Inside the Vikings' move from Kirk Cousins to rookie J.J. McCarthy

EAGAN, Minn. — They were two young football minds, looking for common ground to lead the Minnesota Vikings into a new era. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was the new general manager, and Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell was a finalist for the Vikings’ vacant head-coaching job.

It was the afternoon of Jan. 31, 2022, and members of the team’s search committee — owner/president Mark Wilf, chief operating officer Andrew Miller and executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski, among others — sat around a conference table in a Southern California hotel. They largely just listened as Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell talked for more than three hours. About a third of the conversation was devoted to the most pressing question facing the franchise: quarterback play.

O’Connell was emphatic. The Vikings could win with Kirk Cousins in 2022, and perhaps beyond. It wasn’t time to replace him yet. Adofo-Mensah agreed but wanted to know more. Whenever that time came, how should they do it? What type of player would O’Connell want? And how should he be developed?

O’Connell spoke from his expansive background. He had been a star quarterback at San Diego State, a third-round pick in the 2008 draft, an NFL backup for five years and an assistant coach for another seven.

In between, O’Connell had worked as a private coach for draft-hopeful quarterbacks. He knew how prospects exaggerate their strengths and hide their weaknesses. So he laid out a process for cutting through that façade. The end result, he said, was a marriage that required adjustments from all participants. “Marriage: it’s that serious,” Adofo-Mensah said later.

More than anything, however, O’Connell emphasized pragmatism. At one point during the conversation, O’Connell compared two quarterbacks. Deshaun Watson and Matthew Stafford, he said, approached the game from entirely different skill sets. But ultimately, he said, “they both get to first-and-10.”

That phrase stuck with Adofo-Mensah, who understood in the moment that O’Connell was flexible and thoughtful enough to accept what he considered the reality of quarterback acquisition. Most drafts don’t have a transcendent prospect like Andrew Luck or Joe Burrow, and most teams don’t get their first choice. A true draft assessment hinges on how many of its quarterbacks can get your offense to first-and-10, and what environment they need around them to expand their impact to championship levels.

O’Connell got the job. Two years later, the Vikings set themselves up for a highwire task this offseason: Parting ways with Cousins and finding his short- and long-term replacements, all in the span of two months. They made Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy the fifth quarterback selected in the 2024 draft (No. 10 overall), in the process working as hard to protect their draft capital as they did to secure McCarthy. There was no celebration until they had maneuvered to select Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner — one of the draft’s best pass rushers — seven picks later.

“I believe in J.J. McCarthy,” O’Connell told ESPN, “but to get him in the building the right way under the right circumstances, and having another first-round pick like Dallas Turner helps that.”

ESPN spent the offseason tracking the Vikings’ quarterback transition, one that took them through intense negotiations with Cousins, included a check-in on the Los Angeles Chargers‘ Justin Herbert and the acquisition of a second first-round pick that ultimately helped secure Turner rather than McCarthy. It featured a set of five private workouts around the country, one big surprise and the first top-10 quarterback pick in team history (Daunte Culpepper was No. 11 in 1999).

Interviews with coach, executive and agent sources in and around the organization revealed a two-year process built around the probability the Vikings would never have a draft position high enough to call their own shot and would need a multifaceted plan to succeed with whomever they landed.

“What people don’t understand about the quarterback-selection process,” O’Connell said, “is that it’s not just the quarterback themselves. It’s: ‘What does the rest of the picture look like with that quarterback?'”

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NFL TEAMS RARELY pull off a quarterback transition without some lean years in between, and ESPN’s Football Power Index projects the Vikings to win 6.8 games in 2024 — an unavoidable and uncomfortable fact as both Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell enter the third year of four-year contracts. They had hoped Cousins would bridge them to the next quarterback, but the bridge to McCarthy has now fallen to veteran Sam Darnold, a once-elite prospect himself who is now with his fourth team in seven seasons.

