Sorry, but does Kwesi really know what he's doing?

[DocBauer]

I was never in favor of trading for Thielen. And if I was tempted to, it never would have been for anything but a late rounder or conditional pick. But he/they did. And while he sat and didn't produce, they cut him ONE WEEK later than they needed to in order for the cost to be a later round pick. Shouldn't the GM understand the terms of his own deal?

Drafted LB Kobe King was basically dumped earlier this season due to roster maneuvering. Rookie UDFA Austin Keys, however, was kept ahead of King. That is until this past week when he was allowed to be poached by another team with ONE GAME to go in the Vikings season and no obvious roster needs screaming to be added. Is losing King a disaster? Probably not. But there are depth questions at LB for 2026, you thought enough of Keys to keep him all season until there was a single game played? Why lose a depth piece with at least some promise NOW, when you could have had him rostered all offseason by just keeping him through game 17?

His track record in the draft hasn't been exactly great so far, but now he's mismanaging picks and roster depth late in the season with nothing to play for but pride and development. I'm not saying he should be gone, or that he hasn't also done some good things in his tenure so far. 

But items like this make me feel he just may be out of touch. And we can't have that from our GM. 

Or do you think these are simply blips and I'm making too much out of them?

[TheLeviathan]

I wouldn't be shocked if he was fired.  

[Mike Sixel]

12 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I wouldn't be shocked if he was fired.  

I would be. I'd definitely not be disappointed though. 

[gunnarthor]

I can't think of a single GM who has won at a .630 clip for his first four years and been fired. The Vikings haven't had a four year run like that in decades. He just got a big extension from ownership. He's fine.

[Mike Sixel]

19 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

I can't think of a single GM who has won at a .630 clip for his first four years and been fired. The Vikings haven't had a four year run like that in decades. He just got a big extension from ownership. He's fine.

I agree, he's here next year. But if this draft sucks, maybe not another? Of course, McCarthy could somehow become Maye and save everyone. 

[Vanimal46]

The years of poor drafting has caught up to them. This year they can't buy their way out of trouble via big fish hunting FA. I want someone else in charge of drafting. 

[TheLeviathan]

21 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The years of poor drafting has caught up to them. This year they can't buy their way out of trouble via big fish hunting FA. I want someone else in charge of drafting. 

It's all interconnected with why I have serious skepticism about anyone who suggests this team ends up with Burrow, or Jackson, or Stafford, etc.

1) Last year's spending spree to fill the holes of three poor drafts is going to force them to eat a lot of dead money to get under the cap.  Doable?  Sure, but significantly more difficult after the offseason was a lavish dud.

2) They don't have a pool of nice young players to attach to a deal to get that QB.  You might be able to structure it like the Goff for Stafford deal if you're lucky.  If you can afford to do it under the cap.

3) If you do manage to afford all the dead money to have spending room AND open up enough for a QB1 salary....what's left for a roster that needs at least one LB, at least one CB, a safety, probably a TE, a C, two RBs, 1-2 DTs and most of those guys will need to be starters?  Like...how do you buy that many starters on a shoestring budget?

4) Oh.....and pull all that off with the 18th pick instead of the 7th pick or something else higher in the order.

All can be traced back to 2022, 2023 drafts being almost a complete waste and the 2024 draft remaining a major question mark.  (Turner looks good)

[Mike Sixel]

44 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

It's all interconnected with why I have serious skepticism about anyone who suggests this team ends up with Burrow, or Jackson, or Stafford, etc.

1) Last year's spending spree to fill the holes of three poor drafts is going to force them to eat a lot of dead money to get under the cap.  Doable?  Sure, but significantly more difficult after the offseason was a lavish dud.

2) They don't have a pool of nice young players to attach to a deal to get that QB.  You might be able to structure it like the Goff for Stafford deal if you're lucky.  If you can afford to do it under the cap.

3) If you do manage to afford all the dead money to have spending room AND open up enough for a QB1 salary....what's left for a roster that needs at least one LB, at least one CB, a safety, probably a TE, a C, two RBs, 1-2 DTs and most of those guys will need to be starters?  Like...how do you buy that many starters on a shoestring budget?

4) Oh.....and pull all that off with the 18th pick instead of the 7th pick or something else higher in the order.

All can be traced back to 2022, 2023 drafts being almost a complete waste and the 2024 draft remaining a major question mark.  (Turner looks good)

I agree with all of this. 

Whatever team it was last year, outside maybe 4-5 players, is the team next year. They sink or swim with McCarthy. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

It's all interconnected with why I have serious skepticism about anyone who suggests this team ends up with Burrow, or Jackson, or Stafford, etc.

