the biggest question that faces their future: Quarterback.
When the Vikings were on the clock with the 23rd overall pick, they could have taken Kentucky quarterback Will Levis. They could have sat him for one year behind Kirk Cousins and then turned the keys over to him and taken all the advantages that come along with a rookie quarterback contract.
Instead they chose to make the future supporting cast better for Future Starting QB X and picked a mature fifth-round quarterback in Jaren Hall.
When Adofo-Mensah was asked what it all means, he opened the door to an eventual Cousins extension, which had appeared to be off the table after they restructured his deal.
“Sometimes you come to a place where it’s like, let’s talk later, this is the solution for now,” Adofo-Mensah said of the Cousins contract situation. “That’s all that’s happened. In this year and this draft we found an opportunity to get a player [Hall] that we frankly thought should have been picked long before then.”
Related: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah says the door is still open on Kirk Cousins extension
Leaving every option open by not picking Levis or Hendon Hooker has a good chance of being the right decision. First, it’s preferable for the Vikings to take a quarterback that head coach Kevin O’Connell wants rather than pairing him with Levis just because it’s theoretically a good idea to take a swing at quarterback.
There were only two options in this draft for the Vikings, whereas the 2024 draft could have more options, particularly if they have more draft capital to move up in a trade. There’s also the possibility of another veteran looking for a home. At this time last year, did we expect Aaron Rodgers to be a Jet? Or Derek Carr to play for the Saints? Did we ever think Matthew Stafford would be a Ram or Tom Brady a Buc?
Extending Cousins and forgoing the opportunity to even look at those options would be a puzzling choice considering his age, the price tag and the current regime not being tied to him. While we did see a middle class of QB contracts emerge this offseason with Carr and Daniel Jones landing deals between $37-$40 million, that’s still in the ballpark of 15% of the salary cap — a model that hasn’t worked. Would they really want to lock in for multiple years and restrict themselves in terms of roster building and QB flexibility?
Of course, there have been teams who ended up stuck without a good quarterback for many years and many coaches and GMs got fired along the way. Washington is set to start a fifth-rounder; The Jets tried multiple times at the top of the draft and failed; The Colts and Washington failed attempting to rekindle Carson Wentz’s early-career success.
“We like where we are at the quarterback position, but every option is open to us going forward,” Adofo-Mensah said.
Unless the Vikings make a stunning post-June 1 trade for Trey Lance, uncertainty will linger over the organization for another season. It’s also now part of the story of the Adofo-Mensah-O’Connell era that they have passed on two QBs in two years that were picked shortly after they were on the clock (Kenny Pickett, Will Levis). Will their lack of willingness to throw a dart at the most important position come back to haunt them? Or will their patience pay off?
The Vikings didn’t resolve the short-term issues that have been hovering over them in the draft either. Neither Za’Darius Smith or Dalvin Cook were traded despite buzz that it was possible they could be moved.
“We’re keeping communication open with both those guys, we’re always trying to find solutions for both them and us and we’ll continue to do so,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Again, the dialogue will remain open with them.”
The Vikings drafted running back DeWayne McBride, which further points toward the creation of a by-committee RB room that includes Alexander Mattison, Ty Chandler and Kene Nwangwu. Normally a seventh-rounder wouldn’t be expected to compete but Adofo-Mensah said he had “kind of a starter grade” and the RB position has historically had the quickest adjustment to the NFL for rookies.
If he can’t be traded, per OverTheCap.com, releasing Cook after June 1 would create $9 million in cap space this year and $12.5 million next year. Smith’s situation similarly comes along with more cap space being created if he’s cut loose post June-1 ($8.7 million). There’s no particular rush but the draft may have been their last opportunity to get something for either player in a trade.
The Vikings’ brass might not be able to go on vacation even if the Cook/Smith situations are resolved. Danielle Hunter skipped workouts while he waits for contract resolution and Justin Jefferson and TJ Hockenson are eligible for contract extensions. It stands to reason that the team would want to all of these things wrapped up before training camp.
So the Vikings walk away from the 2023 draft with a good haul of players at positions of need. Maybe it was always unrealistic to expect that they would force decisions at QB and with Cook/Smith before they needed to be made.
The draft usually symbolizes the end of the most significant future-shaping moves. For the Vikings, we will have to wait, maybe a few weeks/months or maybe until this time next year.