McCarthy’s moment might not come as soon as the Vikings hope. O’Connell, scarred by Washington’s botched development of late quarterback prospect Dwayne Haskins during his tenure there as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, laid out for ESPN his plan to ensure that McCarthy won’t have to play until he is ready.

“Those things [O’Connell] talked about are the reason why I have so much faith in him,” Adofo-Mensah said. “to take a mold-and-play like [McCarthy] with talent and traits that are as high-end as anybody, and mold him into that player we want him to be.

“A lot of times when we go back over history and we say, ‘These quarterbacks have missed.’ There’s a lot of hands that are dirty in that regard, and we’re going to make sure that our hands are clean and give him the best opportunity he can to be the best player he can be in this offense.”

The Vikings’ hiring of Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in 2022 coincided with one of the worst quarterback classes in recent draft history. The best QB has been the San Francisco 49ers‘ Brock Purdy, whom the Vikings had hoped to sign as an undrafted free agent, sources told ESPN in the fall.

Instead, the 49ers drafted Purdy with the final pick of the draft to avoid a bidding war. No other member of the class is likely to start in 2024, and the top two selected — the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ Kenny Pickett and the Atlanta Falcons‘ Desmond Ridder — have already moved on to new teams.

O’Connell shut down some mild internal sentiment to take a flier on a quarterback that spring. He has since jokingly referred to himself as the Vikings’ “quarterback killer” in draft discussions.

“I have had to, in a lot of ways, fight off some mistakes from being made,” O’Connell said during an appearance this spring at the “Faith & Life” lecture series in Plymouth, Minnesota, which was posted on YouTube. “Mainly because the evaluation process I go through. Hope and faith are wonderful things, but I do not like them to necessarily be strategies.”

O’Connell was correct about the 2022 class, and the Vikings’ success with Cousins that season ensured another year would pass before finding his successor. Their 13-4 record left them with the No. 23 overall pick, and the top three quarterbacks were off the board by No. 4. They did select Jaren Hall in the fifth round, at No. 164 overall, but were realistic about his slim chances of developing into a long-term starter.

That pushed the conversation to the 2024 draft. Close observers understood that Adofo-Mensah was already hedging his financial bet with Cousins in 2022, having added only one year to the quarterback’s contract. Negotiations in 2023 led to a compromise agreement that would allow Cousins to enter the 2024 free agent market without being subjected to the franchise tag.

Cousins responded with perhaps the best first half of a season in his career. He was tied for the NFL lead with 18 touchdown passes and ranked second with 2,331 passing yards when he tore his right Achilles tendon in Week 8. The injury hit the franchise hard. People throughout the organization believed O’Connell had elevated Cousins’ game and set him on a course for a late-career blossoming as a genuine top-10 NFL quarterback. They knew his injury would heal well before the start of the 2024 season and, according to multiple sources, genuinely wanted him to return as their starter.

Players young and old shared that sentiment. Receiver Justin Jefferson said Cousins’ return would be “perfect.” Right tackle Brian O’Neill wanted Cousins back with “one thousand million percent” certainty.

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NO ONE IN the building wanted Cousins back more than O’Connell, who had built a relationship with the quarterback based on positive feedback and honesty.

With that backdrop, O’Connell leveled with Cousins after the season: The Vikings’ 3-6 record after his injury had exposed the dangers of not looking beyond a 36-year-old quarterback. With their best draft position (No. 11 overall) in a decade, the team had decided to tap into a deep 2024 quarterback class and find its next starter. But no one — not ownership, not Adofo-Mensah and not O’Connell — wanted the rookie to play right away. Cousins would be their starter in 2024 and possibly longer.

It would be a tough sell, and the Vikings were already considering their next steps. At the combine, they checked with the Chargers on Herbert’s availability. It was the kind of call many NFL teams make to a team that has changed leadership. Adofo-Mensah had worked with new Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh when they were both with the 49ers from 2013 to ’14, and was well aware of Harbaugh’s preference for a run-based offensive scheme. The Chargers did not want to move Herbert, but the Vikings’ interest was a sign for league observers about Cousins’ looming availability.

