Since becoming the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has built one of the strongest rosters, top to bottom, in the NFL. Combining an elite defense and a strong offense with a quarterback on a rookie deal, the team is primed to win now.
While every GM goes about roster construction differently, over the years, Adofo-Mensah has heavily relied on trades to build the team. After trading Mekhi Blackmon, and now with 33 trades under his belt, what has Adofo-Mensah learned in the three years since that first terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trade?
Since 2022, only two other teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Texans, have traded more than the Vikings. Philly’s Howie Roseman is famously always dealing, and Houston just throws whatever they can against the wall and sees what sticks.
While draft day trades are common to nearly every organization, Adofo-Mensah has been no stranger to preseason or mid-season trades, either. He’s made at least one trade before the season and before the deadline every single year since coming to the Vikings. Now, ahead of the start of the 2025 season, Adofo-Mensah will, in all likelihood, be incredibly active once again.
On Sunday, the Vikings traded quarterback Sam Howell and a sixth-round pick to the Eagles in exchange for a fifth-round pick and a 2027 seventh-round pick. Looking back to April, when they received Howell from the Seattle Seahawks for simply swapping fifth-rounders, the end result of Howell’s short time in Minnesota looks great. Despite the efficiency of the Kevin O’Connell School for Quarterbacks, Howell just never seemed to gain any footing in the QB2 battle. The Vikings now come out ahead in draft capital, and fans don’t have to suffer the cruel and unusual punishment of watching Howell throw a football in purple.
Even though Howell never looked the part in Minnesota, the Vikings still got more than they paid for him when all was said and done. It’s a perfect example of how Adofo-Mensah has started to look at trades from a broader perspective instead of all-or-nothing propositions. The deals had everything good trades should: security, with the potential for a payoff. Even though adding another “Sam” after Bradford and Darnold didn’t work, Adofo-Mensah still came out ahead in this case.
Trades like this one, though, haven’t always been as obviously productive. On a cold (it was mild) and stormy (didn’t rain) night in Minnesota in April, Adofo-Mensah made his first — and undoubtedly worst — trade as Rick Spielman’s predecessor. In his first draft, the newly appointed general manager famously traded out of the No. 12-overall pick with a division rival and got peanuts in return.
In all, the Vikings traded picks No. 12 and No. 46 to the Detroit Lions for Nos. 32, 34, and 66. While All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton was the prize that could have been, trading in the division without any sort of rival tax is what really ruined the trade for most fans.
Players aside, dropping 20 spots and not receiving a future first-rounder in return is still one of the most perplexing moments of Adofo-Mensah’s career. The trade inarguably set the team back in the midst of Adofo-Mansah’s frequently discussed “competitive rebuild.” The plan was never clear, and Minnesota’s GM even admitted as much a few years later.
“I think at times I might have been guilty of trying to maybe have a 33-point play all at once,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And I think once I identified that, I kind of … you’ve seen since then [the Vikings draft process] has been really foundationally just taking good steps, building to a certain critical point where I think we can compete over the long term.”
In recent years and even days, Adofo-Mensah’s trades have been more measured and prudent. Even with his big swing to trade up for linebacker Dallas Turner during the 2024 draft, critics may find it hard to argue taking shots at valuable positions like edge rusher. So far this month, Adofo-Mensah has dealt expendable veterans to gain draft capital for which, let’s be real, he’ll use in about three minutes from now in more trades. Adofo-Mensah moves draft picks like he’s looking to break records, but it’s why we love him.
The 2022 draft, with all its faults, never made sense even in the moment. The first trade was followed by more unfavorable ones, in which the Vikings continued to trade across divisions and netted very little in return. A rushed draft process is one excuse, but really, time and experience have shaped Adofo-Mensah into a more effective trader.
His most recent trades reflect a more balanced approach, and one that offers better reasoning. Trading up for an edge rusher or dealing a declining veteran are much more easily rationalized than whatever happened in 2022. So cheers Kwesi, here’s to 897 more.