{"id":93169,"date":"2025-05-31T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/93169\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T12:12:10","slug":"the-vikings-were-always-going-to-extend-kwesi-adofo-mensahs-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/93169\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vikings Were Always Going To Extend Kwesi Adofo-Mensah\u2019s Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, it was a big gamble by the team\u2019s ownership. They had just said goodbye to the successful but explosive<\/a> partnership between Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman and weren\u2019t interested in a long-term rebuild.<\/p>\n

While some reporting had suggested<\/a> that Ryan Poles was their first choice for the job, they had to pivot when he chose the Chicago Bears. As a former Wall Street trader, it felt like Vikings fans and ownership broke down every move with an extra layer of thought clouded by \u201ccompetitive rebuilds<\/a>\u201d and an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the Wilfs\u2019 bet on Adofo-Mensah panned out, leading to a highly anticipated contract extension announced on<\/a> Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The path to getting here was interesting, though. Adofo-Mensah inherited a roster with the bones of the 2017 NFC Championship team, but it was coming toward the end. While Chicago allowed Poles to rip everything to the studs, Adofo-Mensah was careful not to decimate the foundation, which included star receiver Justin Jefferson<\/a> and cornerstone tackles Christian Darrisaw<\/a> and Brian O\u2019Neill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first stage didn\u2019t have major cosmetic changes. Still, Adofo-Mensah worked just like Kevin O\u2019Connell<\/a>; he won in the margins. T.J. Hockenson<\/a>\u2019s arrival at the 2022 trade deadline was his big move, and Adofo-Mensah kept the roster together as he went to work to build a contender.<\/p>\n

The Vikings won 13 games and a division title, earning Adofo-Mensah trust to carry out his master plan. Adam Thielen<\/a>, Dalvin Cook<\/a>, and Eric Kendricks<\/a> were the first to go, and the front office slowly chipped away, like a carpenter at the rotting exterior of a house.<\/p>\n

The 2023 season was challenging and presumably put everyone on thin ice. While Adofo-Mensah and O\u2019Connell had a solid first season, the second one gave everyone second thoughts, which triggered a year of speculation.<\/p>\n

First was Jefferson\u2019s contract extension, which spurned plenty of<\/a> TikTok and social media speculation until he signed on the dotted line. Then it was the search for a franchise quarterback. They let Kirk Cousins<\/a>, their security blanket, walk out the door and embraced former bust<\/a> Sam Darnold<\/a>. Even drafting J.J. McCarthy<\/a> wasn\u2019t enough for the Wilfs to commit beyond the 2025 season, leaving Adofo-Mensah and O\u2019Connell to do the talking on the field.<\/p>\n

The Vikings responded with a 14-win season and an outside chance<\/a> at having home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. Darnold thrived in the first positive environment since he was throwing darts at USC. Minnesota felt like a place everyone wanted to be for the first time since the Vikings came off an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2018.<\/p>\n

Minnesota quickly neutralized speculation about O\u2019Connell\u2019s contract with a contract extension<\/a> last February. Adofo-Mensah\u2019s future was the final piece to fall into place, but he didn\u2019t seem worried as he brought in Ryan Kelly<\/a>, Will Fries<\/a>, Jonathan Allen<\/a>, Javon Hargrave<\/a>, and others during free agency.<\/p>\n

It was a culture so strong<\/a> that Aaron Rodgers<\/a> wanted<\/a> to be a part of it, and the Vikings had to turn him down<\/a>. While O\u2019Connell deserved some of the credit, Adofo-Mensah chose him over Jim Harbaugh<\/a> and turned the Vikings into an NFC juggernaut heading into 2024.<\/p>\n

The evidence was on the field this week. The Vikings had perfect attendance<\/a> during the first wave of voluntary OTA workouts, and the team appeared to be fully bought in. McCarthy was throwing lasers on social media while Hockenson and Jalen Nailor<\/a> took advantage of \u201cThe Best Shape of His Life\u201d season.<\/p>\n

The Vikings are anticipated to make another run at\u00a0an NFC North title in 2024. They are starting to assemble a new wave of talent, headlined by McCarthy, Jordan Addison<\/a>,\u00a0Dallas Turner<\/a>,\u00a0Josh Metellus,<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Byron Murphy<\/a> Jr. Of that group, Metellus was the only player held over from the previous regime.\u00a0Harrison Smith<\/a> is still kicking around, even as he enters his age-36 season.<\/p>\n

Compare it to what happened to Chicago, and you\u2019ll see Adofo-Mensah\u2019s value. While Poles is on his second head coach, he\u2019s just as busy trying to control Caleb Williams<\/a>\u2019 body language and desire to play for the Vikings as he installs his scheme. The Bears have also had to overpay most free agents to come to Chicago, compiling a 15-26 record since Poles took over.<\/p>\n

Poles burned it to the ground with a dumpster fire so big it could be seen from outer space. Meanwhile, Adofo-Mensah slowly simmered at the hometown cafe like he was cooking dinner on a weeknight. The result is a 34-17 record through three seasons and a chance to add to it in 2025.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another sign the Wilfs made the right choice when they hired Adofo-Mensah in 2022 and more evidence that they\u2019re making the wise choice to double down with Friday\u2019s news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, it was a big gamble by the team\u2019s ownership. They had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,9864,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-93169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kwesi-adofo-mensah","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114602386609425277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}