Has anyone reading this ever been fired from a job? Was your employer forthcoming enough to tell you that they were planning to fire you? Or were you just going about your business when your boss took you to the conference room and told you they were terminating your employment? The Wilf’s are savvy businessmen. At the end of the day, the Minnesota Vikings are a business. Sometimes, in business, you need a change in leadership.
The NFL is a rare business in that, if the leadership changes, the majority
of staff tend to change as well. I have never been at the executive level of any of my employers, so I don’t know what really goes on behind closed doors in these corporate structures. All we know is the nuggets of information that we gather from the statements and actions of ownership, coaches, executives, scouts, and players.
For us normal folk, if the store manager gets fired or quits, they don’t fire the entire staff. They look to promote from within or bring in an outside hire to replace one person, and the people who quit because the old manager let them get away with half-assing it. From my gauging of public opinion, most people do not seem to be upset about the result of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah being fired, although they may not look positively on how the Vikings’ franchise went about it. I have seen some arguments that the handling of the general manager position is a sign that the Wilfs are incompetent and have no idea what they are doing.
I will say I do see the merit to the premise of that argument, but I have a difference of opinion. I see it as a calculated attempt to spark a fire under the remaining executives and staff. The move also gives ownership the flexibility to blow it all up if the 2026 season starts out like 2025. In Corporate World terms, the stakeholders are going to leverage information gathered from KPIs to ensure that the company can remain agile moving forward…. or something. Kevin O’Connell likely knows this, and in my opinion, if the Vikings fail to WIN at least one playoff game in 2026, we will see a new head coach in 2027.
It is what it is
Let’s stay in the hypothetical world for a minute. If Darnold were on the Vikings for the 2025 season, maybe things would have happened differently. Maybe we would have seen a team that could have taken us to the Super Bowl. In my opinion, an alternative reality is more likely, one in which Minnesota plausibly wins a playoff game, but gets bounced in the Divisional or Championship round. Having perfect hindsight, I argue that Darnold just needed one great game for the Seahawks’ Super Bowl run.
Darnold’s best game of his career came in the Championship game. The performance was definitely needed for them to pull out the victory against the Los Angeles Rams, but was followed up with what I would characterize as a lackluster Super Bowl game by Sam Darnold. The Patriots were really no match for Seattle, so Darnold was able to get away with being a game manager. He didn’t carry the team. He merely did his job and didn’t screw up badly. That’s what he did for most of his time in Minnesota in 2024. However, we saw the competition ratchet up late in that season, and the Minnesota Vikings TEAM couldn’t overcome its deficiencies.
Often, we have to live in this world of hypotheticals. How many other quarterbacks in the NFL could have been as effective for the Seahawks as Darnold was this season? You can answer that one yourselves, but I think it would be a reasonably substantial number. People lose sight, all the time, of the fact that NFL football is the ultimate team sport. Yes, that’s a cliche phrase, but it is known broadly as a factual statement. It is not just about the quarterback.
It is about every player on the 53-man roster fulfilling their individual roles and contributing to the team as a whole. The outcomes of games are also the result of the preparation of the coaching staff and their ability to implement a game plan. There are always professional football players on the other side of the ball. The field and the sidelines are filled with people who have dedicated thousands of hours of their lives to play or teach football.
Do the best with what you’ve got
Rob Brzezinski has 33 years of executive NFL experience and is more than capable of being the interim GM for the Vikings. We still don’t know if this is a tryout for Brzezinski or if he truly is just a placeholder until the position is permanently filled. One thing that we do know is that his name is just as hard to type as Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s (what it makes up for in brevity it loses in ease of spelling). This structural change is theoretically going to put personnel decisions more in the hands of Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores, which would obviously put the pair under a tremendous amount of pressure during the coming months. Kevin O’Connell talks about overcoming adversity on a daily basis, so I hope and believe that he is up for the challenge. If not, well, I already told you my prediction.
What the heck are the Vikings going to do?!?!?!?
