Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Pre-Draft Press Conference Transcript and Notes

Can we read anything between the lines?

On Thursday, two weeks before the draft, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had his pre-draft press conference. It’s perhaps the most difficult press conference of the year for an NFL general manager in that he needs to give some update on the draft process and thoughts about the upcoming draft, while also not revealing any detail that may provide insight into his thinking or what player or action they may take in the draft.

Nevertheless, everything he said will get scrutinized, and various insights will be drawn, right or wrong, about what the Vikings intentions are for the upcoming draft. Especially so this year, as the Vikings now have two first round draft picks and are expected to be movers on the opening night of the draft for a quarterback.

So, to better scrutinize ourselves, I thought I’d include not just the video of the press conference but also a transcript with KAM’s opening remarks along with reporter’s questions and his answers. I’ve also included my notes and insights regarding his answers.

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah 4/12/24 Press Conference Transcript

KAM:

As we get to this point in the calendar, just obviously this is a place to stop and assess where you are. And first and foremost, I want to start and think with gratitude for all the people who put a lot into this. This effort so I have my executive team, Rob Brzezinski, Ryan Grigson, Demitrius Washington, Jamaal Stephenson, Sam DeLuca. They put countless hours into this and just want to make sure I speak about them in this stage. We have our college group led by Mike Sholiton, our pro group, our football admin group, our football quantitative methods group, our football information systems group, our performance group led by Tyler Williams, and then obviously, Coach O’Connell and his staff. We talk about collaboration a lot in this building, but for that to be a real thing, a lot of people have to put their time and effort into the offseason. And so I want to make sure I started by thanking them. We’ve gotten to a place where we’ve brought back some players that were really important to our culture and our success over these past couple of years and we’re excited about that. But we also added some new ones, some ones that we’re excited to add to that success in the same vein and also build and add to our culture. As we get to this point, obviously, we got final draft meetings, really finalizing the board, going through different scenarios and different things like that. I’m really excited to get to that point. The draft is coming and we’ve got a great plan and feel great about where we are. Players will be back in the building soon, which is always exciting to have them here, just always being around the people being the best versions of themselves, professionals doing things at a high level. It always great being around them, so excited to see them back. With that I’ll take questions.

Reporter:

Kwesi, when it comes to just the journey to meet all the quarterback this year, I guess, what are you looking to take away from those meetings? What’s the biggest thing that you can learn with a guy when you have one on one time with him?

KAM:

Yeah, I think before I got here, a lot of the- I used to do the research on the interview and how in some sense ineffective the classical interviewing is. We just go to consulting interview and they ask you brain teasers and different things like that. And ultimately, we’re all trying to get at some answer, some way of figuring out how good this person is going to be in the future at their job. And what you find out is that trying to do as best as you can is simulating what their job is going to be in an interview setting is the best thing you can do. Now, what does that mean in an NFL standpoint? We can’t simulate a pocket and different things like that. But we can simulate what it is like to be in a classroom environment. We can simulate what it’s like to maybe give a coaching point and see how they respond to it and different things like that. So we’re looking for the nuance of that dynamic, knowing that we’re going to lean on the film and hundreds and hundreds of snaps that we’ve watched on the rest of it. So that’s what we try and gain from those interactions. And it’s great to see people one after the other after the other to compare just to see what they’re like. And I think the great thing about our building is we have an appreciation for players and people, that they get to different answers, they don’t get to the same answer the same way. And so one person might be a little bit more advanced maybe because they came from a pro system. But you look at the underlying processor underneath and see how they learn, how they respond, how they get to answers, that’s a really cool thing to see up close as well.

My thoughts:

They didn’t go for the more indirect, psychological approach with abstract questions designed to gain insight into how you think, are you honest and trustworthy, and other character stuff like that. They went for the direct, job-focused approach to measure football IQ and answer a few basic questions: how quick is he on the uptake? Does he get it? And can I (Kevin O’Connell especially) work with this guy?

