6 ways the Vikings can avoid disaster in the 2024 offseason
By Chris Schad
How the Vikings can avoid disaster No. 2
Not going all-in with Kirk Cousins
If Kirk Cousins is willing to agree to a deal that benefits both sides, there’s a real possibility he could return in 2024. The problem is that if he returns, the Vikings have to go to a place where Adofo-Mensah hasn’t been willing to go.
In an interview with USA Today’s Jori Epstein back in 2022, Adofo-Mensah listed the fear of going “Full Rams” and sacrificing his team’s future at the cost of going all-in. This has led to Adofo-Mensah’s “competitive rebuild” approach which has mixed results in its first two seasons.
The Vikings were able to win 13 games and a division title in 2022, but that was more running the same roster back than bringing in new talent. When Adofo-Mensah took a step toward rebuilding last year, Minnesota took a step back, finishing 7-10 and missing the playoffs.
Cousins’s return would fall into the former category, but it’s not guaranteed to breed results. The Vikings have holes all over on defense and could use a few more pieces to push them over the top offensively. While the Vikings could attack this in the draft, winning in 2024 could be more difficult if Adofo-Mensah keeps one eye on the future and another on the present.
That makes a case that the Los Angeles Rams did the right thing by going all in. The Rams traded for Matthew Stafford and won the Super Bowl in 2021 but fell to 5-12 the following season. But instead of dwelling in the purgatory that the New Orleans Saints have been in after squeezing everything out of the final years of Drew Brees’s career, the Rams ripped the bandaid off, cut a few pieces, and returned to the playoffs last year.
Could the same thing happen if the Vikings bring Cousins back? Who knows. But bringing Cousins back would also be an endorsement to go all in, pushing the need for Minnesota to be aggressive this spring.