The Minnesota Vikings are willing to consider all options for the quarterback position in the upcoming season, including replacing Kirk Cousins.
Local media held general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to a high standard during his season-ending news conference, demanding answers about how the Vikings will manage one of the most significant Adofoin recent memory.
Adofo-Mensah stated that he has not received orders from above and that he is open to considering changes that improve the team’s short- and long-term opportunities, despite a public narrative that suggests Vikings ownership is unwilling to remove the band-aid and swallow $28 million in dead cap to allow Cousins depart.
Unprompted, Adofo-Mensah went on to express his own opinion that if the team is not prepared to compete, then it doesn’t matter whether they decide to take a step back, with a change at quarterback being the largest step.
“Taking a step back in the short term isn’t a big deal if you don’t think you’re actually close,” Adofo-Mensah said, according The Athletic.
Adofo-Mensah has stated that he wants to get Cousins back, but only if he signs a deal that allows the Vikings to have financial flexibility. Cousins rejected this offer during the previous offseason’s discussions.
Adofo-Mensah isn’t going to back down in contract negotiations with Cousins’ team before March’s free agency, so it’s unlikely that he will. Years have passed while the Vikings have finished competitively short of the NFC Conference Championship, the very game the team won in 2018 and which led to Cousins’ move to Minnesota a few months later. With the NFL’s top-ranked defense from the 2017 campaign, the team was competitive then. However, with Cousins, all the Vikings could muster was a wild-card victory over the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 postseason before losing badly to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. San Francisco is a team that has managed to be a conference leader despite losing their starting quarterback and damaging their future by trading three first-round selections for Trey Lance. From 2013 to 2019, Adofo-Mensah worked in the 49ers front office, contributing to the development of the NFC powerhouse that this season could win its fourth conference title in five years.
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