Minnesota turned into the land of 10,000 groans Thursday night.
For new Vikings regime, winning over fans will be a long-term process
The hard part about doing things differently is ... doing things differently.
April 29, 2022 at 4:54PM
With the Vikings on the clock at No. 12 in the first draft run by GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and a new regime, fans had all sorts of anticipation. Would they take a flashy wide receiver? A consensus star safety in the making? A much-needed corner? A powerful edge rusher? Shock the world and pick a quarterback?
Instead ... a trade down. And not just a little. A trade plummet. A free-fall to the very bottom of the first round, where Super Bowl winners — never the Vikings, of course — get to choose from a picked-over board.
Not only did fans, who might have had a beverage or two, now have to wait another two hours to see a pick but they also had to scratch their heads and do some math while consulting those draft pick value charts that try to decipher who won and who lost a deal.
The Vikings gave up No. 12 and No. 46 for No. 32, No. 34 and No. 66. Jimmy Johnson's chart hates it. Over The Cap thinks the Vikings won the trade with Detroit, which had the No. 32 pick from the Rams via Matthew Stafford.
Instinctively, it was a very "what where they thinking!?" moment, as I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.
By the time the Vikings picked Georgia safety Lewis Cine at No. 32 — by all accounts a good player and a selection that received high grades from several well-respected analysts — the choice almost felt like an afterthought.
The nicest thing most people could muster: like the player, don't understand the trade.
Adofo-Mensah has to be OK with that because the hardest part about thinking differently is ... thinking differently.
Someone who talks openly about treating the draft like an evolving algorithm probably doesn't put much stock in any one thing.
And this is definitely not the Rick Spielman/Mike Zimmer era any more.
"We're a building full of dream chasers, do you want come chase dreams with us?" Adofo-Mensah said he told Cine after calling him with the news the Vikings were selecting him.
Did they just hire a new chief marketing officer for a start-up app connecting dog owners with dog walkers or is this an NFL team making its first draft pick?
I think it's the latter, but I also think this: With this new Vikings regime, faith will be a long-term process.
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.
