Sam Darnold is headed to the Super Bowl, and the Minnesota Vikings aren’t. That’s prompted some questions for the franchise, and one may need been answered Friday when the Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
That comes a few weeks after Adofo-Mensah mentioned the workforce’s choice to let Darnold stroll in free company — solely to later watch him lead the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl — with reporters
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Adofo-Mensah was asked specifically how he weighed the decision to not hit Darnold with the franchise tag and how everything has played out. He admitted some unease about the choice, however said he nonetheless understands the causes behind it.
Part of his reply:
“You’re trying to make sure you don’t lock yourselves into what you did and thinking that it’s always right, and so there are those nights you wake up and stare at the ceiling and ask yourself. I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time. It’s easier to and be revisionist and results-based, but going to think through what we had at the time, I still understand why we did what we did.
“The outcomes perhaps didn’t play out the means we needed them to, however in the end, I believe at the finish of the day we may have executed higher in sure locations. I do not wish to say it individually, by way of a specific participant, however simply executing higher — figuring out what the room was, play style-wise, experience-wise, and simply placing collectively a greater mixture of individuals, a collective in that group, that is in all probability what I centered on the most.”
The results “perhaps” not playing out as the Vikings hoped is an understatement. Last year, the Vikings went 14-3 with Darnold under center. Without him, they went 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Last year, the Seahawks went 10-7 and missed the playoffs. With Darnold, they went 14-3 and are about to play in the Super Bowl.
The causality is far more complicated than the above paragraph makes it sound, but that’s an undeniably rough shift for a franchise.
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At the time of Darnold’s free agency, the Vikings had former 10th overall pick J.J. McCarthy in reserve. The 23-year-old was positioned as the team’s quarterback of the future despite missing his rookie year with a torn meniscus, while Darnold was initially intended to be a stopgap who then played his way into stardom. The team decided to keep McCarthy over the 28-year-old Darnold, who would have been due a $40.2 million salary had the team hit him with the franchise tag.
Of course, that decision didn’t work out for Adofo-Mensah or Minnesota. McCarthy struggled heavily this season and missed time with an ankle sprain, a concussion and a hand fracture. The workforce went 6-4 in his begins and 3-4 in video games began by backups Max Brosmer and Carson Wentz. Only two groups, the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, had a worse passer score or fewer passing yards this season. No workforce threw extra interceptions.
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Darnold, in the meantime, continued to thrive in his second act as a starter and is now the favorite for Super Bowl MVP honors. Still, it is onerous to think about many observers who did not see his three-year, $100.5 million contract as a threat for Seattle. This one simply paid off, giving the workforce a Pro Bowl quarterback to match one in all the NFL’s prime rosters.