Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah joins Dan Barreiro! 5-1-24

Minnesota Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah joins Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro to talk NFL Draft, Justin Jefferson's contract and more!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The general manager of the Minnesota VikingsQuasi Adopa mensa kind enough to join us
via the Connectico Water Systems hotline.Welcome to the show. We appreciate your
time, sir. I hope you'redoing well. Damn, I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me. So doyou get to, you know,
kick back a little bit after avery I would assume stressful, challenging lead

(00:23):
up to the draft and the draftitself, and to say, you know,
I feel there's no certainty in thisworld is I don't have to tell
you, but I feel pretty goodabout how things went for us, at
least certainly in Day one of thedraft. Are you allowed to do that
in this business? No? Idon't. I don't. I don't really
see it as that. Obviously.I spent Sunday stating on couch with my

(00:44):
wife and my young son and watchingbasketball. I got to watch the Sixers
next series, which has been agreat series. It just got to appreciate
sports and some of the stuff I'vemissed. But you know, like you
said that, the people I've beenaround with the championship mindset, like it's
just all encompassing, never stopping.And I know that somewhere they're probably thinking
about their roster, their team,and so I'm doing the same. But

(01:07):
you know, I am. Iwant to always make sure I say that
our group, we have a greatgroup here. They did an incredible job.
I challenge them. I knew thatthis was a big off season for
us, would define how we weregoing to go for the next few years
here, and they meant the challenge. So I want to make sure that
I gave them a day or acouple of days to relax. That's not
my place. I've also had someyou know, obligations that I've kind of

(01:30):
left, and I'm now doing schoolpickups at the nursing at the day care
school. So it's always fun todo those things now and be a good
husband and father, friend's son,all those things that I've kind of dropped
for the past few months. I'mnot going to ask you to, like,
you know, lay down on thecouch or anything to try to get
too much inside your head, Buthow do you relax? How do you
get away from the job as muchas anybody has to in their occupation to

(01:55):
sort of keep their sanity. Howdoes Quazy relax? Yeah, I exercise
a lot that's probably the thing Ido the most. You know, I
love yoga. I love you know, highing a little stuff just to sweat,
let your mind go anywhere. Butyou know, there's fifty three people
on your roster and different things likethat. Travel, see the world,

(02:15):
you know, talk to friends,listen to music, all this stuff that
normal people do. I do aswell, just to get away. But
it's funny the second you get thisjob and you're you're just so close to
it. It's there is a partof you that's never detached in a sense.
There's always some part of you thatYou're watching a basketball game and immediately

(02:37):
my mind's going to how they builttheir team and different things like that.
Just there's a sense that you can'treally fully unplug. There's you know,
there's a couple of places on thisbeautiful earth that I that I go to
that I can that Hawaii, wheremy wife's from, is one of them.
And you know, we have thisplace of mouth where we love it.
If I'm typically by water, ifI'm looking at water, I can
I can keep football out of mymind for about as long as possible.
But I know, I love youknow that we do these jobs as we

(02:59):
love it, so I don't.I don't. I don't say that in
a negative way, but uh,you know that's kind of I try and
get away as best I can,but it's not the easiest thing. What's
your island of choice? Hawaiian islandof choice? Wow? So she was
born in Honolulu, so we goto a place by there, and but
we got married in the Big Island. So they're all special to me.

(03:20):
It's just beautiful place where she canconnect with her culture and I've kind of
learned about it and and different thingslike that. I'm trying to trying to
get it back out there and surf. But I had a had a lower
back. I was, I was, I was probable with a back last
time I was there, So Ineed to I need to go back and
get it get up on my surffor one more time. Nothing like the
islands, that's for sure. Areyou a darkness retreat guy? I would

(03:42):
you ever consider that? You know, there's a lot of discussion in the
off season about a roj doing it, and Rudy Gobert made a big point
about how helpful he thought it wasto him for him. He had He's
had a course a tremendous rebound seasonfor the wolves as well. Are you
does it? Does the idea ofsitting in or laying or whatever you do
in darkness for like four days,nothing but that, nothing but unremitting dark,