Cousins had said publicly and privately that he wanted to finish his career in Minnesota, but he also made clear he wanted the structure of a new contract — the guaranteed money, in other words — to reflect that the Vikings wanted the same thing. “It’s not about the dollars,” Cousins said in January, “But it is about what the dollars represent.”

Internally, the Vikings knew they couldn’t make that commitment. Adofo-Mensah wanted what he refers to as “optionality.” There was too much value in a rookie quarterback’s contract, with its low salary cap impact, to overlap it with a long-term veteran deal. His final offer, delivered at the NFL combine at the end of February, was a deal that fully guaranteed Cousins’ 2024 salary and offered partial guarantees for 2025. Cousins, who would later say he wanted to avoid what amounted to a “year-to-year” contract, turned it down.

By that time, there were rampant public reports the Falcons were readying a massive contract offer that would meet Cousins’ expectations for an end-of-career agreement. He accepted their four-year offer, with two fully guaranteed years and part of a third, as confirmation the Falcons wanted him as their long-term starter. As it turned out, the Falcons were also planning to draft their next quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall. They just didn’t tell Cousins.

The Vikings moved full speed into a new era.

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EVEN BEFORE THE combine, O’Connell had his plan for identifying the Vikings’ next quarterback and then refined it with input from coaches and members of the personnel department. If it went well, it would be the only quarterback replacement plan he would employ with the Vikings. That would also be true if it didn’t go well. The same went for Adofo-Mensah. Both of their careers would likely rest on the shoulders of the quarterback they ultimately drafted.

The Vikings would deemphasize the players’ scripted pro days and instead conjure as realistic of a job interview as possible. In those private workouts, O’Connell and staff would evaluate each player in the Vikings’ offensive scheme. It was important to conduct the process in the quarterback’s familiar football environments so the Vikings could observe how each interacted with people they already were comfortable with.

So after bidding farewell to Cousins, and agreeing to terms with Darnold two days later, they went to work.

A combination of quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and assistant offensive coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach Grant Udinski would monitor each pro day, while a larger group would follow a more expansive itinerary that coincidentally would start with McCarthy on March 29 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The traveling party, which jetted on one of owner Zygi and Mark Wilf’s private planes, included Adofo-Mensah, O’Connell, Phillips, McCown, Udinski, senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson and passing game coordinator/tight ends coach Brian Angelichio. On a few occasions, the group was joined by some of the Wilfs’ adult children.

The schedule varied based on availability, but most days began with O’Connell teaching a series of plays from the Vikings’ playbook in a classroom at each school’s football facility. For roughly an hour, he would review expectations for footwork, progression and eye placement, among other minutiae. O’Connell stressed his intent as a playcaller for each play.

McCarthy later said the experience was a significant part of why he considered Minnesota his top potential destination.

“It was the way [O’Connell] presents the install,” he said, “the way he compartmentalizes everything about how to look at this play individually and how to make it more relatable to what your knowledge is and how you can smoothly and efficiently step into this playbook.

“That was something that was truly unique because you go around to so many defensive coaches like [Washington’s] Dan Quinn and [New England’s] Jerod Mayo, and being able to have that relationship as former QB and current QB, it’s truly special and it means a lot.”

From there, the group would go to a practice field and pull in receivers and other skill position players who were available to participate. Phillips and Angelichio would coach those players, adding to the realism of the environment, as they went through the plays. The receivers were not part of the initial install, so part of the evaluation was watching how each quarterback guided — or didn’t guide — them through rough patches.

In McCarthy’s case, the Vikings’ scouting and film review had been limited by a Michigan offense that asked him to throw an average of 22.1 passes per game, the fourth fewest by a first-round quarterback in his final full college season over the past 20 years. But as part of their evaluation, they filtered his throws into what O’Connell referred to as “weighty downs” — particularly third downs and red zone attempts — to help compare his most important plays to other first-round prospects who had more overall attempts.

