Beyond J.J. McCarthy, uncover the crucial draft failures and questionable personnel choices that truly doomed Adofo-Mensah's tenure with the Vikings.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is no longer the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings after the franchise parted ways with him on Friday. And contrary to popular opinion, his firing was not all the fault of starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
The Vikings long path to nowhere has been a product not only of bad quarterback decisions, but bad football decisions in general. On Friday, the Vikings' last four draft classes were put under the microscope. The track record isn't pretty.
Minnesota's 2022 draft class in particular stands out as a spectacularly underwhelming set of selections. Of the Vikings' 10 picks in the 2022 draft, the first big hit came in the sixth round with the team's ninth pick of 10 in wide receiver Jalen Nailor.
The Vikings did draft another key wide receiver the following year in Jordan Addison and added big time contributors in edge rusher Dallas Turner and offensive lineman Donovan Jackson in the four-year span. But one or two starters per draft class is suboptimal and that type of success rate certainly led to the demise of the Adofo-Mensah Era.
We said quarterback is not the only reason that the Vikings parted ways with Adofo-Mensah. It is still one of the reasons why they are going in a different direction.
Much has been made of the Vikings' wrong decision to let quarterback Sam Darnold leave the team after a 35-touchdown, 4,300-yard season last year. To be sure, those are MVP numbers. Minnesota saw him up close and still opted to let him go in favor of J.J. McCarthy. And perhaps they justified the move because Darnold failed to win the team's biggest games.
In reality, Darnold's MVP caliber 2024 campaign yielded a 14-3 record. Seasons like that don't grow on trees, and when a quarterback has the year Darnold had it is evident that he was a reason why the team had the success it had. Of course, it wasn't good enough to the Minnesota to retain him for the 2025 season.
The cascading effect of all the Vikings' bad decisions yielded a disappointing season this year. The team went 9-8 despite having quality players that were equipped to contribute to a contender. Minnesota just did not have enough of those players, and in addition had its fair share of anchors impeding the team's progress.
Several factors contributed to Minnesota moving on from its general manager, not just McCarthy. Now the franchise will look for a new vision to turn the team around in 2026.