(04:05):
does that appeal to you. Idon't know if I could sit and
unremitted. I love that phrase,unremitting dark. I don't know if I
could do that, but I didyears ago before I got to this job.
I did a yoga retreat in Hawaii. Was actually in Hawaii as well,
and you know, two times aday yoga, no phones, you
weren't allowed to have your phone,You ate clean, organic food, and

(04:27):
just like unplugged and read. Itwas probably the greatest, you know,
time I've had in a while,just to recharge. You know, these
phones obviously connect us and allow meto connect with you right now, but
they also bring all these things toour world when you just want to just
focus and kind of recenter. Sosomething like that would be great. Honestly,
Maybe I don't know if I couldhandle the dark, but just losing
my phone for a couple of dayssomewhere with some good, good people,

(04:50):
maybe you know that's tequila here orthere, that'd be great. We all
certainly can relate to that. Wehad Kevin on the day of I guess
it was the Friday, the dayafter the first day of the draft,
and I'll ask you the same questionI asked him. You know, the
outside world was fairly convinced that thatto get let's say, to JJ for

(05:13):
McCarthy, that it was probably goingto be necessary to use that extra number
one that you had acquired not thatlong before. I'm wondering when you went
to bed the night before the draft, or even woke up the morning of
the first day of the draft,how convinced were you that, yeah,
we're probably that's why part of thereason we wanted to have it on our
arsenal, and chances are we're goingto have to use it. How convinced

(05:34):
were you of that? You know, I think we phrased it more like
we treated like a team building exercise, and we treated every quarterback kind of
like, hey, well, what'sthe team we need around him? And
then all the while knowing that wedon't know the team we need around him
is he don't ultimately know how goodany of these players are going to be.
But we can give from from ourfrom our vantage point from our view,

(05:56):
and then just really saying, hey, what is each asset in terms
of a player around them? Sowhat what does pick twenty three represent?
It represents another position player? Whatis the next year is one represent?
What is a three or four orfour or five? Whatever it is?
We try to talk through it ina team building sense. So just going
through the exercise and different things likethat, you know, we felt good
about you know, a couple ofguys maybe we'd be willing to part with

(06:17):
that pick a couple of guys knewwe wouldn't, and then just really deciding
on what we thought we needed todo, honestly, and I just believe
that our process was so good.We felt good enough about winning with JJ
and just different different different players aswell that we we just we felt good
about it. So going to bedthat night, I was pretty confident that

(06:40):
we were going to be able todo it without Pig twenty three. But
there's always surprises. Right to yourpoint, you can plan all you want.
Pick E was a surprise. Nowwe were ready for a surprise.
We weren't ready for that specific surprisebecause ultimately you never know where the surprise
is going to come from. Butwe felt good about it the night before
And a funny story, I didyou know, I called Joe Douglass.
I was taking I now, takea nap before the draft. That's my

(07:02):
that's my every year, trying toimprove. I decided to take a nap
beforehand and just listen to some thennot maybe not darkness retreat music, but
you know, you know Max MaxRichter my my, my peaceful music guy.
And in the middle of taking anap, I wake up and I
say, I should probably make sureI check in with Joe d just you
know, and I kind of toldhim, Hey, like I think you're

(07:23):
in market. You're supposed to understandwhen you have leverage and when you don't,
and you know, offer the whiteflag almost in a sense. Hey
man, I'm going to call youif there's a surprise. I'm going to
have no leverage. I'm going totake a quarterback, which you're not.
So that helps you get the sameplayer you want to get. So,
hey, we have a relationship.Let's let's let's handle this like gentlemen.
Uh. And so that's kind ofhow that that transaction went down, all

(07:46):
stemming from, you know, theconversation we had, So, you know,
the feeling I got from from fromKevin was that you guys weren't buying
the steam about the Giants seriously consideringnot only taking a quarterback at six,
but taking McCarthy. That. Ithink the way he put it with us
was there was too it was tooeasy to hear that stuff for that stuff,

(08:09):
and so to a certain extent hemade it sound like you guys weren't
gonna fall for you know, thebanana and the tailpipe, so to speak.
Can you speak to that, becausethat's obviously you know going in.
I think the feeling was, well, that's a key spot that could also
screw up whatever plans you had laidout. That was the keys There was
two key spots. In our opinion, it was six and eight and just

