Kirk Cousins and Other Offseason Questions Facing Vikings' Kevin O'Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

The Vikings' new GM and head coach have their work cut out for them in the coming months.

Back in 2016, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell formed a relationship when they were relatively low on the totem pole in the San Francisco 49ers' organization. Adofo-Mensah was in his fourth year as the team's manager of football research and development, and O'Connell had joined Chip Kelly's coaching staff to work on special projects — third downs were one of his focuses — on the offensive side of the ball.

Despite working in different buildings, the two would grab lunch from time to time and chat about football, life, and the challenges of trying to implement their visions and work their way up in the NFL world.

Six years later, Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell have reunited in Minnesota as the new general manager and head coach of the Vikings. They no longer have to worry about their ideas falling on deaf ears. Starting now, they'll be the ones making the decisions and overseeing everything as they lead an NFL franchise together.

Adofo-Mensah, now 40 years old, was promoted by the 49ers and then hired to a major role in the Browns' front office before landing the Vikings' GM job. O'Connell, 36, became an offensive coordinator for Washington and the Rams and turned that into this opportunity to be hired as the Vikings' head coach. 

Neither has done the job before. Adofo-Mensah is the third-youngest GM in the NFL; O'Connell is the league's second-youngest head coach. (In each case, one of their only younger peers is their former boss: Browns GM Andrew Berry and Rams head coach Sean McVay). They'll be able to lean on experienced colleagues — Rob Brzezinski in the front office, Mike Pettine and Ed Donatell on the coaching side — but they'll also lean heavily on each other as they embark on this journey.

At O'Connell's introductory press conference last Thursday, Adofo-Mensah talked about the team's second interview with O'Connell — an in-person meeting in Los Angeles — and how they instantly clicked.

"When there are big decisions in life, a lot of times you like to think back, was there a moment when you sort of knew?" he said. "And I went back thinking about the journey, and I was thinking about the second-round interview; we were talking about offensive philosophy, personnel, player evaluations, and it was like I was talking with one of my close football friends who I've spent hours and hours upon hours with — and this was an hour into the interview. It was just so natural. Everybody else that was in that interview said it right after, that the connection, the energy was incredible there, and upon reflection, I think in that moment I probably knew [that Kevin was going to be the choice]."

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O'Connell felt it too. Even after the Vikings interviewed Raheem Morris later that evening, Patrick Graham the next day, and Jim Harbaugh the day after that, O'Connell wound up as their guy.

"The chance to partner with Kwesi was one of the huge draws to this job," he said. "It's our job to take the team we put together and put it on the field and best execute game plans and put them in positions to have success, but there's got to be collaboration. That's the number one thing that I think we've talked about that we're so excited about is through the process of getting to know each other, we've known from day one that we're going to be able to collaborate, communicate with one another and build a culture here that the players will feel."

Now that they've both been officially hired and introduced in Minnesota, Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell can get to work on tackling a huge offseason featuring several major decisions that will shape the immediate future of the franchise. Here's a look at the biggest questions facing the duo as they approach the NFL combine and the start of the new league year.

What will they do with Kirk Cousins?

Endless ink has been spilled on the topic of what the Vikings should do with their polarizing veteran quarterback, and that will continue until a decision is made.

At this point, anyone reading this is undoubtedly familiar with the situation and the options. Cousins is a talented, accurate quarterback who puts up impressive numbers and PFF grades, takes care of the football, and has a strong rapport with Justin Jefferson. There's validity to the argument that he's been limited by a variety of factors during his four years in Minnesota, whether it be Mike Zimmer, the offensive line, or underperforming defenses. Cousins is the Vikings' best quarterback since the brief Brett Favre era and provides a high floor at the position on a year-to-year basis.

He's also one of the most expensive quarterbacks in the NFL despite being ranked by most analysts in the 10-15 range at the position. Cousins has just a 33-29-1 record and one playoff appearance in four years with the Vikings. He struggles to elevate the team around him the way elite quarterbacks do, instead needing his circumstances — pass protection, skill-position weapons, defense, coaching — to be strong in order to have consistent success. Cousins trusts his progressions and tries to limit dangerous throws, which is generally an asset but can also lead to him playing too conservatively at times. His decision to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 last year may have contributed to him not being available for a Week 17 game in Green Bay the Vikings needed to win to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

Cousins has a $45 million cap hit in 2022, the third-highest number in the NFL. He can't be released because of the dead money that would come from that, and he's not going to take a pay cut. The Vikings could let him play out the final year of his contract, but that would inhibit their ability to improve the roster around him this year. They could extend him again, lowering his immediate cap hit and committing to him financially for a few more years. Or they could explore the option of trading Cousins to one of the many QB-needy teams across the league, which would mean a risky reset at the position with no obvious option to take over. It's highly unlikely that Kellen Mond, a rookie, or any QB available to be acquired via free agency or trade would be able to play at Cousins' level this season, but a trade would clear a significant amount of cap space and give the Vikings additional draft capital for a swing at finding a QB of the future in 2022 or 2023.

Another option that hasn't been discussed as much is keeping Cousins and restructuring his contract by converting some of his base salary into signing bonus and adding void years. He would still be in the final year of his deal in 2022, but the void years would allow the Vikings to reduce his cap hit by pushing some of that money into the future, when the cap is expected to go up.

