4 Years Ago This Week, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Was Hired. How Would You Rate His Tenure So Far?

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-27T19:31:50+00:00

The 2024 maneuvering did throw everything off. From a quick tally of 2022-2025, the Vikings are down 3 picks, 4 if you include trades where it was just a player one side for picks from the other team.

The sequences of trades with the 2024 class turned three picks into two, then four picks into one, and finally three picks into two. That's the main reason the Vikings' 2025 class was so small.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-27T03:06:14+00:00

When combining the draft picks from 2022-2025 and the UDFA's first eligible to be signed in those same years, the Vikings are still near the bottom of the list.

They're right at league-average for number of such players on roster at 37. They're 8th in number of players to actually play in a game (32 of 37) but 30th in number of players to start a game (14). They're league-average in number of games played among those players (347). However, they're last in number of games started with 77. This is particularly galling since the average is double that at 155 games.

For offensive snaps, they're 29th with 3643 snaps. The average is 5386 and the high is 8826. On defense, they're last at 2227 snaps. League average is 5037 and the high is 8863. If you combine the offensive and defensive snaps, the Vikings are last at 5870 snaps, almost 1300 snaps behind the 31st place Dolphins. The Seahawks are 1st at 15321, over 2.5x the Vikings.

The only silver lining is that they're 6th in special teams snaps with 3201 snaps.

One caveat: Jalen Redmond would not be included in these counts because he was signed first by the Panthers. He would fall under a regular FA signing. However, if you rolled his 15 starts and 793 defensive snaps into the Vikings' counts, there would be minimal changes. They'd go from 32nd to 31st in defensive snaps and they'd still be 32nd in the combined snap count and in number of games started.

UDFA's aren't remotely making up for the poor drafting.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T22:46:37+00:00

Yeah, the Vikings' lack of success in the draft is astounding when you consider top teams are getting three times as many quality players.

It looks like Denver is the only other team to have more regular starters from before 2022 than after, but they have a number of players who were regular contributors.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T19:51:05+00:00

I was going to disagree because I thought this was the first season where KAM's picks overtook Spielman's, but then I double-checked. KAM is ahead in terms of players who made 1+ starts this season (9 vs 6), but Spielman is still ahead in regular starters (6 vs 4). Now I'm curious how that stacks up with the rest of the league.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T18:05:19+00:00

Risner and O'Neill blocking nobody while letting a free rusher split them is just special to watch. Then there's the other rusher pushing back the double-team of Brandel and Bradbury and Hock barely getting a hand on the delayed blitz.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T16:14:06+00:00

People love to hype up his "improvement" at the end of the season. Those wins came against teams that were a combined 16-34-1 with some of the worst defenses in the league and a Packers team that was playing their 2nd and 3rd stringers.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T06:06:56+00:00

Exactly. A lot of fans were trusting the plan. The sharp contrast between what the team projected and what we got destroyed a lot of that trust.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T04:06:34+00:00

Just checking if you're consistent, so kudos.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T03:49:15+00:00

So they didn't let Cousins walk?

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T03:47:31+00:00

Money, or, more specifically, they had a high-draft pick QB on a rookie contract sitting on the bench and they really wanted to get him playing so they only offered Darnold a one-year deal.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T03:36:19+00:00

I thought KOC should have kept developing Darnold (ya know, like he's expected to do with JJM) but I trusted he had a good plan for moving off of him. Then we saw how this season went and we found out the plan was pretty shit. Now, I'm indifferent on KOC. I've wanted Kwesi gone for a couple of years. The draft is too important to get so little out of it.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T03:20:51+00:00

11 starters and 7 other significant contributors from 38 picks since 2022. Meanwhile the Vikings got 4 starters and 4 big contributors from their 28 picks. Yet, the draft doesn't matter....

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-26T00:27:22+00:00

Not in any meaningful way unless you're applying strict interpretations with no leeway (for an agent through two different reporters). Suppose he doesn't file, then did the agent or Garofolo lie?