Reporter:

Kwesi, with that process, especially with the quarterbacks, how much of that for you guys came from your background and how much came from Kevin’s as a quarterback and the guy that got guys ready for the combine?

KAM:

A lot of it came from Kevin. I think of lot of the people who were involved in that process would tell you this was something new to all of them. And I would add myself in that regard. Since we got here, Kevin’s really been adamant about when you select a quarterback, it’s about- it’s a marriage. It’s that serious. And that level of commitment and work that should go into it. And so some of my thoughts that- obvious, the things I’ve talked about with interviewing and different things like that and maybe how we measure and process things, those are some of my inputs. But Kevin’s been really a big driver of this process. And having completed it, I completely see why and it’s been a great value.

My thoughts:

This is Kevin O’Connell’s baby. He’s the former quarterback and head coach who has to work with whomever they choose, so he’s driving the process. Kwesi adds some analytical background on each quarterback, but this is Kevin’s area of expertise and Kwesi understands that.

Reporter:

Kwesi, as much uncertainty as there is in the process and like how do you balance knowing that uncertainty exists with the magnitude of a decision and how much it means?

KAM:

I think just because something’s risky doesn’t mean you have to stay away from it. It is something that is hard to grasp, but if you grasp it, you know what the rewards are and that’s something you have to weigh and measure. You can’t look at these decisions in a vacuum. You look at the whole portfolio of decisions that go around it, the things that you have to do. And you can look at countless examples of other teams who have made decisions but maybe the decision you thought was going to be the decision, it was a different decision that ended up being right. And the outcomes were good. But look, I think the last couple of years, I think obviously, it’s out there, the results of the quarterbacks that were drafted and different things like that. I think we look at those things and we obviously honor them and respect them, but we also look at environment and are we setting the person up to succeed? So when we talk about these players, it’s not just how good are they, it’s how do we get the best version of themselves if they come to the Minnesota Vikings? If we set up plans before they walk in the building, I think our odds will be better than the margins. How good are those odds? Obviously, it’s still a pretty risky thing. But just because something’s risky, doesn’t mean you’re scared of it. You just have to believe in- it’s uncertain, right? It’s uncertain and we got to take our swing. But that doesn’t give us any pause, I would say.

My thoughts:

I’ve seen it reported a couple times now the line, “just because something’s risky doesn’t mean you have to stay away from it” in the context of trading up for a quarterback. That interpretation suggests Kwesi has assumed the risk of trading up, and therefore hinting that scenario is more likely.

But Kwesi’s answer was in response to the question about the uncertainty of the process of selecting a quarterback, not about the risk of trading up for a quarterback. So the better interpretation is that drafting a quarterback is risky, but the Vikings are still going to do it.

Kwesi is also preparing people that the Vikings’ decision on a quarterback may not be what some people think it will be (and given the various opinions that’s bound to be the case). But it could still be the right one. He also acknowledges (without saying it directly) that most QBs drafted in the past few years have been busts- largely because they came into a bad situation (environment) with a bad team around them. He and the Vikings are looking to setup the best situation for a rookie quarterback to enter and succeed. That likely includes building the best roster around the new quarterback.

Reporter:

Do you think everyone, publicly at least, has you locked in of trading up to get a quarterback and maybe around the league as well? Do you embrace that? Do you even spend time trying to push back on whether, on the other possibilities that may or may not exist?

KAM:

