The Minnesota Vikings have reached the quarterback crossroads.
If general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell go left in their Viking ship, they meet the always reliable but aging Kirk Cousins. The 34-year-old Cousins isn’t getting any younger, and he’s only under contract for one more season, but the Vikings could choose to extend him and keep their window open a little longer.
On the right, the Vikings could choose to hit a minor reset button and select a quarterback in this year’s NFL Draft. This road brings a higher ceiling, but the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Ideally, the solution is a sneaky third road, the middle ground, per se. The Minnesota Vikings could try and get aggressive to move up the board in this year’s draft to select a franchise quarterback and allow whoever they draft to develop behind Cousins for a season. These succession plans are not all that common (few teams have been able to transition from one long-serving quarterback to a rookie), but they are ideal.
“Ideally, you would want to have a year to have the person in the building or something like that but I don’t know if that is necessary,” Adofo-Mensah told the media on Thursday during the team’s pre-draft availability. “It just depends on the player, depends on all those things.”
Ultimately, Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell’s media availability help to offer some insight into their draft plans, especially at quarterback.
With the Vikings selecting late in the first round, Adofo-Mensah will likely have to get aggressive to get their quarterback, especially if they like one of the projected top-four options.
The problem is that the Vikings are handcuffed in terms of assets. The Vikings have just five picks in the NFL Draft, including two in the first three rounds. As a result, the Vikings would likely have to dip into future assets if they want to trade up for a quarterback. The actual package is not entirely clear, but it could involve as many as three first-round picks over the coming years to make a move into the top 10 of the NFL Draft.
Although Adofo-Mensah would not commit to doing so, he did not rule out the possibility of moving up for what he calls an “impact player” in the first round.
“It’s not necessarily about the number of picks. It’s about the impact of those picks that you have,” Adofo-Mensah said. “So if you can find an impact player with your first pick or whatever, you don’t have to trade back to get two players who might not add up to that same impact.”
Finding an impact player in the late first round won’t be a gauntlet, but finding one at the most important position should be challenging.
“Quarterbacks are the most important position in our sport,” Adofo-Mensah said. “These aren’t things you just decide in the moment. You have to have plans, you have to have a strategy, you have to have different ways of getting to that answer.”
Among the options is keeping Cousins, of course. In his first season under O’Connell, Cousins threw for 4,547 yards and 29 touchdowns and led the Vikings to a 13-win season. To say that Cousins could not improve within the system is treating football like Madden and not reality.
“I’m very excited about Kirk in year two in this system,” O’Connell said. “It’s been a while since Kirk has been able to say that he gets to come back in the same system he ran previously with the same play caller. I’ve had a lot great dialogue with him about ways we’re going to look to find ways to grow and improve.”
If the Vikings do choose to address the quarterback position in the draft, O’Connell has some traits he values in mind, including accuracy and the ability to process. According to O’Connell, quarterbacks who can do those things naturally “jump off the tape, whether they’re in spread systems or more pro-style systems.”
However, O’Connell preaches the ability to transition based on the prospect.
“I think you have traits in your mind,” O’Connell said. “I think what makes great coaches in this league are guys that can stay true to their football philosophy but maybe reinvent some of the X’s and O’s, how you get there, and just make sure that the end product is good football that can sustain.”
If the Vikings choose to stay put, they will make their first selection in the NFL Draft at pick No. 23.