There’s One Word to Describe the Jordan Addison Draft Pick

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The Minnesota Vikings could’ve traded down from the No. 23 pick last Thursday night during the NFL draft, possibly beginning a spiral of trade-backs to accumulate capital in the event’s alleged sweet spot, picks 20-100.

It felt like a “Kwesi thing” to do while enhancing value on the depth chart. But he did no such thing, staying put with the 23rd choice and selecting USC wide receiver Jordan Addison.

There’s One Word to Describe the Jordan Addison Draft Pick

And Adofo-Mensah chose Addison for one reason — or one word — impact.

One Word to Describe
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Last year, during his first draft as general manager, Adofo-Mensah did the opposite, passing on sure-thing, impact-laden safety Kyle Hamilton, who landed with the Baltimore Ravens and absolutely thrived as a rookie. Adofo-Mensah instead flipped trade capital from the 2022 12th overall pick into players like Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth, among others, to bolster roster depth.

For his troubles, Cine and Booth were injured for most of their rookie campaigns. Both could still turn out as studs, but their first-year showings were underwhelming.

Minnesota evidently learned its lesson, remaining steady, refusing the allure of a trade, and grabbing Addison, a workhorse wideout hellbent on targets. Adofo-Mensah said about the draft and the Addison choice after the event, “We knew exactly what we’d be willing to do different things, and we were very confident with the player we got. We were just waiting to see if anything came up to entice us, and it didn’t, and we ended up with an impactful player at a premium position.”

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Kevin O’Connell echoed the same sentiment, too, “A lot of people always talk about the best-player-available thing. It was one of those scenarios where the way the board kind of fell for us, it allowed it to kind of check both boxes. It was a need for us, obviously, after the departure of a great player like Adam Thielen, so we wanted to make sure that if a true impact player at that position was available at our pick, that we were prepared for it.”

Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell — unsurprisingly — said the same thing. We drafted this dude because of his impact. Each man has an adept habit of existing on the same philosophical page, which is probably why the Vikings won 13 games with the twosome in charge as newcomers.

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Sure, the Vikings could’ve traded back five to 15 spots, drafted someone like Bryan Bresee (DT, Clemson) and Drew Sanders (LB, Arkansas) in Rounds 1 and 2 — and fans would’ve been thrilled, touting vintage Kwesi in nabbing two premiere-prospect defenders.

Yet, this year was different. The temptation to start a domino effect of trading back was mostly ignored, and the offense became exceedingly affluent, partnering Addison with Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, K.J. Osborn, and Kirk Cousins.

The club targeted a mass haul of defensive players in 2022 — five of the first six picks, in fact — but stayed safe this go-around with offense, and his name is Jordan Addison.

It seems the front office matured in 12 months. Impact was on the brain, not quantity.


Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.

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