Vikings roster overhaul could lead to most competitive training camp in years

The Vikings drafted five players on Saturday, finishing one of the final roster-building stages of an offseason that could define the rest of their decade. At the end of it, General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah admitted he’d rarely been more exhausted.

“Everything my mom ever told me, it was about, ‘Put everything you can into it, and the process will take care of itself,’ and I know we did that,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We left everything on the field; we scrapped and looked under every rock. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more tired, maybe outside the birth of my child.”

With the Vikings’ free-agent signings, draft picks and undrafted free agents, Adofo-Mensah has acquired about 40% of the roster this offseason, and most of the players the Vikings added in free agency signed contracts that expire or void after 2024.

The changes to the Vikings roster, including major moves at some of the most pivotal spots on the roster, could turn the rest of the offseason into a cauldron for competition. From quarterback to cornerback, from both lines of scrimmage to kicker, the Vikings could have more battles for roster spots and positions on the depth chart than they’ve had in years.

It’s perhaps a natural process, given the kind of roster turnover the Vikings initiated in the past two years, but the team’s circumstances mean there’s much to be defined about the 2024 Vikings.

After two seasons under Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell, most vestiges of the Rick Spielman-Mike Zimmer era are gone. Only 13 players predate Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in Minnesota. The rest of the players were acquired by the Vikings’ current decisionmakers.

Now consider the 14 picks from Adofo-Mensah’s first two drafts who are still on the Vikings roster. Of those 14, only Ed Ingram, Akayleb Evans and Jordan Addison have started a full season in the NFL. The other 11 — and especially the six players from the 2022 draft who haven’t become starters — are heading into pivotal seasons in 2024.

The Vikings’ two biggest defensive free-agent acquisitions, Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, will headline a remade pass rushing group with first-round pick Dallas Turner. The fact the Vikings replaced defensive coordinator Ed Donatell with Brian Flores after the 2022 season means that some players who were brought in to fit the Vikings’ old scheme might not fit as cleanly in the new one. What’s more, O’Connell has talked this offseason about how the Vikings want to play more man coverage in 2024 than they did in 2023, meaning cornerbacks such as fourth-round pick Khyree Jackson could challenge third-year players such as Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. for playing time opposite free-agent pickup Shaquill Griffin.

There’ll be battles for the left guard spot, where Blake Brandel could get the first shot, and on the defensive line, where the Vikings added two free agents and seventh-round pick Levi Drake Rodriguez. And all those spots are merely sidebars to the competition at quarterback. Sam Darnold figures to head into the offseason as the starter, with Nick Mullens as the No. 2 QB and first-round pick J.J. McCarthy getting time to learn. There’ll be no rush on the rookie’s development, but if he proves ready for the job, the Vikings don’t figure to hold him back longer than necessary.

It should all make for one of the more intriguing Vikings offseasons in recent memory.

“It’s giving yourself the options, flexibility, but it’s also competition as well,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’re here every year trying to get better.”

Noting the former Super Bowl champions in the organization, he added, “We’d get a good player, and they’d always be like, ‘Well, yeah, I want better.’ And you know, it’s always just that nonsatisfaction, and that’s not just from a player basis. That’s my process basis. That’s what I ask myself. That’s what Kevin asks himself. So that’s really the mindset we have, and we’re excited about it. We’re excited to get these guys out in the grass and see the competition.”

The Vikings’ group of Day 3 draft picks featured several players whose paths to the NFL gave them a tenacity that figures to fit well in Flores’ defense. Jackson had quit football for two seasons, got a job at a grocery store and was considering a career in gaming before he was inspired to play football again. Rodriguez played at an NAIA school before transferring to Texas A&M-Commerce; the loquacious defensive lineman talked about how he’d prayed and fasted for a week before making the decision to transfer, and he woke up at 3:30 each morning last season to work out.

“I can’t tell you for certain that because somebody did something three years ago, it means they’re going to make it in the NFL,” Adofo-Mensah said. “But if you do it on the margins, bet on people, and if you do that 100 times, you hope you come out two or three players better than everybody else.”

Competition over the next few months should help determine how successful the Vikings were in finding that edge. Before that, Adofo-Mensah will get a brief moment to unwind at a staff party.

“I’m going to try; I don’t know if it’s karaoke,” he said. “I’ll get to see my wife for the first time in what feels like a couple weeks.”

What’s his karaoke song?

“This is embarrassing,” he said. “There was an O-Town song I used to sing with a buddy of mine. I don’t do that much anymore. What was it — ‘All or Nothing’? I think that was it. But I don’t know if the GM is supposed to be up there very much.”

After that, it’s back to work on a roster that has undergone quite the transformation.

“I believe we met the moment from a process standpoint,” the GM said. “Results are what they are; we will be judged by them. But from a planning and executing-a-vision standpoint, I do believe we did.”