Vikings' Season-Ending Presser: Takeaways on Ed Donatell, Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson

The Vikings had a strong first year under the leadership duo of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O'Connell. 13 wins, an NFC North title, and an overhauled culture that has been constantly praised by players are evidence that year one of this new regime was a success.

At the same time, it wasn't good enough. This was an overachieving team with a negative point differential, a horrendous defense, and a productive but inconsistent offense, and that reality was on full display in a disappointing home loss to the Giants in the first round of the playoffs.

Now, as the Vikings head into what should be another fascinating offseason, their goal is to continue ascending.

"At the end of the day, we didn’t play well enough to continue on and that’s something we’re dealing with right now," Adofo-Mensah said in a joint year-end press conference with O'Connell. "That hurts for a lot of reasons. We didn’t accomplish the goals we wanted to accomplish. But the things we did accomplish were incredibly impactful. I think we laid a foundation of where we want to go.

"Like KO said in his final meeting, it’s supposed to hurt. It’s supposed to sting. We’re still feeling that here, but I will say that hurt, that sting, that will drive us. That will motivate us to lead this organization to where we want to go. I know this guy next to me and myself will lead, will push and drive because we don’t want to feel this way this early ever again. We want to be there consistently with a chance to win it."

O'Connell said the next step is a "championship standard."

"Knowing we've got the culture, knowing that we've got the right things going in our building, now the last phase of that is the accountability to each other to make sure that that standard is championship-worthy and we're putting ourselves in that conversation."

Unsurprisingly, Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell didn't say a whole lot of concrete things in their season-ending presser. They were never going to sit down with microphones in front of them and cameras rolling and reveal their offseason plans, which are still being formulated anyways. It was a lot of talk about evaluating everything that happened this year, looking in the mirror, and moving forward with an eye on improvement and growth.

Still, there are a few noteworthy things that can be taken away from Wednesday's session, so let's do that.

Ed Donatell's future

Thursday update: Donatell has been fired.

A large, vocal section of the Vikings' fan base wanted one thing from this press conference: an announcement that defensive coordinator Ed Donatell had been relieved of his duties. Realistically, that's not how it works. Teams don't announce those things at formal pressers, they leak them to insiders like Adam Schefter and Ian Rapaport.

It's still very possible, and even likely, that news of Donatell's firing breaks in the coming days. When your unit rank 31st in yards allowed and gets burned by the same things over and over and over again all year — and then again, one last time, in the postseason — your job cannot possibly be safe.

"We know, statistically, that standard, we fell below what we hoped to be, both schematically and our performance on the field," O'Connell said. "So I think it's very, very important we look at it from the standpoint of the why? Why did it happen? What were the contributing factors that were both in our control and out of our control, and make sure that we're facing that head-on from an accountability standpoint, and then ultimately doing whatever we need to do to make sure we're able to show some improvement in that area."

It's not a complete lock that Donatell is canned after his first year in Minnesota. There's a possibility, even if fans don't like it, that the Vikings come to the conclusion that their defensive issues were more about personnel than scheme and end up retaining Donatell while making big changes to the roster. I personally think that's unlikely, but it's not out of the question.

O'Connell was noncommittal when asked directly about his defensive coordinator's future.

"I'm in evaluation mode of everything that we did," he said. "I think that's really important. Part of self-reflecting and part of us reflecting as a staff is making sure we're taking a look at every aspect of our football team and our coaching staff to make sure that we're doing everything within my responsibility and my power to put our players and our organization in the best possible situation to have success. So that is an ongoing process that is continuing as we speak, and will continue throughout the rest of this week."

We'll find out about Donatell, one way or another, soon enough.

The annual Kirk Cousins question

As is the case seemingly every offseason in Minnesota, there will be plenty of questions and debates about what to do at the quarterback position. Cousins is coming off an interesting season in that some of his efficiency statistics were down from previous years, but in many ways, he played the best football of his career.

