For the first time since the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine in February, Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah answered questions from the local Twin Cities media on Wednesday.
As expected, a lot of the questions for Adofo-Mensah centered around what the Vikings' plans are for the quarterback position next season. With Sam Darnold now gone, most assume J.J. McCarthy will step in as Minnesota's new starting signal-caller a year after the team selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
But then there are all those rumors that have connected the Vikings to former New York Jets and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Adofo-Mensah did confirm on Wednesday that the Vikings have spoken to Rodgers this offseason, and he said a whole lot more about the future Hall of Famer as well.
What did Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah say about Aaron Rodgers on Wednesday?
After talking about how the goal is for McCarthy to emerge as Minnesota's No. 1 quarterback this offseason, Adofo-Mensah was met with multiple questions about the level of interest that the team has in adding Rodgers this year.
Minnesota Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer: "There's been a lot of talk about Aaron Rodgers. Can you clarify what your level of interest, if any, there is in him?"
KAM: " Yeah, I understand that, Aaron Rodgers, [is someone] this organization has known for a long time on the opposing sideline. [We're] talking about a great player, a Hall of Famer. So I understand that.
I’ll always say it’s our job as a personnel group to make sure we’re aware of every potential option. And again, we’re trying to make sure that we solve for scenarios that we don’t know could possibly happen.
We want to make sure that there’s competition in the room to make sure that, if you remember last offseason, when J.J. and Sam were really competing, that brought the best out of both of them, and so you want an environment to also just challenge each other, but grow and learn and all those different things.
So, we’re trying to solve for a lot of different things at once, and from all those conversations comes a list of names and maybe an order and an intentional plan in how to best solve for those things.
So, a player like him, he’s always going to be in those conversations. But from our delineations at that time, we’re happy with where we are going forward. But, obviously, [given] the caliber of player, we had to make our considerations."
ESPN's Kevin Seifert: "Is that to say he’s not an option for this organization?"
KAM: "Right now, given all our scenario planning, we’re happy with our room. And obviously we’re going to talk a lot about J.J. McCarthy, but Brett Rypien, who we brought in last offseason, we thought made a lot of great decisions, quick decision-making processing, better athlete than people give him credit for, accurate passer. So we’re excited about him.
We’re always going to keep looking to see if we can upgrade that position, just like every other position. But right now, [we're happy with our room]."
Seifert: "You wouldn’t consider Aaron Rodgers competition for [McCarthy] if you were to bring him
in. Are you saying that would be the classification for the quarterback that you brought in? That it
would be competition?"
KAM: "You want to solve for a lot of different things. You want competition, you want ability to play if they’re not the starter. All those different things. You’re just trying to solve for a lot of different dynamics.
I’m not going to say that’s specific to Aaron, but just generally, [that's] what you’re trying to accomplish in a decision."
The Athletic's Alec Lewis: "Did you or Kevin [O’Connell] speak to Aaron directly?"
KAM: "Yeah, so you’re talking about a player that Kevin’s known for a long time, and so when you
have a relationship like that, I’m typically the type that’s like, 'Hey, whoever’s got the best relationship with him, talk to him.'
So, Kev, he’s a bit like, if I’m like the dork Elvis, maybe Kev’s like the QB Elvis type of guy. He’s got a lot of respect in that community, and he deserves it for a lot of great reasons. Not just for what
he brings from a schematic standpoint, but just how he cares about players, how he cares about people. He cares about [how], a lot of times, the environments around quarterbacks aren’t really supportive to quarterbacks.
And so for that reason, he’s got a great relationship with a lot of these guys, and he’s got a relationship with Aaron. They’ve had a lot of conversations. Obviously, he looped us in, and we met and go from there.
It’s a new thing to talk about a player of that caliber. I’m always somebody who wants to learn and grow myself, so just being involved in those [conversations] was really special."
Seifert: "Were you expecting, as the offseason began, that [Rodgers] would be somebody that you guys would reach out to or speak with?"
KAM: "So, at the start of the offseason, obviously Sam [Darnold] was still a potential option, and then Daniel [Jones] was somebody that we brought in with potential, so he was in our conversations.
But you’re always trying to plan for a lot of different things. Again, I named three players, but there’s other players that are also in consideration, and you put all your options on the table, and you see what fits best for your scenarios, and you kind of go from there."
Minnesota Star Tribune's Ben Goessling: "Kwesi, when you’re having conversations with a player of his caliber, how do you set the parameters of that in terms of whether he wants to be assured of certain things, where he’s going to be in the pecking order, how much of those conversations did you have with him in terms of what it would look like if he came in?"
KAM: "Our belief here is full transparency for both sides. I don’t think it’s wise for either party to show up here and have surprises. We always encourage our players [and their] agents to tell us exactly what [they] expect from this opportunity, and we do not lie.
We tell them, ‘Hey, we might do this, but we also might do this in the future, and just make sure you make that decision full knowledge based.’ So, transparency is just the key to how we have those conversations always."
Minnesota Star Tribune's Mark Craig: "Kwesi, how did it end with Rodgers? Was it his choice? Your choice that it wasn’t going to fit?"
KAM: "You know I think we got to a place where we said, everybody was transparent, but right now we feel good about where we’re going and that’s really how it ended.
It’s ultimately up to him. It’s hard to talk about a player who’s not under contract for our team. It’s ultimately up to him and what he decides to do with his
future, but that’s kind of where we left it.
I know Kevin [O’Connell] and him have a great relationship still. They’ll still have a relationship. They’ll keep talking. But right now I’m focused on the two players that are in our room right now and my personnel process for going forward."
FOX 9's Dawn Mitchell: "Kwesi, can you say definitively the door is closed with Rodgers? It kind of sounds like [you're saying] it was his decision, and we’re still looking for a veteran quarterback. Can you say that [the] door is closed?"
KAM: "I don’t know that I said it was ultimately his decision. I want to make sure that I said that given where we are scenario-wise, we didn’t think it was the right move at this time. It is also his decision whether he signs with a different team, not [that it's] ultimately up to another player.
For me to sit here and say that anything’s 100 percent forever, that’s just not the job, right? We’re responding to scenarios and different information as it comes, so obviously things can change.
But right now we’re really happy with our room and we’ll look to upgrade it in different ways. But for now, we’re really excited."