EAGAN, Minn. — Naming J.J. McCarthy the Minnesota Vikings‘ starting quarterback is “the outcome we want” and “the outcome we’re headed towards,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said Wednesday in the first comments from an organizational decision-maker since the team embarked on a $300 million offseason shopping spree that included direct conversations with free agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Adofo-Mensah, however, refused multiple opportunities to rule out the possibility of revisiting discussions with Rodgers later this offseason if he is still available. Rodgers visited the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, but another possible suitor — the New York Giants — appears to have moved on.
“For me to sit here and say that anything’s 100 percent forever, that’s just not the job,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’re responding to scenarios and different information as it comes. So obviously things can change, but right now we’re really happy with our [quarterback] room and we’re going to look to upgrade it in different ways.”
McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick of the 2024 draft, is one of two quarterbacks the Vikings have under contract, along with veteran journeyman Brett Rypien. The Vikings made offers to veterans Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones, but they both signed elsewhere in part because they assumed McCarthy would soon take over the job. Asked his plans for filling out the depth chart for OTAs and mini-camp this spring, Adofo-Mensah implied the team could wait until after the April 29 deadline for free agents to count toward teams’ compensatory draft pick formulas.
McCarthy has been cleared for offseason activities after recovering from a torn meniscus in his right knee last August, and he is working to regain weight after losing more than 20 pounds during his recovery. He told FanDuel TV this week that the Vikings had not told him he would be their starter. But at the very least, he is set to take the first-team reps when on-field work begins later this spring.
“At every checkpoint, whether it been the draft process or practice until the injury and really the offseason now, he’s met the bar,” Adofo-Mensah said. “He’s exceeded our expectations at every point. So I don’t have the ability to tell you what the future is, but I can tell you what I expect to be the outcome this offseason from the competition. But it’s also our job to set up a quarterback room that’s going to have to … provide insurance in case somebody needs to come in for a couple of games. And that’s our job as a personnel department to look at all the options out there and make sure we’re setting ourselves up for the best case we can.”
That’s why Rodgers and coach Kevin O’Connell “had a lot of conversations,” according to Adofo-Mensah. O’Connell was not made available to comment Wednesday, but Adofo-Mensah said O’Connell “looped us in” on their discussions to prompt an organizational dialogue.
“It’s a new thing to talk about a player at that caliber,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And I’m always somebody who wants to learn and grow myself and so just being involved in those dialogue was really special.”
Those conversations, and the rest of the team’s frenetic activity in free agency, came amid an unusual circumstance for Adofo-Mensah. Two months after the team signed O’Connell to a five-year contract extension, Adofo-Mensah remains on the original deal he signed when the Vikings hired him in January 2022. That contract will expire after the 2025 season.
Adofo-Mensah said Wednesday there has been “positive dialogue” between owners Zygi and Mark Wilf and his agent, Jimmy Sexton. He added: “It’s probably on me that it’s not going quicker because I wake up every morning focused on the things that I need to focus on to get this team to where they want to go.”
NFL teams often try to avoid situations where a general manager — charged with executing a long-term vision — is left in a situation where he might feel pressure to produce short-term results.
“I think when you sit down in a conversation with me and interview me and you get to know me as the person I am integrity wise,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I don’t think you’d ever question whether I’d do the right thing by the organization for the future. I think they continue to trust that. If you spend time with me every day, I’m not perfect. I have my faults, but willingness to do the right thing by the organization is not one of them.”
Asked if he read anything into the organization’s urgency to get a deal done with O’Connell, but not himself, Adofo-Mensah said he does not. He pointed to a quote he said is on the wall in his office: “Happiness is good health and a poor memory.”
“I just feel like you just don’t really don’t find happiness in life looking at what other people have and compare it to yourself,” he said. “Every situation’s different. I know the Wilfs value me, the things I bring to this organization. I know I love it here. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot of different things. I started my family here, Minnesota will be part of my story forever. So I don’t really think about those things, I’ll be honest on a day-to-day basis.”
