Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
The 2023 Minnesota Vikings began their long-expected roster maintenance Monday, releasing eight-year veteran defender Eric Kendricks.
The move saved Adofo-Mensah $9.5 million in cap space, as the Vikings were in the league’s third-worst cap situation before the Kendricks decision. And with NFL free agency one week away, the Kendricks transaction will be the first of many.
Minnesota has about five other cap-casualty candidates, and fans should expect a significant amount of roster upheaval. Why? Well, Adofo-Mensah has been telling folks about it all along.
He took over the Vikings 14 months ago and, since then, has endorsed a process he calls a “competitive rebuild.” Cutting ties with Kendricks is the epitome of a competitive rebuild measure, rest assured.
Adofo-Mensah said one year ago, “I think when people look at teams, they sometimes do it in a very binary way. And they ask, ‘Are you either all-in or tearing down and rebuilding?’ And I don’t really look at the world that way.”
“The way we look at it is we’re trying to navigate both worlds, we’re trying to live in today and tomorrow, or the competitive rebuild, however, you want to phrase it or market it, and so I think that’s kind of how we’ve approached this offseason and our time horizons going forward,” the young executive added.
Kendricks’ exit — and those of others to come — will inspire some folks to call the Vikings offseason moves a “full rebuild.” And that will be false. Outwardly, when men like Kendricks or others possibly on the docket, like Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, or C.J. Ham, depart, it’s bait to surmise, “Oh, boy. These guys are rebuilding.”
If it’s a rebuild, it’s in the vein of Adofo-Mensah’s “competitive rebuild” theory — not a “tear it down to studs” approach that some fans desperately crave. Teams on the cusp of extending a big-name wide receiver to the tune of $30-$35 million aren’t rebuilding. A franchise can’t have it both ways, luring Justin Jefferson in with the promise of winning while embracing a full rebuild. The rebuild-it crowd somehow believes the Vikings could do both, and it doesn’t make sense.
Too, Adofo-Mensah traded handsome draft capital for T.J. Hockenson last season, and the former Detroit Lion will obtain an extension in the coming weeks or months. Rebuilding teams don’t pay top-dollar to tight ends.
Therefore, what Vikings enthusiasts are seeing Monday with Kendricks and others on the way out is a competitive rebuild in the flesh. The expensive older players depart, and the promising youngsters remain. Franchises that prefer the full-rebuild approach tend to get stuck in the cycle for years. The New York Jets or Cleveland Browns have stories.
Ultimately, when big-name players leave the Vikings in the next couple of weeks, cite the competitive rebuild mantra. The desire to slap a “full-rebuild” title onto the proceedings is silly.
After all, Adofo-Mensah explained his thoughts on “tanking” at the NFL Combine last week, “People always talk about, ‘Just tank,’ and in this sport, I think it’s kind of unconscionable to do it for what these players put on the line for our sport.”
Those are not the thoughts of a man searching for total roster renovation — even if a Thielen, a Cook, or a Ham depart.
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.