In some cases, McCarthy had more attempts in those situations than some of those other passers. As they watched him during his private workout, the Vikings saw a degree of decisiveness and arm strength that in their opinion rivaled any of the draft’s top six quarterbacks.

“I left there very, very confident in my evaluation of J.J,” O’Connell said, “and if anything, felt even stronger about it.”

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OF SOMEWHAT LESS importance, but still a priority, was the team’s assessment of each quarterback’s interactions with the people he encountered on his home turf. When he walked on the practice field, did he simply nod and say hello to the receivers? Or did he gather them and express enthusiasm, creating an immediate miniteam? In many cases, current players were working out or lifting weights around the time of the Vikings’ workouts. Did they stop and watch? Were they interested in the quarterback’s performance?

McCarthy’s big personality gave him an advantage in such situations. The same was true for a task the Vikings assigned each quarterback: Take us to eat — lunch, in most cases — at a place of your choosing. (The Vikings paid.) What type of place would the quarterback select? Was it on campus, and if so, how did the students and other patrons respond to him? Would the employees recognize him and know his order, or had he chosen a place to avoid crowds?

McCarthy selected Zingerman’s Deli, the famous eatery a brief walk from Michigan’s central campus. The group did not call ahead, and they walked into a crowded weekday lunch hour, said Miles Bolton, a front-of-house staff member who was there that day. McCarthy took photos with fans who recognized him as the group waited in line to place orders. “He was really gracious in taking time to pose for pictures and interact with fans,” Bolton said.

In most cases, the Vikings arranged the seating for O’Connell and McCown to sit on either side of the quarterback, ensuring he could speak freely with the people he had already interacted with the most. “You definitely have to be careful about putting too much emphasis on that kind of stuff,” O’Connell said. “You can’t say, ‘Hey, he was awkward at dinner, so we can’t draft him.’ You use it as a sliver of the total evaluation.”

Each visit was followed by an intense review on the plane ride, either back to Minnesota or to the next quarterback stop, while the day was still fresh in the group’s mind.

The trip to Michigan was followed by stops in Seattle to see Penix; Eugene, Oregon, for Bo Nix; and then Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for Drake Maye. The final stop was April 18 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to visit with Jayden Daniels. The Vikings also met with South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, Tulane’s Michael Pratt and Tennessee’s Joe Milton III at the NFL combine.

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WHEN THEY RETURNED to Minnesota, it was time to stack their draft board and assign values to each quarterback. How many of the QB prospects would they be willing to give up extra draft assets to acquire? And how many would they accept at or close to their spot at No. 11, with the benefit of additional acquisitions?

Even before the trip commenced, Adofo-Mensah began maneuvering to give himself what he again referred to as “optionality.” On March 15, he acquired an additional first-round draft pick (No. 23 overall, from the Houston Texans). Given the cost of the trade — second-round picks in 2024 and 2025, plus a 2024 sixth-rounder, while getting a 2024 seventh-rounder from the Texans — the move was widely regarded as the first step in making a bigger jump for a quarterback near the top of the draft.

In several public appearances, Adofo-Mensah insisted the deal had no specific intent — an expected line from an NFL general manager who didn’t want to give away his strategy. But as it turned out, he truly believed it.

Even before the private workouts, the Vikings knew they liked enough of the quarterback class to conclude they would be within striking distance of several. They also knew they would like some more than others and wanted to have enough assets to move up into the top three spots of the draft if the opportunity arose. If it didn’t, and the Vikings wound up drafting a quarterback at No. 4 or later, Adofo-Mensah thought the Texans trade would help him surround that quarterback with another blue-chip talent.

“We went over our scenarios,” he said, “and thought this was a really good way to position ourselves.”

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WHEN DRAFT DAY arrived, the Vikings had multiple possibilities in play. First, though, O’Connell sought out a symbolic but important meeting. He called Darnold into his office at 10:30 a.m. and walked him through the team’s plan.

