Vikings offensive line continues to have issues and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's approach remains unclear
What is the one thing that has haunted the Minnesota Vikings over the last decade? The lack of a consistent offensive line. It's been a major struggle for the Vikings for a long time, arguably since Steve Hutchinson left the franchise after the 2011 season. They do have some good pieces on the offensive line […]
What is the one thing that has haunted the Minnesota Vikings over the last decade? The lack of a consistent offensive line.
It's been a major struggle for the Vikings for a long time, arguably since Steve Hutchinson left the franchise after the 2011 season. They do have some good pieces on the offensive line in left tackle Christian Darrisaw and right tackle Brian O'Neill. Left guard Blake Brandel and right guard Dalton Risner struggled a lot down the stretch and Ed Ingram was replaced halfway through the season.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's offensive line approach is uncertain
Three years into Adofo-Mensah's tenure as the general manager of the Vikings, they have an outstanding record of 34-17. One element that is also unclear here is how Adofo-Mensah wants to approach the offensive line.
Over the first three offseasons that Adofo-Mensah has been in charge of the Vikings, he hasn't put a ton of resources into the offensive line.
- Ed Ingram: 2nd round pick
- Walter Rouse: 6th round pick
- Michael Jurgens: 7th round pick
- Garrett Bradbury: 3-year, $15.75 million contract
- Blake Brandel: 3-year, $9.5 million extension
- Christian Darrisaw: 4-year, $110 million extension
- Dalton Risner: Two 1-year contracts
That's not a ton of investment (outside of Darrisaw) in the offensive line, but the group was pretty solid before the injury to Darrisaw. After that, things began to fall apart over time.
With the state of the offensive line, head coach Kevin O'Connell addressed needing a better interior group.
"We've got to find a way to solidify the interior of the pocket. … There could be a 1,000 excuses made, but for me, it's the foundation of the interior of the pocket that we're going to have to take a long look at."
During his season-ending press conference on Thursday, Adofo-Mensah was asked about O'Connell's comments and had a poignant answer.
"I think having studied it, I would agree with what he said. What I would say is though, I think a lot of times everybody hears that and thinks the answer is kind of simple. And the answer can come from different ways. It can come from a different player. It could come from a player year over year improving. It could come from how we do things from a pass protection standpoint. Those two games revealed some issues in there that were tougher to overcome. How do you overcome them? And that's what's beautiful about football. It's this complex sport. If you want to run the football, there's a lot of ways to do it. You could maybe get better at receiver and make them play you a certain way. We’ll approach this off-season trying to fix the team with that creativity, that mindset in place. We'll collaborate with Kevin, but yeah, we want to be in a place where we're still playing football. And to win these last games, any potential places where teams can attack, you've got to be ready for, not just from your starting lineup, but from your two deep. And so we want to set ourselves up to be in that position and going from there."
The way Adofo-Mensah went about his answer keeps the question open: what will his approach be?
In the previous three offseasons, the salary cap concerns made additions difficult across the board. They had to be really calculated in how they spent their money in free agency.
Last year, the Vikings knew they needed to revamp their edge rusher room and get a three-down linebacker. They hit massive home runs with Jonathan Greenard, Blake Cashman, and Andrew Van Ginkel, while also bringing in quarterback Sam Darnold, cornerback Stephon Gilmore, and cornerback Shaquill Griffin. They needed to fortify positions after getting their big-named free agents and Adofo-Mensah did that.
Why does this all matter? 2025 is going to be the first time where the Vikings will have cap space to work with and not a ton of dead money. They finished the 2025 season with approximately $72 million in dead salary cap while having less than $40 million in cap space entering last year's free agency.
What will Adofo-Mensah do? I don't think we can say for certain due to his ambiguity in his answer and how he's handled the position in the offseason so far. We don't have any proof that he truly values the interior of the offensive line, but the context of financial constraints show us that we can't know the answer right now.
While the line needs to be addressed, it can be in multiple ways and it might not be how you want it to. Brandel was 10 times better next to Darrisaw than he was next to Cam Robinson and was a first-year starter at a position he learned while in the NFL.
Right guard is more likely to be fixed this offseason than left guard is and I don't believe they will make a meaningful addition at center because, believe it or not, Garrett Bradbury is fine, especially at that price.
The Vikings do need improvement on the offensive line, but don't be surprised if how they improved isn't what you want it to be.
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