Analysis: Kevin O’Connell’s plea for depth might have been a harbinger of Vikings split

The beat-up Vikings were limping along at 4-8 after a shutout loss in which they were forced to start an undrafted rookie at quarterback opposite Sam Darnold at Seattle. They were a week away from being eliminated from the playoff chase with four games remaining when I asked Kevin O’Connell for the No. 1 key to playoff consistency, something that was about to stiffarm the reigning NFL Coach of the Year for the second time in his four seasons as a head coach.

His answer below seemed a little then, and more now, like a subtle harbinger of what came Jan. 30: the firing of General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

“It’s simple things sometimes. The depth,” O’Connell said during a news conference Dec. 3. “The players who are going to be stepping in, have they been in your system? Are they that true next man up? Or are they players who maybe are the next man up just because of the necessity to acquire a player or whatever it is.”

This assessment of what a coach needs for playoff consistency went deeper than depth at quarterback or any single misstep Adofo-Mensah made.

At that moment, O’Connell had on his active roster only four of the team’s 27 draft picks from 2021 to ’23: Rick Spielman’s last draft (one of 11) and Adofo-Mensah’s first two (three of 16). Only two were starters, one from Spielman (Christian Darrisaw) and one from Adofo-Mensah (Jordan Addison).

At that same moment over in Green Bay, the Packers had a whopping 18 of 33 picks remaining from those drafts. Twelve of them starters. Perhaps fittingly, on the same day Adofo-Mensah was fired, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst was among those in the Packers’ braintrust receiving contract extensions.

In Detroit, the Lions had 13 of 23 remaining, 11 of them starters, four of them first-team All-Pros, and Jameson Williams. Williams, of course, is the receiver Adofo-Mensah handed to the Lions. As rookie GM, he traded the 12th pick, dropped 20 spots and selected Lewis Cine in what was Adofo-Mensah’s first big move and the colossal mistake for which the unorthodox, analytics-based GM will live on in infamy.

The only puzzling part is why this firing wasn’t done a month or two ago. Owner Mark Wilf said ownership made its decision during its annual postseason review. He said no one, O’Connell included, called for Kwesi’s firing.

O’Connell didn’t need to. The numbers speak for themselves.

The young draft picks entering their prime in Years 3-5 were almost nonexistent. And Adofo-Mensah’s last two drafts saw only two of 12 picks become primary starters in 2025: left guard Donovan Jackson and quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who has missed 25 of 35 games because of injury and left early because of injury in five of the 10 games he did play.

Wilf insisted multiple times in trying to explain the firing that it wasn’t because of a single decision at quarterback. It only looks that way since last year’s starting quarterback, Darnold, will be playing in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8.

Wilf called it a “body of work.” And that makes sense. From Adofo-Mensah’s first big move in the first round in 2022 to last August when he gifted Carolina fourth- and fifth-round picks for Adam Thielen to fill a three-game need as Addison served a suspension, the body of work has been lacking.

While many a Vikings team would have begged for Reichard’s big leg and icy veins, a first-team All-Pro kicker wasn’t nearly enough to save Adofo-Mensah’s job.