Yeah, I think maybe I should in this job be a little more aware of what’s being said. When I go on my ESPN app to check how the Wolves are doing- that’s probably the only time I’ll see stuff. But the way we looked at that purely was we looked at a lot of different situations and we said in this situation, what is the best- where can we be best suited to capitalize on the situation as the Vikings look at this situation? This situation? And across all four, we thought that this move set us in the right spot. So we looked at it as not just hey, this is a more attractive asset, if we went up, but it’s also an insurance product on different outcomes. Now, do you always use insurance? No. You can go your whole life and never get in a car accident. But if you did you’d be really glad you had insurance. Yeah, so we want to make sure that we set ourselves up for potential better look if a team picks up the phone because they don’t have to pick up the phone. But we also want to set ourselves up for being in a really good situation if they don’t- we pick great players. Because again, I know we talk about quarterback a lot. And it is the most important position in our sport. But it’s the most important position in a team sport. It’s not just getting the quarterback right. It’s getting the quarterback right and the team around it. So we look at this decision, if you look at our offseason, in a sense it’s kind of the go-between between quarterback assets and everything else. I think our draft will follow the same suit. I don’t think you want to necessarily go take these huge swings and not be able to build a team around them. And you’ll be in a different, but still not in the place you want to be. So I think that’s kind of how we’ve looked at the decision. And so I don’t know if that’s how in-depth all the articles or stuff that people are writing are, but that’s kind of how we viewed it.

My thoughts:

I’d be shocked if any NFL GM or head coach doesn’t have a pretty good idea of what’s being circulated in the media and league circles about their draft intentions this time of year. They may not acknowledge that, as Kwesi didn’t, but I’m sure he knows.

Kwesi seemed to be talking from the get-go in this answer about the Vikings’ decision to trade with the Texans for a second first-round pick – #23 – which is what really started the talk about the Vikings moving up in the draft. In his comments, he talked about situations- and four situations specifically- that this move (the trade for #23) set them up in the right spot to address.

The four situations might be (my speculation) trading up using both picks (better look if a team picks up the phone), sticking and picking with both picks (if they don’t we pick great players), or potentially trading up or down from #11 or from #23. The insurance analogy likely refers to #23 as insurance that allows them to pick a quarterback later if for whatever reason they don’t do so prior to that.

Reporter:

How did that trade with the Texans come together? Did you guys seek that out, or did they call you? How did that come up?

KAM:

We have a lot of just ideas- we throw a lot of stuff at the wall here, and obviously over the last two years, I’m probably one of the GMs who’s always open to picking up the phone and throwing stuff against the wall, and almost none of it comes to the light of day, and almost none of it gets past the five-minute phone call. So I’ve built up some relationships with some people who like throwing ideas around with me. So those relationships result in deals sometimes. And obviously, I have a ton of respect for Nick [Caserio, Texans GM], and I obviously knew that there was probably something on the other end that they were going to be doing, I didn’t know what, he probably wasn’t going to tell me. But we considered it once it came. And we- again, like I said- we went over our scenarios and thought this was a really good way to position ourselves and we still feel that way.

My thoughts:

The Texans initiated the draft pick trade negotiations, not the Vikings, as has been previously reported and KAM confirmed. KAM may have tossed out an idea that they may be willing to do a deal to trade up prior to the Texans contacting him, or Caserio may simply have known KAM is always willing to listen to an offer, so he called him and it worked with their scenario planning, so they did it.

Reporter:

When did that conversation start?

KAM:

I wish- I don’t remember the exact day we first talked about it. But obviously, once it did, you go in, go meet with Kev [O’Connell] and Rob [Brzezinski], and we talk about it. Obviously, you clue-in ownership, and then talk to my executive staff and just kind of hey this is what I’m thinking. You go to the Excel sheet a little bit, you kind of see different things, and you go from there.

My thoughts:

Interesting insight into the process and protocol.

Reporter:

Is there a scenario where- a realistic scenario that you’ve planned out- where you don’t draft a quarterback?

KAM:

I mean, you have to be ready for everything. I don’t know that- I think it’s a very deep class. But I do think you have to be ready for every scenario. If there’s elite players at the premium positions on the board, I don’t think you’re supposed to reach or force or anything like that. That’s just not what I believe. All the while, understanding that that is the most important position in the sport. So it’s calculating both those things at the same time.

My thoughts:

The Vikings are going to draft a quarterback. KAM won’t reach for one though. But just what constitutes a reach is open to interpretation.

Reporter:

Have you guys looked at the quarterbacks and who’s going to be available – is there a world in which you think you could get the guy you want without trading for them?