1) Last year's spending spree to fill the holes of three poor drafts is going to force them to eat a lot of dead money to get under the cap.  Doable?  Sure, but significantly more difficult after the offseason was a lavish dud.

2) They don't have a pool of nice young players to attach to a deal to get that QB.  You might be able to structure it like the Goff for Stafford deal if you're lucky.  If you can afford to do it under the cap.

3) If you do manage to afford all the dead money to have spending room AND open up enough for a QB1 salary....what's left for a roster that needs at least one LB, at least one CB, a safety, probably a TE, a C, two RBs, 1-2 DTs and most of those guys will need to be starters?  Like...how do you buy that many starters on a shoestring budget?

4) Oh.....and pull all that off with the 18th pick instead of the 7th pick or something else higher in the order.

All can be traced back to 2022, 2023 drafts being almost a complete waste and the 2024 draft remaining a major question mark.  (Turner looks good)

And I’m more than willing to give a pass on the free agent signings of Allen, Hargrave, Fries and Kelly. Those were still good moves even if they didn’t exactly pan out. 
 

But other than Fries, they were all supposed to be PLACEHOLDERS. But they can’t be placeholders for future free agents, they have to be placeholders for draft picks, which they failed at again last year.

Also, weren’t the reports that the Vikings had no interest in Grey Zabel? They liked Jackson way better? Lucky the Seahawks didn’t give them a chance to look bad there, but who the hell is doing these evals?!? It’s not even close. New blood in the draft room please. KAM can supervise but not have the final say.

[gunnarthor]

Just now, nicksaviking said:

And I’m more than willing to give a pass on the free agent signings of Allen, Hargrave, Fries and Kelly. Those were still good moves even if they didn’t exactly pan out. 
 

But other than Fries, they were all supposed to be PLACEHOLDERS. But they can’t be placeholders for future free agents, they have to be placeholders for draft picks, which they failed at again last year.

Also, weren’t the reports that the Vikings had no interest in Grey Zabel? They liked Jackson way better? Lucky the Seahawks didn’t give them a chance to look bad there, but who the hell is doing these evals?!? It’s not even close. New blood in the draft room please. KAM can supervise but not have the final say.

On Zabel, there was a lot of smoke that the Vikings would pick him. I remember hearing that they liked him so I don't remember what your suggesting although maybe I missed something that said they had him lower than Jackson. A lot of mocks had him falling to us as well. 

https://vikingsterritory.com/2025/news/analysis/pff-predicts-vikings-1988
https://thevikingage.com/minnesota-vikings-north-dakota-state-grey-zabel-2025-nfl-mock-draft
https://www.dailynorseman.com/2025/4/22/24413992/vikings-2025-nfl-draft-preview-grey-zabel-or-a-bold-trade
https://atozsports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings-news/nfl-draft-grey-zabel-scouting-report-vikings-kwesi-adofo-mensah/

As to the placeholder idea, I suspect that one of Allen/Hargrave will be gone and we will see Redmond (not a draft pick but played 75% of snaps), Rodriguez (played 45%), and TID (28%) all see an increase. I also think that Turner might get more snaps as a hand in the ground end with a healthy Greenard outside of him in the 7-technique. We saw that a bit as the season wore on, before Greenard got injured.

[TheLeviathan]

29 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

And I’m more than willing to give a pass on the free agent signings of Allen, Hargrave, Fries and Kelly. Those were still good moves even if they didn’t exactly pan out. 
 

But other than Fries, they were all supposed to be PLACEHOLDERS. But they can’t be placeholders for future free agents, they have to be placeholders for draft picks, which they failed at again last year.

Also, weren’t the reports that the Vikings had no interest in Grey Zabel? They liked Jackson way better? Lucky the Seahawks didn’t give them a chance to look bad there, but who the hell is doing these evals?!? It’s not even close. New blood in the draft room please. KAM can supervise but not have the final say.

I liked the idea of beefing up the trenches but Allen was given way more than placeholder money.  

At the end of the day your execution of a good plan still matters and the results don't match the price tag.

Beyond the utter failure to eval anyone we've taken in rounds 2-4 (total disaster)....that whole FA plan was predicated on a ready McCarthy.  Who screwed that eval up?

