It doesn’t take a refined approach to determine that poor drafts ultimately got Kwesi Adofo-Mensah fired from his job as Vikings general manager.
For a specific example of just how valuable a batch of good drafts can be, look no further than the Super Bowl champion Seahawks.
Seattle has received more than three times as many starts (571) from picks in their past four drafts than the Vikings (172) have received.
As Ben Goessling noted on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast, the draft remains the lifeblood of any well-run organization. There are other ways to win, as the Vikings showed with a strong free-agent class in 2024, but ultimately poor drafting will catch up to a team.
At the start of today’s 10 things to know, let’s take a more detailed look at how specific draft decisions have left the Vikings where they are now (and left Adofo-Mensah out of a job):
- In many ways, Adofo-Mensah chased his bad 2022 draft, the first of his tenure, for the entirety of his time in Minnesota. Specifically, the Vikings received little value from picks in the secondary: First-round pick Lewis Cine, second-round pick Andrew Booth Jr. and fourth-round pick Akayleb Evans. Combined with 2023 third-round pick Mekhi Blackmon, who was shipped to Indianapolis for a sixth-round pick after falling out of favor here, misses on corners in particular have caused the Vikings to fill out their secondary with free agents.
- Quarterback is obvious. Though the jury is still out on J.J. McCarthy, his 2025 debut after a season-ending injury in 2024 was not encouraging. His struggles figure to lead the Vikings into the free-agent QB market this offseason, tying up precious resources the team had hoped to be able to spend elsewhere. Let’s not forget that Adofo-Mensah dealt a fourth- and fifth-round pick (while getting back a sixth) to move up one spot from No. 11 to No. 10 in 2024 to make sure the Vikings got McCarthy.
- Let’s also look at fellow 2024 first-round pick Dallas Turner. He started to come on in 2025 and looks like an impact player. But the Vikings essentially moved up twice to get him. The first was a trade to acquire the No. 23 pick in case they could move up even higher to draft a QB. After landing on McCarthy, Adofo-Mensah moved up again to No. 17 to get Turner. The total cost of moving up to No. 17 (while also getting a seventh-round pick): Two second-round picks, a third, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth. That’s a lot of roster holes that could have been filled, as Seattle has shown with deft drafting.
- Revisiting 2022, the Vikings also took guard Ed Ingram in the second round. He struggled here before being traded to Houston, where he had a much better 2025 season. Missing on Ingram (or at least not being able to develop him) led the Vikings back into the interior offensive line for 2025 first-round pick Donovan Jackson in addition to signing free agent Will Fries. While Jackson looks like a solid player, the Vikings could have used that pick on another area of need if Ingram had worked out.
- The Vikings made a desperation trade for Adam Thielen before the start of the 2025 season, getting him from Carolina for essentially the value of a fourth-round pick. He had little impact before being let go midseason, and the move wouldn’t have been necessary if 2025 third-round pick Tai Felton had filled a larger role.
- In short, the Vikings have traded away a lot of draft capital to plug holes or to make big swings that haven’t yet paid off. And the picks they have made in the past four years haven’t given them nearly enough impact.
- That leaves the Vikings in a precarious position this offseason: Needing to shed tens of millions of dollars to become salary-cap compliant as a result of heavy free-agent spending ... while still needing to fill a lot of roster holes to be competitive in 2026.
- Hoping the Vikings will land a QB in free agency? The market might be kind of bleak.
- The Wolves zigged when we thought they would zag and enjoyed a blowout win on Monday. That’s just who they are.
- I’ll have more Wolves talk on Wednesday’s podcast with Star Tribune beat writer Chris Hine.
