‘Complete nonsense out there’ — NFL insider provides clarity on the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, including J.J. McCarthy
Tom Pelissero clears up the misconception surrounding the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
The firing of Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah brought a lot of new pieces of information to the forefront. There were rumors surrounding the move were vast and explosive.
A wise man (former Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs) once said “There’s truth to all rumors.” Even so, there are a lot of conflicting reports out there surrounding this mess the Vikings are currently in, and thankfully, we got some clarity.
Tom Pelissero clears the air on Minnesota Vikings rumors
There were multiple reasons why Adofo-Mensah was fired. Co-owner Mark Wilf spoke to the media after the move was made, and was crystal clear that there wasn’t one reason why the Vikings chose to move on.
There were multiple rumors flying around, especially discussions with quarterback Sam Darnold, who has led the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl in his first season. Despite being universally agreed upon by the fanbase and experts when they chose to go with J.J. McCarthy, hindsight is 20/20.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero cleared the air on multiple elements of the situation, starting with moving on from Darnold.
“My understanding is that the Vikings offer was structured similarly to the Seahawks offer. It was a multi-year deal, but really a one-year commitment. If you look at Sam Darnold’s deal with Seattle on paper, it’s a three-year, $100 million deal, but they could get out after year one, and that’s because of the Seahawks’ contract structure. They don’t do guarantees into future years in virtually every case, but it was for less money. The money was there,” said Pelissero. “But more important than the money, whatever that difference was, $10 million, or whatever it was, more important was that Sam Darnold could go there and be the guy he was not going to have J.J. McCarthy still looming. And if things went wrong for Sam Darnold, and all of a sudden, it’s handing off to J.J. McCarthy.”
That’s the big element of the conversation that gets glossed over. The contract was very similar, and Pelissero makes it sound like the max value with the Vikings was higher than with the Seahawks. Just like what happened with Daniel Jones picking the Indianapolis Colts, Darnold picked the route that didn’t have a quarterback breathing down his neck. It worked out really well for him, but it was a disaster for the Vikings.
Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had a good relationship
The other big thing that’s been bandied about is that Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell had a contentious relationship. The idea makes sense since Adofo-Mensah is being made a scapegoat in this entire situation. Pelissero shut that down, as well as the Vikings trading McCarthy to the Las Vegas Raiders.
“I’ve seen other complete nonsense out there this week that they were getting ready to trade J.J. McCarthy, and Kwesi pulled the plug, that there was a toxic environment between Kwesi and Kevin. None of that is true, and I can tell you that objectively speaking, as somebody who is pretty wired into the NFL, and specifically wired into the workings of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah are friends. They never had a personal issue,” said Pelissero.
“There were things they did not see eye to eye on. They had disagreements. Certainly, the way that things played out at the quarterback position was not ideal for anyone. Would love to go back in time and have the foresight to know that Sam Darnold is going to play like a top 10 quarterback and go to the Super Bowl this year. Of course, you keep that guy. But really, when it came down to the firing of Kwesi, it was a lot of different things.”
It was a frustrating thing for the Vikings to be in a situation where a 43-25 general manager gets fired after four seasons, but the reasons were seemingly plentiful, but the relationship with O’Connell doesn’t appear to be one.
This doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon, but Pelissero shut down a couple big issues.