(08:31):
seeing you know, how that dynamicwent, we knew we would be in
grid shape. No Kevin. Youknow, Kevin thinks about these more things
in terms of people involved. He'sgot such a good sense for the quarterbacks
that are on those teams and howthose organizations work. You know, he
he's been around it a little bitlonger than I have, and him and
Rob kind of talk and they thinkabout it like that, and me personally,
I think it Morris pick five anda probability if something happened in tick

(08:54):
six, almost like an unknown thing. They're the ones who's fill in the
blanks. I look at it morejust the probability of these quarterbacks being left
at this pick, at this pick, at this pick, and kind of
deciding what our best action would be. So that's why we worked so well
together. I come at it froma kind of game theory, you know,
microeconomic sense from my training, andthey come at with from the real
world practical Hey, this is whatyour odds are kind of telling you.

(09:18):
And so Kevin had a really goodsense for it, and then my kind
of mind just response was Okay,well, if this happens, this is
what we do. As long asyou have a counterplan. Yeah, let's
say Kevin was wrong. You gotto have a counter punch, right,
And as long as you're ready withthat counter punch, you're able to take
the risk that your your assumptions areright. And that's kind of where we
felt good about our process going intothe draft. Hypotheticals. I know generally

(09:41):
people don't in your positions don't liketo answer, but I'll try Nevertheless,
the feeling I had was if,for example, used to you know,
everybody knows that Atlanta did throw acurve that was unexpected. Let's say the
curve is they pick McCarthy. Afeeling I had was that you guys would
have been you're very happy with whoyou have. I don't know how you

(10:03):
prioritize them, but that you guyswould have been very happy as well.
If then that leaves for you ateleven or maybe ten, if you move
up again for the for the samereason panics, am I right, you
know, I think that's a greatquestion. But now those players are on
other teams, and so I gotto go to my classic GM speak that

(10:24):
we only talk about players on ourteam. And I obviously, you know,
I made a lot of great relationswith those guys through all those guys
in the process, and this weekend, when I get some time, I'm
going to text them all, wishthem great luck, and always be fans
of all theirs. But I,you know, I just I don't like
talking about posting other teams, andI, you know, a we could
go I might answer that question rightdifferently, But now they're they're on their
teams, and I want them toenjoy their journeys, and you know,

(10:45):
I want Jaj to come in andenjoy the and the guy that we took
and we appreciated, and to comework with Sam another person that we picked
and appreciated because of their skill sets. And we're fired up about our quarterback
room. I'll tell you that much. Can you confirm that there's a there
was a media report just with thelast couple of days suggesting that you guys
were very aggressive about because as yousay, you you you know, you

(11:05):
got to you got to give yourselfoptions and I'm sure you guys prioritized all
this stuff and maybe you're more willingto be aggressive and give up other picks
for another quarterback you've identified, perhapson another level. And so the report
was that you did talk to NewEngland and we're willing to offer your two
picks in the first round this yearplus a number one for next year as

(11:26):
well to get yourself to that exaltedthree position. Is that accurate? Uh?
That wasn't the exact offer, Andagain I'm not going to talk to
the specifics about what it was.I will say I wouldn't say it's leveled.
You know, as I told JJ, I think he's as talented as
any quarterback in the draft, andI mean that in all sincerity. It's
about play histories and profiles about youknow, we're all just projecting, right,

(11:50):
So if I got to project somebodywho throws a twenty times a game,
and I can see what those workslook like, I can see what
those strengths look like. With him, it's just a different exercise. And
you know, I told him thatin our last Zoom meeting, and I'll
tell him that when he comes in. But I'm so fired up we got
him where we got him. Now, the benefit of going to pick three
was control, to your point,as you've asked me earlier, anywhere from
four to where we picked at ten, we had no control of over what

(12:13):
happened. So it was almost somesense of at least being able to control
some outcome, even though it wasexpensive. So that's kind of how we
looked at that. It wouldn't necessarilysay it's so much about levels, even
though obviously you know, people cantake that implication that I understand where they
would, But to me, it'smore about the kind of the cleanliness of
the play history and the projection you'remaking and then also just some sense of

