5 tough decisions facing new Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

Who to keep, who to cut

The Vikings have a lot of big contracts with aging veterans and they will have to do some fat trimming to get under the cap. A lot of these names who are candidates for release or restructuring are long-time and beloved members of Minnesota’s roster that fans would hate to see let go.

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn’t have the attachment to these players that the fans do and will have to look at each one from a business standpoint. He’ll factor in age, health, recent production, and cost and use those to determine who stays and who goes.

These won’t be easy choices to make and some of them could cost him some love from the fans, but it would be for the overall betterment of the Vikings moving forward.

Some of the names who could be on the chopping block are Adam Thielen with an almost $17 million cap hit, Eric Kendricks with a $13.5 million cap hit, Harrison Smith with a little over $13 million, and Michael Pierce at a hair over $10 million.

Minnesota can’t keep all those guys as is and that list above wasn’t even including Cousins who was talked about earlier. There is a lot of room that needs to be created, and Adofo-Mensah will have the tough job of potentially having to cut ties with some long-time Vikings and even some who could be in the franchise’s Ring of Honor someday.