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, gunnarthor said:

On Zabel, there was a lot of smoke that the Vikings would pick him. I remember hearing that they liked him so I don't remember what your suggesting although maybe I missed something that said they had him lower than Jackson. A lot of mocks had him falling to us as well. 

https://vikingsterritory.com/2025/news/analysis/pff-predicts-vikings-1988
https://thevikingage.com/minnesota-vikings-north-dakota-state-grey-zabel-2025-nfl-mock-draft
https://www.dailynorseman.com/2025/4/22/24413992/vikings-2025-nfl-draft-preview-grey-zabel-or-a-bold-trade
https://atozsports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings-news/nfl-draft-grey-zabel-scouting-report-vikings-kwesi-adofo-mensah/

As to the placeholder idea, I suspect that one of Allen/Hargrave will be gone and we will see Redmond (not a draft pick but played 75% of snaps), Rodriguez (played 45%), and TID (28%) all see an increase. I also think that Turner might get more snaps as a hand in the ground end with a healthy Greenard outside of him in the 7-technique. We saw that a bit as the season wore on, before Greenard got injured.

Can’t find it, probably because it was only audio, so huge grain of salt, but I could have sworn that despite all the mocks having Zabel going to the Vikings, Paul Allen, who is only good for this kind of insider info, bluntly said the Vikings weren’t interested and the fans should keep an eye on Jackson instead.

 

Edit: I did find more. Allen predicted Booker, then Zabel. I was wrong. KAM off the hook on that one. Unless it was a more tied in source than PA who was spilling tea, and I doubt there is a more tied in source.

[Danchat]

On 1/4/2026 at 4:21 PM, DocBauer said:

Drafted LB Kobe King was basically dumped earlier this season due to roster maneuvering. Rookie UDFA Austin Keys, however, was kept ahead of King. That is until this past week when he was allowed to be poached by another team with ONE GAME to go in the Vikings season and no obvious roster needs screaming to be added. Is losing King a disaster? Probably not.

The Vikings somehow lost 3 rookie LBs on waivers this season (Dorian Mausi was the 3rd on cutdown day)... none of them are probably any good, but it made zero sense to let Keys go when they could have IR'd a player who was out Week 18. All that to get 30 year old LB Sione Takitaki from off the practice squad, and then didn't even give him a futures deal for 2026.

On 1/5/2026 at 11:39 PM, nicksaviking said:

Can’t find it, probably because it was only audio, so huge grain of salt, but I could have sworn that despite all the mocks having Zabel going to the Vikings, Paul Allen, who is only good for this kind of insider info, bluntly said the Vikings weren’t interested and the fans should keep an eye on Jackson instead.

From what I heard on draft day was that they were locked in at guard and wanted one of the three. For the record, I wanted Jihaad Campbell since he was BPA, but Kwesi and the collaboration seemed to get locked into certain positions. At least Jackson had a decent rookie year and should take a step forward in Year 2/3 so I won't complain about taking him there, but now the LB room has zero young talent. And almost zero NFL talent with Cashman only having one year left, Wilson a FA, and Pace Jr a RFA.

[Parfigliano]

On 1/4/2026 at 4:02 PM, TheLeviathan said:

I wouldn't be shocked if he was fired.  

Kwesi should have been fired prior to the '25 draft.  Definitely should be fired now.

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

The Vikings somehow lost 3 rookie LBs on waivers this season (Dorian Mausi was the 3rd on cutdown day)... none of them are probably any good, but it made zero sense to let Keys go when they could have IR'd a player who was out Week 18. All that to get 30 year old LB Sione Takitaki from off the practice squad, and then didn't even give him a futures deal for 2026.

From what I heard on draft day was that they were locked in at guard and wanted one of the three. For the record, I wanted Jihaad Campbell since he was BPA, but Kwesi and the collaboration seemed to get locked into certain positions. At least Jackson had a decent rookie year and should take a step forward in Year 2/3 so I won't complain about taking him there, but now the LB room has zero young talent. And almost zero NFL talent with Cashman only having one year left, Wilson a FA, and Pace Jr a RFA.

LB is a huge need.  We're lucky this is a deep class.

[TheLeviathan]

2 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Kwesi should have been fired prior to the '25 draft.  Definitely should be fired now.

Yeah, I won't get into what he deserves to not set off some prominent sensibilities around here...but the Wilfs don't much love failure.

[Vanimal46]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47594940/ranking-best-nfl-rookie-classes-2025-teams-most-production
 

30th place. Is that good?

[TheLeviathan]

34 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47594940/ranking-best-nfl-rookie-classes-2025-teams-most-production
 

30th place. Is that good?

Yeah....I just don't know what to say anymore other than our draft picks have been an abysmal failure under KAM.

[gunnarthor]

38 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47594940/ranking-best-nfl-rookie-classes-2025-teams-most-production
 

30th place. Is that good?

Looks like Jackson passed the eye test pretty well. That's nice to see. But I'm not sure you should expect much more than 30th place if you only have one pick in the top 100.