Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah generated some headlines last week when he addressed quarterback Kirk Cousins' future with the team and concluded "everything's in play."
Tuesday's NFL blockbusters reinforce Vikings' 'everything's in play' approach
The Vikings GM raised some eyebrows when he said that at the NFL Scouting Combine last week about Kirk Cousins, but it's the truth.
March 9, 2022 at 6:26PM
It is the correct approach, even if Adofo-Mensah might not have foreseen everything being in play in the NFL during one specific Tuesday frenzy.
The two giant headlines from the day: Aaron Rodgers is staying in Green Bay, at least for 2022 and quite possibly beyond that depending on how correct the reporting is on a new contract. And just a couple hours later, the Russell Wilson trade to Denver overshadowed the Rodgers news.
(Aside: Great email from reader/listener Brian who says: "I wonder how upset Aaron Rodgers was that he was the second story, after Wilson, on the sports shows I saw yesterday. Once again, I expect his ego would make him greatly annoyed.")
As my colleague Mark Craig noted in writing today and I talked about on the Daily Delivery podcast, those two events had a huge impact on the Vikings and Kirk Cousins.
And it reinforces just how much can change in a week — or at least why you shouldn't make concrete decisions with incomplete information.
A week ago, it still seemed very possible that Rodgers would be traded (or retire). If that would have happened, keeping Cousins and trying to build a winning roster around him would make a lot of sense. The Vikings would have had the best QB situation in the division and could have put together a run of NFC North dominance with some savvy moves.
A week ago, Russell Wilson was still in Seattle and it was unclear what the market would look like for quarterbacks this offseason.
Adofo-Mensah might have looked at the situation a week ago and leaned toward trying to keep Cousins in some fashion in 2022, if not longer.
Now? If everything is really in play, the smart play is clear: Explore a Cousins trade.
For reasons I've outlined multiple times, it just makes sense. The Vikings have very little chance of dethroning the Packers in the NFC North as long as Rodgers is around and Cousins is making Rodgers-like money. And Cousins now becomes one of the most attractive potential trade targets for any team that had its sights on Rodgers or Wilson.
If Adofo-Mensah had come out a week ago and said definitively the Vikings were not trading Cousins, he would have painted himself into a corner.
When everything is in play, you can adapt to a fluid situation.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