(12:37):
control. Yeah, well me tryingto do some deductive reasoning here is you
like McCarthy. I think there isa great reason to be very pleased with
getting him. But you obviously aren'tgoing to have to move up to three
to get him. So that tellsme there, you guys did value the
possibility of another quarterback at that spotas well. Correct, absolutely absolutely,

(13:00):
and we were just we were Imean, ultimately McCarthy's strength, the strength
of this class allowed us to be, you know, hyper rational about the
decision. I think you know alot of teams, you know, you
hear this phrase our guy, andyou know you fall in love with one.
And you know how we view quarterbacks, how many of you players.
This is an organization that likes playersand really understands the different ways they can
contribute on the field. And sothere's different ways you can win with a

(13:22):
Kirk Cousins, different way you canwin with Sam Darnold. But we believe
the outcome is a w and soyou know, in doing our quarterback process,
we were doing the same type ofthing and that kind of gave us
the power to you know, I'veheard terms and bags and Herschel and all
these different trades started to bring upsort of subjects that would like you.
But you know, I think theway were the reason we were able to

(13:43):
be so rational minded about it wasbecause the strengths of the class and how
we thought we could you know,win with a majority of the guys,
McCarthy being the chief among them.That's fair. I am to switch subjects
here pretty dramatically. I have beentelling people for the last week or two,
we get literally e quit he textsevery day from people about the other

(14:03):
JJ, Justin Jefferson's contract situation.In fact, the two weeks before the
draft, I probably had seventy fivepercent of the people who were emailing us
or texting us on JJ wanted himto be traded because they were not because
they didn't like him, but becausethey were convinced that this wasn't going to
come together, that it was goingto get at some point stressful and end

(14:24):
badly. I continue to assure themthat it is my belief that it is
literally a matter of maybe days orweeks before you and Justin Jefferson will be
beaming at a podium declaring that anew deal has been done. Am I
wrong there. I don't want tosay right or wrong. I will say
that, yeah, I don't viewthis as stressful at all, and I

(14:46):
don't personally think there's going to bea bad ending. You know, obviously,
you get to this place where youget talking about a unique talent,
a unique player, a unique competitor, and an organization that wants to make
right by him. And so inthis point in the process where you all
agree that he's just special and you'retrying to figure out what special means in
terms of guarantees and years and slopeand different things like that, and those

(15:07):
are conversations for rob and their representativesand different things like that, But I
don't view them as stressful. He'sworked really hard his whole life to get
to this opportunity. He deserves itand should take advantage of it. But
just like the same example, sowe as the Vikings, we've worked hard
to get to this place in ourteam building exercise where we're set up for
the future and we want to putthe best team around him and the best

(15:28):
team around everybody here to go chasechampionships is ultimately what he cares about the
most, which is why one ofthe reasons why we love Justin so much.
So I would tell people that thesethings do take time, but we
don't view it as stressful. There'salways a level of respect. You can
sleep with anybody that we've dealt withthe past couple of years. We treat
people with respect, even when wedon't necessarily agree with the stance. We

(15:48):
understand where they're coming from. Wetry and find solutions that solutions or into
his stuff. I say, that'snot just the term, that's really how
we act and I just for seegood outcomes. Maybe I'm an optimist.
Kevin calls me an optimist. Ithink I'm the realists who, you know,
smile us a lot. Do youview it as a requirement regardless of
his contract situation, because he's obviouslyunder contract here yet for a while,
But do you view it as arequirement that for this, for the betterment

(16:12):
of everybody in this organization, toget this resolved before the start of the
twenty twenty four season. Yeah,I mean, obviously that would be the
best best thing I know. Idon't want to say requirement because that sounds
like I'm, you know, puttinga deadline on him or something like that,
or he's putting one on me orthe team. I know, I

(16:32):
know his camp isn't necessarily trying todraw this thing out. They're just trying
to do right by their client.And know that we're not trying to draw
this out. And as well,you know, we want Justin to come
in go overport with these quarterbacks.We got here. We got to see
him here throwing. It looks great. Jada's going to be here soon,
Nick to join Nick and Jaron andeverybody already here. And you know,
obviously he's so gifted and he's sodriven. He wants to take that.

