If You Wanted a Vikings Rebuild, You’re Not Getting It.
Dustin Baker
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New Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was finally introduced to the public on Thursday, chatting with media and giving a speech from team headquarters in Eagan, Minnesota.
When the Vikings 2021 season was spiraling downhill, many fans of the team clamored for a full rebuild in the manner the New York Jets or Detroit Lions often engage. After O’Connell’s introduction, though, Minnesota is emphatically not rebuilding.
O’Connell praised quarterback Kirk Cousins, who he expects to be QB1 in 2022. He insinuated he wanted linebacker Anthony Barr back on the team — a mini-bombshell because Barr was as good as gone in free agency — as the veteran defender would assimilate aptly to a 3-4 defense. And O’Connell called safety Harrison Smith “the perfect player for the defensive structure we want to play.”
Those are not the words of a man on the edge of rebuilding a franchise — you can take that to the bank.
Instead, O’Connell uplifted the existing players as a corps to build around. Moreover, his vision aligns with that of new general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who elaborated at his welcome-to-Minnesota press conference three weeks ago: “There is so much to appreciate about this organization — an existing nucleus of talent on the roster, top-notch facilities, passionate fans and smart people throughout the building who are committed to winning.”
The team will evaluate players who are too expensive, shop in free agency on a condensed budget, and draft with purpose — all tactics utilized by the Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer regime amid the last few offseasons.
Put bluntly, unless Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell are flatly lying, the 2022 Vikings are going to make a run at it, fresh off the steam of O’Connell’s Super Bowl supremacy in Los Angeles.
Re-tooling will not be easy.
The offense is in good shape — which works wonderfully for the offensive background of O’Connell — but the defense is in shambles compared to prior years under Zimmer. The defensive depth chart can be fixed, but Adofo-Mensah must find an EDGE rusher, a linebacker, and a couple of cornerbacks. Several Vikings players from last season signed for one-year commitments, and not all of them return — men like Sheldon Richardson, Xavier Woods, Everson Griffen, and Patrick Peterson.
Depending on the hire of the general manager back in January, a new executive could’ve waltzed in and torched Minnesota’s existing roster, hellbent on rebuilding for the future — particularly with a quarterback playing on a fat contract. Alas, the Vikings are not actionizing that philosophy.
The Vikings are executing what they did in the 2020 and 2021 offseasons, based on the comments from Adofo-Mensah in January and O’Connell on Thursday. They’ll just do so without Spielman or Zimmer in charge.
Free agency begins on March 14th.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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