KAM:

I wish I knew the answer to that question. That’s the hard- that’s the hardest part. You’re in a blind auction, right, in a sense. And you don’t know when the next person is going to raise their hand and call a name. And so you really just got to be strategic about how you position yourself. At the end of the day, you’ve got to ask yourself, am I going to regret not doing this trade? If that player gets picked a spot, this spot, whatever this spot is, and I was willing to give up this, can I sleep at night? That’s how we got to look at the board in every place. And then we’ll come up with our valuations for every player in that way. And we’ll make our calls, and we’ll go from there. And ultimately, if the league is willing to do something that we are not willing to do, we can’t necessarily let that dictate our actions.

My thoughts:

This spells out a bit the process for what constitutes a reach and what doesn’t from a valuation standpoint- both relative player valuations and what price they’re willing to pay at each spot to get that player. KAM also said he isn’t going to get into a bidding war with a team more desperate than the Vikings.

Reporter:

I’ll ask you about that. How do you account for irrational decisions elsewhere?

KAM:

It’s – I mean- you have to build in some irrationality, just because the position and the need. So I will say that I’m not one of those people that I don’t think you’re supposed to say that everything is going to be- just like when I tell our players when we do deals- there’s an uncomfortable middle. I think this is one of those uncomfortable middle exercises, maybe it’s right of the uncomfortable middle, or maybe to the left. But so I don’t think you’re supposed to sit there and say it’s going to be like they’re going to give Kwesi some great deal because we like him. But I do think you’re supposed to price in a little bit of irrationality. But then, really, it’s always about walkaway prices. And walkaway prices, to me, are meaningful because it’s another action. Your leverage in a negotiation is your willingness to do something else. So I got to say I will not do this because I would rather do these three other things and make our team better. It’s got to mean something. That’s how we view this exercise. And so if other teams are willing to do that in a different way that doesn’t align with how we think, then we won’t do it.

My thoughts:

KAM will have red lines in terms of trade costs at which point he’ll walk away from the deal. He’s not getting into a bidding war beyond his red line on cost. They’ve planned on contingencies if that happens.

Reporter:

Kwesi, with the quarterback how do you determine the walkaway price? Because it could be on the one hand that you have to spend a lot to trade up. But on the other hand, if you get the guy, then nobody’s going to—

KAM:

—And that’s the hardest part, right? It’s the, it’s the- it’s – man, if you get the- if you get the guy right and he’s your answer for 10 years, there’s no price you probably wouldn’t have paid, looking back. And to Ben’s question earlier, you got – sorry Alex’s question earlier- you got to go back and look at the odds of that even happening. And that’s the – not counter play- believe me, every GM’s got to get up here and talk and they would probably all tell you the same thing. I don’t know that I have some special answer to that. I can tell you what the odds are in different things. But that’s the hardest part of it. And I do think, again you’re always trying to answer the question, most important position in a team sport. How do you put this most important piece but still give yourself the ability to win? Because you can have this great quarterback, and then there’s nothing around him, and then you’re not really in a great place there, either.

My thoughts:

KAM has reiterated a couple times now that he’s also worried about the rest of the team beyond the quarterback as well, and essentially the need to devote assets to improve the rest of the roster. My guess is that will factor into his willingness to trade up.

Reporter:

When it comes to having your answer for the next ten years, and over time, and how that’s gone for different teams. Nobody can predict the future, but what are the sort of factors that, in your mind, are those boxes that have to be checked?