(16:53):
He's already on Olympus. He wantsto keep climbing, and some of that
requires him to be here, youknow, work with some diff from roles
in different concepts that Kevin has forhim, and we're excited about those,
and we know that that's going totake getting the job, getting the contract
done sooner rather than later. AndI promise you know him, as his
rest are listening or anybody else,that that's all I want to get done.
It's something that's important to be thecapstone to what we think is an

(17:18):
offseason that reflects our vision and ourcommitment to winning is there? I know,
you know, Kevin talked to usabout the plan on your new QB,
and you know the his fear thathe thinks some teams have ruined young
quarterbacks by rushing the process, thatyou guys have a template. I'm sure
more specific than I could even imaginethat you're already working on or have worked

(17:42):
through. That said, is thereanything that precludes this new quarterback even though
you went out and signed one foryou know, next season ostensibly? Is
there anything that precludes JJ from startingon opening day twenty twenty four season?

(18:02):
Uh? You know I am.I'm a probability guy, right, so
I can never say never. Sothe odds are somewhere between zero and a
hundred, but love, they comeon, that's not given me. Yeah,
I don't know what's a That's atough one, just because you know,
I think Kev's line is perfect.He says teams fail quarterbacks long before
quarterbacks fail teams. Yeah, andI think that is so like when you

(18:26):
ever just hear something kind of deepand you're just like, whoa, you
know, like, that's that's whyI felt when he said that. And
then Brian Angelico, also one ofthe talented members on our staff, had
some others saying, and we justhim, Josh McCown and Ryan Grigson,
just a lot of people who've beenaround quarterbacks and been through this. We've
just talked about it, and wejust believed so much in our plan that
and also we also believe we thinkSam's gonna play really good football for us,

(18:48):
and so it's just a combination ofthings. But hey, look,
it's a competitive sport. If somebodygoes out and shows out that they give
us the best chance to win,not just in the short term and long
term, that's something we would consider, but we're not rushing it. We
disbelieve in our plans, taking atime, taking a specific approach, which
aj works cited for him to comeinto work. We know he is.
We'll see what happened. Last itemfor you, I appreciate the time of

(19:11):
Viking Seryol mager Quasia Doopa mensa joiningus. So our theory here long time
ago was that part of what madeit possible for you guys to walk away
from Kirk Cousins, a guy whohad a good relationship with and obviously had
an overall productive run with, wasthat you had to believe in this quarterback

(19:33):
class, the incoming quarterback class,and the depth of it, and that
if in fact, you hadn't feltas strongly about it, that there's a
very good possibility that you would nothave walked away from Kirk Cousins. Is
that accurate? Yeah, I mean, that's that's related. You know,
we started this process two years agojust knowing that we would you know,
potentially be here. And so youknow, I asked those guys last year

(19:56):
and before the college process, beforethe fregency process even started, to go
do this class of quarterbacks and justindependently do them. And we came in
and met and decided, Wow,there's a lot of guys here that you
know, there's something there. Weactually a lot of people were curious about
this Jade and Daniels guy that nobodyreally knew about then and obviously had that
great year that came out, Butyeah, it was something we knew the

(20:19):
strength of the class, and youknow, obviously given where we picked,
and we don't want to really,you know, be me and Kevin jokes,
we don't really want to pick elevenseven again when we're together, and
so we knew that there was aunique opportunity to potentially acquire a player when
we knew the death of the class, and obviously you're always taking least of
faith with these calculations, right,you know, it's it's it's it's difficult.
But like at the end of theday, I think great success comes

(20:41):
from those difficult decisions where you haveto take a little bit of risk,
a little leap of faith. Let'ssomebody like kirk go who was you know,
a talented player has won a lotof games for us. Was the
hard decision, but ultimately the deathof the class definitely played a part in
it. You're gonna get a chanceto any Wolves games now that they're they've
advanced on the second round. Areyou getting into that story? I can't
not wait, man and man,you know, for being honest, that

(21:02):
move the other night looked like theguy that I grew up watching. Nobody's
everybody's a little bit afraid to sayit because you know, you know,
we don't like crowning people. Buthe's a special talent nas you know,
talent. They're just a great team. My Cama hooper at heart. So
I can't wait to go to bein the building with my White Wolves.
Hat, just cheering as loud asI can. I appreciate the time very

(21:23):
much, thanks again. All right, well take good. That's quasy Adolpha
Menza, the Vikings general manager,