Signing of Daniel Jones highlights Vikings' top tier culture built by Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
The Minnesota Vikings are in a great place as the 2024 season winds down, a place that was only a dream at the end of the 2021 season. Then head coach Mike Zimmer was on a downward spiral at the end and had somewhat lost the locker room. They were in a very stale spot […]
The Minnesota Vikings are in a great place as the 2024 season winds down, a place that was only a dream at the end of the 2021 season.
Then head coach Mike Zimmer was on a downward spiral at the end and had somewhat lost the locker room. They were in a very stale spot and brought in head coach Kevin O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to usher in both a new era of Vikings football and a fresh culture.
Over the last few years, the Vikings have been working to instill that culture and it's paying off in a big way.
Kevin O'Connell beam about Vikings' culture
The signing of Daniel Jones has been huge for the Vikings in building their culture up to a good point and that is starting to pay major dividends. O'Connell couldn't help himself when asked about how the Jones signing reflects on the culture.
"I'm excited. I'm excited anytime, any players that have a choice, choose to pick to come to Minnesota. It validates a lot of the things that I think our players have built. It validates, hopefully, that our players and players that to this building know that they're going to get the same version of me every single day. They know that I'm going to tremendously love and care about them and try to help them be the best the best version of themselves that I can be. I know I say that a lot, but I genuinely true believe it and try to live every moment that I'm blessed to have in this building doing that. I challenge our coaches to do the same thing. I challenge all the people down here on the first floor who I think we have some of the best people in all the NFL in the weight room and nutrition, Tyler Williams and Mike Parson. Everybody that comes in contact and touches our players, I challenge those folks to always be striving to do the same thing and what comes from that is I think a pretty cool place to try to win and be a part of winning in the NFL and then individually see just how far you can maximize your own growth development and what you can become as a player to help our team win."
It's a big deal that the team's culture is paying off. They were first and second in the last two NFLPA player surveys and it's showing in a major way.
With that culture comes players willing to come here both in general and also those who want to come and play for less money. Jones is the latest in that realm and it's helped keep players like Harrison Smith here for longer than other organizations might have been able to.
This is going to continue paying off down the line, especially with the Vikings having a projected $75 million in salary cap space this offseason to work with. For the time being, Jones is the latest, but not the last example of how much it's paying off.
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