KAM:

Yeah, I do think at some level, there’s a- you can call it processing, you can call it playing on schedule, you can call it rhythm, timing- all these different words that come- but I think there is a play that is called. And that there’s a play that should be available to the top half of the league for starting quarterbacks. They got to be able to make it at that clip. I do think there is an accuracy element to that. I do think as the league has gone higher, you get to a place where you’re using assets on the quarterback, and maybe you have to pay people in other places, that you might have to overcome some stuff. Whether that be a dirty pocket or different things like that. And I do think a quarterback has to be able to overcome in that sense. And then lastly, obviously, I think the learning, the intangible aspect of it, is crucial. And I don’t think everybody’s learning style- one of the great things we probably learned from our meetings is we saw a lot of great leaders, and none of them were the same. And that’s okay. You can be the quiet leader, you can be the fiery leader, you can be the lead by example guy, it doesn’t matter. But I do think there’s an intangible sense that’s needed. Your culture is typically- your great cultures are typically set by the players. And having your best player, your most important player, be the hardest working guy and different things like that, that matters a lot. So I think how you combine them- so all those things I said are probably things that most people would say, but I think how we go about measuring those things, how we go about talking about things, are unique to this building. We’re going to give ourselves a great shot at it. We’ve put a lot into this over the last couple of years. This isn’t a one-year thing or a three-month thing. This is something Kevin and I really set in motion when we first got here. We’ve put a lot into it, and we’ll see what happens on draft day.

My thoughts:

KAM echoed Kevin O’Connell in talking about processing- rhythm, timing, accuracy as key elements they’re looking for in a quarterback. Those traits tend to favor Nix, Penix, Daniels, and McCarthy more than Maye.

It was interesting how he seemed to pair having to pay people at other places with a quarterback’s ability to overcome some stuff- like a dirty pocket. Not sure if he was referring to the Vikings potentially paying Justin Jefferson or other players as a limiting factor for acquiring better interior offensive linemen, but he seemed to be talking about a trade-off there. Also with Darrisaw due to get paid and O’Neill already a bigger salary cap hit, there are limits to how much the Vikings will spend on the offensive line position group as a percentage of the total salary cap.

Lastly, it doesn’t seem like there is a preference for type of leadership or learning style, only that they are able to do both.

Reporter:

Kwesi, do you think – when you mentioned the environment that a player walks into, but do you feel like that can be a causal thing to a guy being—

KAM:

— Completely. completely. I do. I think it’s not even just the environment they’re put in, it’s just the ability to grow, not having to have everything on their shoulders right away. You can go back historically, a lot of good quarterbacks typically maybe go later in the draft because they go to better teams, better defenses, better running games, better things around them, so that they’re not asked to win the game on third down as a rookie, which is very hard in this league. But you maybe come in, and you come in and you play maybe in a run-favored offense, and you can throw the ball in favorable situations, different things like that. I think that does matter. So that’s the interesting part. When you go back and look at some of these historical things, and everybody talks about the low hit rates. Is that because the player wasn’t good, or because the situation wasn’t great? And I’m not saying I know the answer to that, but that’s something we stress and we argue, and we go back and forth and we talk about, and it’s true. It really is. A lot of these guys have to overcome circumstance. And some of some guys are good enough to, and that’s obviously you want to get the guy that that’s good enough to, but I do think that there is some situations, the things that are causal situationally, it’s a great question. And that’s why we talk so much about putting them in the right environment and what do we have around them. Do you have good pass protection? Scheme schematically? Are you progression passing- all these different things that Kevin has really brought in are set up to give a quarterback a chance to play. As you saw last year, we had a guy come in and play after a week and different things like that. The environment does matter for these guys, completely.

My thoughts:

I think KAM is very aware that situation is key to a young quarterback’s success and building a better roster around their new quarterback is an important part of their plan. Tailoring scheme may be a part of that too, although KAM didn’t say either directly.

Reporter:

You mentioned picking a quarterback is a marriage and falling in love and finding a guy. Can there be more than one of those guys?

KAM:

There is, I believe. I agree and I know I hope my wife doesn’t take that as anything negative.

Reporter:

[inaudible] be happy?