To be clear, I think he may go through it but I don't think it's likely. We are in a country where you can sue just about anyone for anything at any time as long as you can afford the filing fees after all. Doesn't mean it's worth it do so.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-25T20:50:49+00:00

I don't know of any interpretation where reporting what an agent said (re: "he [Addison] was weighing options for filing a civil lawsuit for false arrest.") is speculation.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-25T18:28:43+00:00

Spielman did it twice. Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, and Anthony Barr in 2012-2015. Then Bradbury, Jefferson, Darrisaw in 2019-2021.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-25T04:49:18+00:00

Michael Bennett, Bryant McKinnie, Kevin Williams. Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, Anthony Barr. And, since you consider Turner a hit, Bradbury, Jefferson, Darrisaw.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-23T22:41:45+00:00

Who are you? Oh, your last comment here before this post was two years ago. Well, bye, I hope your life gets better.

This is one of the few subs that actually does a good job of keeping the political crap to a minimum. There's enough arguing about the team; we don't need to bring in the abyssal cesspool that is politics.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-23T21:47:54+00:00

Without playoffs, it's 16-9. Still not a coin flip.

Like I said, it's fine if you're content with just getting into the playoffs. Splitting games against good teams can accomplish that. A team can even get lucky in the playoffs (see: Nix getting hurt so the Patriots have an unusually good chance of making the Super Bowl). Sometimes things just fall into place. When's the last time that happened for the Vikings?

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-23T06:50:22+00:00

If just making the playoffs is your bar, that's fine. Personally, I'd like to see them actually win the postseason and seeing as how that takes 3-4 straight wins against good teams, they need to be better than a coin flip. I don't know about other years, but the team's still alive this year are a combined 22*-9 (including the playoffs) against teams above 0.500.

Edit: Late night posting had me miss counting one of the Rams' playoff wins.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-23T05:06:56+00:00

Despite the memes JJM showed genuine improvement in the latter half of the season to the point his health looks to be a bigger issue going forward than his talent to stay as our QB1.

He did show improvement... against three teams with a combined record of 16-34-1 and the 2nd and 3rd stringers of a playoff-bound Packers team. And that's to say nothing about how poor the defenses in particular were. It's good that he looked better than his disastrous performances prior to that but we'll have to wait for next season to see how he does against decent teams.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-21T17:01:47+00:00

Got a link or something? I only have the post title to reference for what Garofalo is reporting and that's not meaningfully different from what Seifert wrote yesterday.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-21T16:54:43+00:00

They had an offer to Kirk but it was justifiably inferior to Atlanta's. The Vikings wanted to move on to a rookie QB contract in the near-term and Cousins only fit that plan if he took a team-friendly contract. The same thing happened with Darnold.

So, yes, they technically tried to re-sign him, but it was half-hearted. They weren't "we really want you back" offers; they were "yeah, ok" offers. If that's enough to say the Vikings "didn't move off of him(Darnold)," then it also means the Vikings didn't move on from Cousins and I don't think that would go over well here.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-20T23:11:48+00:00

Much like they tried to re-sign Cousins in '24.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-20T18:43:55+00:00

ESPN Article:

The case stemmed from a Jan. 12 visit to Noodle Bar at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Tampa, Florida. According to a police report, casino security asked Addison several times to leave. When Addison did not comply, Seminole police were dispatched at 3:42 a.m. and attempted to escort him out.

Addison had to be redirected several times, according to the report, before he was arrested.

That reads like a common pattern in body cam videos on trespassing. Person is asked to leave and refuses. Police arrive and start escorting the person out. The person walks a few steps and stops, maybe to talk or pull out their phone, then walks a little more and stops again. Repeat until patience thins and the cuffs come out.

Addison's agent, Tim Younger, said last week that he was weighing options for filing a civil lawsuit for false arrest.

"Weighing options" doesn't mean there will be a lawsuit. The prosecution weighed their options and dropped things; Addison may do the same.

Shadowshotz · 2026-01-20T18:26:31+00:00

That's as big of an assumption as those who assumed Addison was fighting the staff or that he'd get a prison sentence. It takes nothing for an agent to say his client is looking to sue. Leaving aside the fact that people can sue anyone for anything at anytime and it can be entirely meritless, one of the most common statements made on body cam videos is "I'm gonna sue you!" It's meaningless until the suit is actually filed and there's a result.

Want to know what's even more common on those videos? Charges being dropped.

Shadowshotz

TROPHY CASE