The Vikings entered the first round of the draft on Thursday night with the expectation that they might come away with a replacement for Kirk Cousins. Speculation had centered around Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker for weeks and the possibility of a trade up to grab one of the top quarterbacks also served as background noise.
When Kentucky’s Will Levis, projected by many as a top-five pick, began to plummet the possibility of the Vikings taking their quarterback of the future became very real. But with both Levis and Hooker on the board at No. 23, the Vikings took a pass on both.
Southern Cal wide receiver Jordan Addison was the choice of Vikings’ second-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who a year earlier had traded the 12th and 46th picks to Detroit for the last selection of the first round, as well as picks 34 and 66.
This time Adofo-Mensah decided to not only stand pat but also add another piece for Cousins. Was it the right move? That’s an interesting question given that Cousins may or may not be the quarterback of the future in Minnesota.
This might sound odd coming from the cynic who writes for this space, but there has to be a substantial amount of trust and faith put in Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell when it come to the decision to pass on a quarterback and draft Addison.
This isn’t the old Vikings guard of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer, or any other coach who came before Zimmer. Adofo-Mensah was hired as GM because he looked at things through a different lens, and O’Connell was hired in part because, unlike Zimmer, he came from the offensive side of the ball and had a background in working with quarterbacks.
While the possibility of taking a quarterback in the first round created excitement, the Addison selection addressed a need that qualifies as both short and long term. The decision to jettison Adam Thielen was a wise one, given his declining production and large price tag, but the Vikings had no obvious replacement for him and Pro Bowl wide receiver Justin Jefferson needed someone to complement him.
Addison should do exactly that. He also is plugged into an O’Connell-run offense that should cause plenty of issues with Jefferson, tight end T.J. Hockenson, running back Alexander Mattison and others.
Addison, who used the transfer portal to move from Pitt to Southern Cal after the 2021 season, won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the best wide receiver in college football in ’21 and was a consensus All-America. He had 100 catches for 1,593 with 17 touchdowns in 14 games. Last season, playing with quarterback Caleb Williams, Addison caught 59 passes for 875 yards and eight touchdowns.
Williams is expected to be one of the top picks in the 2024 draft. Could he end up playing with Addison again?
Addison will arrive in Minnesota without the pressure of being asked to be the Vikings’ top wide receiver. That job belongs to Jefferson and all he needs is a guy to take some of the pressure off of him. An aging Thielen wasn’t able to do that last season, and that allowed opposing defenses to focus on Jefferson and make it tougher for O’Connell to call plays in which Cousins could find one of the NFL’s most talented players consistently.
“Jordan Addison is somebody we targeted very early in the process,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Kevin has a phrase he likes to use a lot: It’s natural to him. Where you watch a player where you can tell football just makes sense to him. Jordan is somebody that does that.”
“Obviously a Biletnikoff winner as a true sophomore, separation sense in space, different things. It’s natural to him. An incredible, really good football player, quiet, hardworking, elevates those around him. He fits in our culture really well, so we’re excited to add him.”
The Vikings will enter the second day of the draft with only one pick, the 87th selection in the third round, and three picks on the third day. There’s a possibility they will use one of those picks to take a project quarterback to sit for a season behind Cousins. There also is a chance the Vikings won’t address Cousins’ replacement until next offseason and that’s assuming they don’t decide at some point to extend the veteran.
Until that decision is made, there will continue to be plenty of speculation about how Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell will address this issue. But on Thursday night, the Vikings decided the best answer was to give Cousins and the offense another weapon in the quest to improve on a 13-win season that ended with a first-round playoff loss against the Giants.
The addition of Addison should help. The Vikings finished eighth in scoring offense last season, but far too often that offense disappeared for large portions of games.
As for Cousins, it as if he will be guy to benefit from Addison’s presence in 2023. Beyond that the Vikings’ plans for the quarterback position will remain a topic of conversation, and debate, that will continue for months to come.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com