KAM:

I do, yes. And we’ve kind of felt that way for a long time, just partly because I think there is – again when you go back to the team element and value- so I think there are there’s multiple guys that we are in love with, just on an outright basis. But there’s also other guys that we’re in love with, given what if we get them at a certain value, what they’d also be able to come with. So as I talked about earlier skill set wise, if you’re talking about ability to overcome context, well, if the guy’s got less ability but we have assets to go get somebody who’s not going to put them in that situation, those things add up too. So it’s really those things, and again, I want to say that I think that’s a great question. I love how Kevin a lot of people involved in this decision- a lot of times evaluators can be a little one-track mind. This is the guy and nobody else. That’s not how it’s been. We’ve really come to appreciate how guys get to their answer a different way, and I think that’s going to serve us well.

My thoughts:

Saying there are multiple quarterbacks they like is the only acceptable answer given everybody knows they’re going to draft a quarterback and their draft position. Saying they’ve narrowed it to one or two would not be helpful in trade negotiations.

But just because that was how he had to answer that question doesn’t make it false. The way they’ve positioned themselves suggests they could move in different ways to get a quarterback on draft night, and more than one quarterback among the top six is seen as a good option depending on price. There appears to be at least one quarterback that they would be willing to trade up for, but others that could be available at #11 or #23 that they like too.

But KAM’s line about a quarterback’s ability to overcome context, and assets to go get somebody to avoid that context, once again suggests the trade-off of moving up to get a presumably better quarterback vs. staying put and drafting a top quarterback and another premium player.

Reporter:

Kwesi, how many of – you say that it is a deep field- and kind of piggybacking off of that, how many of those guys are there in this- people are saying four or five in the first round. How many of those guys are guys that you would hitch your career in the franchise to in that first round? I mean are there five guys? Four guys?

KAM:

I wish I could give you that answer, man. That would make my phone calls a little tougher. But I appreciate the question. But it’s hard speaking right before the draft. I know you might think that’s an innocuous question, and afterwards, I’d love to tell you. But it’s just something that makes your phone calls a little bit harder. Teams knowing how many exactly I think, that that would kind of change their approach to me.

My thoughts:

KAM providing no hints to the rest of the league that may limit or disadvantage him in any way.

Reporter:

And as far as the deep depth of the class, we all look at the first round, second round, maybe. But throughout the draft, are there guys that, you know, not Brock Purdy, but someone that—

KAM:

— Yeah, every level. I mean, we’ve – again, I wasn’t kidding. This is a two-year process. So we’ve tried to identify guys at every level, every part of the draft, that we think can be different things. And we kind of go from there. That really is- it’s been a thorough process. We get a lot of opportunities now with the Senior Bowl, and different ways. We’ve been around a lot of these guys. We’ve seen them throw. Again, we’ve known about them for years. We’ve gotten their character. So it’s not just the maybe the names that everybody’s thinking of, it’s everybody. It’s the reclamation market, we call it. It’s an all-encompassing approach to the position. And all those players are involved.

My thoughts:

They may well have researched quarterbacks projected to go later in the draft, but they’ve only met or are scheduled to meet with five: Daniels, McCarthy, Maye, Nix, and Penix. Pretty good chance they draft one of those. Not as likely they draft a Day 3 quarterback too, but not out of the question.

Bottom Line

Kwesi did his best to not provide any concrete indications of what he’s planning for the draft, and he succeeded in that.

I do think he pushed back indirectly on the idea that they will for sure be trading up for a quarterback, as is widely expected, while not ruling it out. The details of his statements regarding a quarterback’s situation and understanding trade-offs and walkaway prices suggest he is at least mindful/considering using one of their first-round picks on a non-quarterback.

KAM’s statement about player values at each position suggests they may place different values on players when it comes to trading up- i.e. they may be willing to pay more for one quarterback than another at the same spot.

There have been mixed reports since KAM’s press conference regarding the Vikings’ intentions to trade up for a quarterback. Jeremy Fowler reports that the Vikings are trying to preserve their #23 pick, rather than use it to trade up, while Darren Wolfson reports that his feeling is the Vikings would be happy with either of Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, or JJ McCarthy and presumably would trade up to get one of those quarterbacks.

Stay tuned.

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