Cousins tied NFL records with eight fourth-quarter comebacks and eight game-winning drives, leading the Vikings to 13 wins. His toughness and durability were on full display, as he led the league in hits taken but still delivered big throws late in games. He was legitimately clutch and seemed to become more aggressive at times, giving players like Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson increased opportunities to make contested catches.

"I thought his growth from the beginning to the end and just our personal dialogue week in and week out with the game plan, I’m excited for not only Kirk but all our players who will now have a year in the system and can really build off of that," O'Connell said.

Cousins also threw 14 interceptions and had the lowest passer rating and QBR of his career as a starter, but some of that can be explained by the challenge of operating a completely new offense. Overall, he played well enough to be considered the Vikings' quarterback moving forward.

But the complicating factor, as always, is his contract. After signing a one-year extension last offseason, Cousins' cap hit in 2023 is just north of $36 million. With other big contracts for star players coming soon, is it viable for the Vikings to keep paying a good, sometimes great, decidedly not elite QB like Cousins top-tier money?

That's the ongoing question.

"It’s our expectation that he’ll be our quarterback," Adofo-Mensah said.

Does that mean another extension?

"I can’t say exactly how that would look. Again, we have everything at our disposal. We’ll consider all those things just like we would with everyone else on the roster."

Justin Jefferson extension talks

Three seasons into his career, Jefferson is now eligible for a contract extension for the first time. Given how ridiculously productive he's been, it's only a matter of time before the 23-year-old superstar becomes the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL. $30 million per season feels like the absolute baseline for what Jefferson will command in a new deal.

The Vikings want to keep Jefferson in Minnesota for a long time. He's a unique, generational type of talent who is already the face of their franchise. They have him under contract for two more years with the fifth-year option, but expect extension talks to occur this offseason.

"We’ve had initial dialogue with him, his agent, all those things," Adofo-Mensah said. "We factor that into the planning but again, it really starts from the player, the person, and we’ll work on solutions from there on."

Working a mega-contract for Jefferson into the rest of the financial picture could be viewed as a challenge, but Adofo-Mensah doesn't see it that way.

“I wouldn’t use the word challenge," he said. "You got a special player, a special person. Those aren’t problems. Or at least those are champagne problems."

According to Schefter, the Vikings and Jefferson's camp have not yet begun negotiations, but "contract talks" are expected this offseason.

Jefferson is the kind of player you pay a lot of money without thinking twice about it — and figure everything else out around that.

The 2022 and 2023 drafts

As of right now, it's been a very rough start for the Vikings' 2022 draft class. Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr., the top two picks, suffered season-ending injuries. Cine's was a freak accident thing, while Booth getting hurt was part of the risk the Vikings took in selecting a player who was injury-prone all throughout college. A third defensive back, Akayleb Evans, suffered three concussions and missed the last chunk of the year.

Right guard Ed Ingram, who actually played all year, led NFL offensive linemen in pressures allowed. Players like Brian Asamoah and Esezi Otomewo and Jalen Nailor showed some flashes, but there's a lot that's still unknown with this class heading into year two.

"There's some guys that didn't get to play a lot, some for unfortunate reasons — injury — or others just had other people playing in front of them, but we talked about this year, Kevin and I, we sat down, we talked about building bridges," Adofo-Mensah said. "Building bridges from our young players from this year to next and so we got a lot of players exposure. Brian Asamoah, obviously, was a player like that who we got exposure but wasn't forced to come off the line and play right away, which we think is good for him for development reasons."

As for the upcoming draft, the Vikings currently have just four selections thanks to several trades, though they'll likely get a compensatory pick to bring that number to five. Adofo-Mensah said that drafting ten players last season and ending up with fewer picks this year was part of a two-year plan.

"Last year, when we talked about our plans, it was a two-year horizon," he said. "So last year, our class, I think was bigger than normally you would have expected, and I think we've got a lot of young, good contributing players out there. You look at the ages of a lot of guys on sort of the back-end of our roster, we've got a lot of good, young, talented players, so I don't see that as a limitation to us, but there's obviously always ways to create more picks."

LIVE: Head Coach Kevin O'Connell and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speak with the media https://t.co/hf7F8Exrvf
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) January 18, 2023

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