The roster, as it is currently constructed, didn’t work in 2025. From Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen to Ryan Kelly and Will Fries, some of the major free agency signings of last offseason did not pan out for Minnesota. Although, to his credit, Fries did start every game of the campaign. All four of these players were coming off injury-plagued 2024 seasons. Hargrave tore his triceps muscle, Allen tore his pectoral muscle, Kelly had multiple injuries that cost him seven games, and Fries broke his tibia.
With the exception of Fries, those players are all on the wrong side of thirty. We all know the older a player gets, the tougher it is to recover from injury. Even for young players, sometimes it takes more than one full season to fully make it back. So, if the newly anointed decision makers in the Vikings’ front office don’t hit the panic button and advertise a fire sale of unbecoming free agent signings, with a wacky waving inflatable arm tube man to try lure in unsuspecting customers, I will hold out hope that these acquisitions come back with a strong 2026 season.
Cap space is tight, but with restructuring options, the Vikings can and will add some depth pieces in free agency. I don’t foresee any splashy signings (except for Kirk Cousins on a $7 million contract), unless the aforementioned fire sale takes place. We have months to talk about this, so I won’t throw out a ton of free agent names or mention too many storylines right now. It will be interesting to see what the Vikings do. During the post-Adofo-Mensah firing press conference with Mark Wilf, you heard the Vikings owner talk about the nucleus that the team has in place. A core group of players that ownership believes can take the lead in bringing our forlorn franchise to championship glory.
The Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell
My question is, “Who is included in the nucleus?” The obvious names, to me, are Christian Darrisaw and Justin Jefferson. Beyond that, I want to say Greenard and Van Ginkel, but based on his contract, Greenard’s tenure will likely be longer than Van Ginkel’s. Jalen Redmond could very well be on that list, too. Josh Metellus and Byron Murphy are likely also players to whom Mr. Wilf was referring, along with Dallas Turner, Donovan Jackson, and (hopefully) J.J. McCarthy. Other than that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any players not mentioned above play for a different team next year. I say “hopefully” J.J. McCarthy because I still think him being the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback is best for the team long-term.
My rational mind wants me to believe that there won’t be significant trades or releases of current Minnesota Vikings players. If the Vikings run it back with most of the 2025 roster in tow, they will need to inject some playmaking and upside through the draft. This means, likely sticking at 18, or if they have to move down, gathering as many early to mid-round picks as they can get. PFF’s most recent mock draft has Minnesota staying at 18 and drafting Clemson cornerback Aveion Terrell. He is on the board about 60% of the time when I use their mock draft feature. They then have Gabe Jacas, EDGE, coming off the board to Minnesota in the second round, and back up Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price in the 3rd round.
The Terrell pick makes sense as a strong-tackling corner with high pass rush grades would be a tremendous asset to the Vikings’ defense. The other two leave me questioning what PFF knows that we don’t. They don’t really extrapolate on picks past the first round, so there isn’t really a way to tell what their justifications are for their analysis. I would guess they’re assuming that some defensive line players for Minnesota get traded. It would also make sense for Flores to want to make the defensive front even more formidable than it already is. We have seen the recent Super Bowl success of teams that can get after the quarterback with just a combination of four down linemen.Part of the success of those teams in the past two years is tremendous depth and a mix of veteran and explosive young players.
Third round, I could see Minnesota going running back, but the top names that come to my mind are Jonah Coleman, Emmett Johnson, or Seth McGowan. I think the Vikings should lean into the handoff merchant talk about J.J. McCarthy and build a studly, bruising, and explosive running back room. As much as he is admired and respected as a leader in the locker room, Aaron Jones’ best days are behind him. He still has the skill and athleticism to compete in the NFL, but I just can’t bring myself to trust his durability. I only throw McGowan in there since he has ties to Minnesota’s new assistant offensive line coach, Derek Warehime.
I guess PFF’s guess is as good as anyone’s.
Conjecture season is in full swing. We will guess what things will happen, some of those guesses will become reality, but there will be many surprises as well. With conjecture, for me, inevitably comes hope.
Until Next Skol.
- Jesse M.
