Minnesota Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo Mensah addressed the media Tuesday at the NFL Combine, where he touched on a variety of topics.
While the press conference provided insight into the Vikings’ plans for the upcoming season and beyond, there is typically little to glean from these press conferences because NFL teams don’t want to reveal too much about their plans. When it came to wide receiver Justin Jefferson, though, there was no hiding how Adofo-Mensah felt about the star player.
After a stellar start to his career, Jefferson is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. Jefferson led the NFL in receiving yards and receptions last season, while also breaking several records. Adofo-Mensah was asked what the priority level was in completing the Jefferson extension.
“I said it earlier, I don’t want to be the Vikings GM without this guy on our team, so it’s a priority. We have to make sure we do it in an order that we can do it in given all the other decisions we have to make. It’s not just having an elite player because I think people – maybe they appreciate the talent, maybe they don’t.”
Adofo-Mensah went into greater detail about Jefferson as a person and what he contributes to the Vikings franchise.
“The human is even better. Seeing it up close every day and he just wants to win. When I met him, the first time I met him actually, we walk in the building and I made a joke about something else that was happening at the wide receiver position at the time and about their contracts and just laughed and said ‘we won’t have any issues.’ He said ‘I just want to put wins on the board.’ Didn’t smile and wasn’t really like ‘haha’. The way he said it, that’s the guy you see on Sunday’s. Won’t turn down double teams, whole defense trying to stop him and he’s trying to put the Minnesota Vikings on his back and wants to win a championship. When you have guys like that in your building, try everything you can to not let them out.”
Adofo-Mensah didn’t hesitate when talking about his desire to try and work out an extension with Jefferson. Jefferson is one of the top receivers in the NFL, and he’s only 23 years old. It appears as if it’s only a matter of time before Jefferson and the Vikings reach an agreement to lock him up as their franchise player for years to come.
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsgLOJ5mFeY]