In this Adopho-Mensahe
The Minnesota Vikings have managed their most important off-season in 16 years, implementing top-down changes and renewing a collaborative effort across the team, perhaps missing the last few seasons.
Change didn’t happen overnight, so the franchise came here.
Ranked from the lowest to the most important, these are the biggest moments of the Vikings offseason so far.
5. Hold QB Cork cousins until 2023
You debate this on the internet. You argue this with your family members. Your dog has been arguing about this on the Internet and with family members.
Should the Vikings trade Kirk cousins and start again? It seemed to everyone that a new general manager was sitting on the purple throne. A significant group of Vikings fans were ready to move away from the man who posted the 59-59-2 (.500) career “quarterback record”. But the problem was that the new head coach had just won a Super Bowl with a quarterback like the Cousins. It was Matthew Stafford, and his Rams won the Super Bowl LVI over the Bengals.
The cousins were retained, his contract carried an extra year, and the Badda Bing-Vikings mocked a fundamental reconstruction.
4. Acquisition of free-agent EDGE Rasher Jaderius Smith
If you weren’t convinced by re-signing the Cousins that Minnesota was all-in for 2022, then the theft of Jaderius Smith from the Green Bay Packers was proof of a murder weapon.
Now, Minnesota will pair Smith with Daniel Hunter, instantly creating a top-3 EDGE racing combo on the continent. The Vikings could have started DJ Oneum, welcomed Everson Griffin, or drafted the Jermaine Johnson type in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Alas, they are not. The signing of Smith was a necessary signal for the fans to stimulate the “Oh, wow, they’re serious” attitude for the 2022 squad.
3. Termination of GM Rick Spielman and HC Mike Zimmer
Mike Zimmer’s shooting was amazing. Jetsing Rick Spielman was a bit of a shock to the Vikings loyalists.
Zimmer’s system was stale in 2020 and 2021, failing to build a formidable defense after “his boys” left in the 2020 free agency window. In Zimmer’s last two hurricanes, the Vikings were 15-18 (.454), not a team claiming to be a Super Bowl contender.
Spielman, on the other hand, could have probably saved his job by canning Zimmer in January 2021. He didn’t, and he was canned accordingly.
Depending on your cause and effect views on offseason, it can be classified as the biggest moment of Vikings offseason. Both men were fired the same morning, January 10th.
2. Rent of GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
Youth, numbers, cooperation and laughter – this is what Minnesota snatched from the Cleveland Browns when hiring economy-based Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
The aforementioned Spielman has been with the company for 16 years (!!), so it was seismic for the Purple team to unboard a new bossman.
Adofo-Mensah is all about The value – He talks about it in front of the microphone a few times a week – and just like that, Minneapolis Moneyball Born January 26, 2022.
1. HC Kevin O’Connell’s Rent
The addition of O’Connell and Adopho-Mensah may be justified in terms of importance.
But to boot to the ground, O’Connell joins the Vikings and takes the cake for the 2022 offseason. Adopho-Mensah and Wilfs grabbed a pendulum, pulled it to the right, and then let the badboy swing to the left, renting the offensive-minded O’Connell.
For eight years the Vikings promoted defense, defense, and more defense. That hard-nosed, run-the-ball mantra is dead.
O’Connell brings McVeigh to Twin City, and that’s the biggest news of the last four months.
An honorable mention: The flirtation of hiring Jim Harbaugh from the University of Michigan would have made the list if the criteria had been “Top 6”.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to her daily YouTube channel, VikesNow. She Hosts a podcast With Bryant McKinney, which airs every Wednesday Raun Sai And Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking Fandom dates back to 1996. Listed Criminal Pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos’ and The Doors (Band).