All of the indications so far are that O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah like Cousins and plan on him being their quarterback. But words don't always mean much in the NFL; actions are what matters. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with Cousins in the coming weeks and months and what that means for the timeline of his tenure as the Vikings' starting QB.

Will other big-name veterans be headed elsewhere?

Cousins isn't the Vikings' only well-known, high-priced veteran player whose status is up in the air this offseason. Minnesota needs to clear at least $16 million in cap space to be compliant by the start of the new league year in mid-March, and in reality they'll need to clear plenty more than that to be able to add to their roster via free agency and the draft. That could mean some major players becoming cap casualties or being traded to create room.

But luckily, there are all kinds of options available to Adofo-Mensah and Brzezinski as they set out on that task. You never want to lose good football players if you don't have to, and the Vikings' front office can use extensions or restructures to address the salary cap situation while retaining talent. Still, not everyone who played a major role for the Vikings in recent years will be part of the team's plans going forward.

Star pass rusher Danielle Hunter has a $26 million cap hit this year because of an $18 million roster bonus that is due on March 20th. He's played just seven games over the past two seasons because of two different injuries, but the 27-year-old remains immensely talented and a restructure seems like a strong possibility because of the way his contract is set up.

The Vikings' other players with cap hits of at least $10 million in 2022 are Adam Thielen (32 years old this fall), Eric Kendricks (30), Harrison Smith (33), Dalvin Cook (27), and Michael Pierce (29). If the Vikings were going to enter a rebuild, it would make sense to move on from several members of that group. But Mark and Zygi Wilf, who own the Vikings, have been adamant that they believe the team will be "super competitive" this season despite going 15-18 over the past two years. O'Connell also praised Kendricks, Smith, and Cook at his introductory press conference, so it would be a surprise if any were moved this year. O'Connell would presumably like to keep Thielen around as well, although his injury history is a concern and the Vikings may want to address his $17 million cap number.

The player who stands out as a potential cap casualty is Pierce, who, like Hunter, has played less than half of one season's worth of games since 2020. As the Vikings switch to a 3-4 defense and different philosophies under new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, they might not deem it necessary to keep both Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson.

How will they improve the defense and interior offensive line?

If the Vikings plan on being competitive right away in 2022, they'll need to address a couple key roster weaknesses that hurt them in recent years. The most glaring is the defense, which gave up over 380 yards per game in each of the past two seasons.

Six of the nine players who saw the most defensive snaps for the Vikings in 2021 — Anthony Barr, Patrick Peterson, Sheldon Richardson, Xavier Woods, Nick Vigil, and Mackensie Alexander — are unrestricted free agents. So is Everson Griffen, who played a big role until mental health issues ended his season prematurely. How many members of that group will the Vikings bring back this spring? They don't appear to have many promising young defensive players waiting in the wings to take over for those departing free agents.

Getting a healthy Hunter in 2022 would go a long way, but even if that does happen, the Vikings need to add to their pass rush. D.J. Wonnum hasn't shown enough to suggest that he's a starting-caliber NFL edge rusher. If Pierce is a cap casualty, the Vikings would need to add depth to the interior of the defensive line behind Tomlinson and Armon Watts. They'll also need to add at least one starting linebacker, depending on what happens with Barr and Vigil. O'Connell mentioned Barr by name in his opening presser, but it's unclear if the Vikings can afford to bring him back (or if they should).

And neither of those are the area of the defense with the most question marks. That would be the secondary. Is Camryn Bynum ready to replace Woods as a starting safety next to Smith? And who will play cornerback? Cameron Dantzler is the only starting-caliber corner currently under contract next season, and he's been inconsistent in his two years with the Vikings. Peterson is a candidate to return in free agency, but he's not getting any younger. Alexander had a disappointing 2021 as Minnesota's slot corner.

Offensively, the Vikings are set up well at the skill positions. Jefferson and Cook are stars, there's good receiver depth with Thielen, K.J. Osborn, and Ihmir Smith-Marsette, and talented tight end Irv Smith Jr. is returning from injury. They're also good to go at three of the five offensive line spots with Christian Darrisaw, Ezra Cleveland, and Brian O'Neill. But they need improvements at center and right guard; Garrett Bradbury and Oli Udoh weren't good enough last year and Mason Cole is a free agent. An offensive line tends to only be as good as its weakest link.

The Vikings have the 12th, 46th, and 77th overall picks in the upcoming draft to add young talent to those areas, but they're without their fourth-rounder because of the ill-fated Chris Herndon trade. If they could get improvement from a few 2020 and 2021 draft picks, that would go a long way. That includes players like Dantzler, Wonnum, James Lynch, Troy Dye, Kenny Willekes, Wyatt Davis, Patrick Jones II, Chazz Surratt, Janarius Robinson, and Jaylen Tywman.

However it happens, the Vikings need to make substantial improvements on defense and in the middle of their offensive line if they plan on going for it in 2022. If they were to trade Cousins and other veterans and rebuild instead of reloading — which seems unlikely — that would change the approach to the rest of the offseason and place even more importance on the upcoming draft.

Let the fun begin.

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