Darnold had signed a one-year, $10 million contract and had long understood the Vikings would likely draft a quarterback. “No matter what happens,” he said upon arriving, “I’m going to compete.” But Darnold was his likely Week 1 starter and, based on how the draft fell, perhaps for much longer.

The conversation lasted 45 minutes. Darnold told O’Connell he appreciated the candor but that it wasn’t necessary. After all, Darnold, the No. 3 overall pick by the New York Jets in 2018, had lost starting spots with two teams in his first five seasons and had spent his sixth as a backup with the 49ers. No one owed him anything.

“I just felt it was very important for me to look him in the eye and say exactly the reality of this,” O’Connell said.

Reality was also sinking in for some of the scenarios the Vikings had laid out. There was a strong possibility three quarterbacks would be off the board before they had a chance to make a trade offer, creating the likelihood they would be drafting at or near their original spot at No. 11.

It was clear that Caleb Williams and Daniels would be drafted with the first two picks by the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders, respectively. That left the third spot, where the New England Patriots were intent on drafting Maye unless a team overwhelmed them with an offer.

The Vikings really liked Maye, and they were willing to forfeit the ability to surround him with an additional player at No. 23 in order to get him. Their offer to the Patriots was substantial. According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the Vikings’ final proposal included three first-round picks — No. 11, No. 23 and their top pick in 2025 — but with a request for two of the Patriots’ midround picks in return. It was not enough to tempt the Patriots.

“It’s always about walkaway prices,” Adofo-Mensah said, speaking generally about draft trades. “Your only leverage in the negotiation is your willingness to do something else. So I’ve got to say, ‘I will not do this because I would rather do these three other things and make our team better.’ It’s got to mean something.”

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IN PREPARATION FOR not moving into the top three, Adofo-Mensah called Jets general manager Joe Douglas before the draft to map out a potential move to No. 10 if necessary. Then the waiting game began.

McCarthy was next on the Vikings’ priority list, ahead of Penix. Many around the league had paired Penix’s downfield mentality and quick release with O’Connell’s offensive philosophy, but the Vikings felt confident McCarthy had similar capacities. Michigan’s offense simply hadn’t asked him to use them. And at 21, three years younger than Penix, McCarthy had more potential for growth.

But their relatively similar evaluations left the Vikings more confident in resisting the urge to move up. No team with picks between No. 4 and No. 10 needed a quarterback. Would another team trade into that group for McCarthy or Penix? It was possible, the Vikings assessed, but even if one were selected, the other should be in range for the Vikings. At one point during the draft, Adofo-Mensah turned to Grigson and said sarcastically he was “supposed to trade the whole farm” for No. 4, according to a video posted by the Vikings.

As it turned out, the Falcons surprised everyone by selecting Penix at No. 8 despite having signed Cousins a month earlier. Now the Vikings were focused on the Bears’ No. 9 spot. They knew they could make a trade with the Jets at No. 10 to get McCarthy, if needed. But there was another nagging thought among some decision-makers. Would the Bears be cutthroat enough to trade out — despite their well-known interest in receiver Rome Odunze — to block the NFC North rival Vikings from getting him?

The Seattle Seahawks had met twice with McCarthy, once at the combine and then after his pro day, and new head coach Mike Macdonald had been Michigan’s defensive coordinator during McCarthy’s first season in Ann Arbor (2021). ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had gone so far as to match McCarthy and the Seahawks in his first 2024 mock draft.

The Vikings’ draft room remained tense until the Bears drafted Odunze. Adofo-Mensah finalized the deal with the Jets for No. 10, giving New York fourth- and fifth-round picks with a seventh-rounder in return, to swap first-round picks and submit McCarthy’s name.

“You’re always sweating a little bit with that one pick in between,” he said, “but this business is about taking a little risk and trying to get a reward, and I think we got that in the end.”

Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton later suggested that he had bluffed the Vikings into moving up, out of concern that he would move from No. 12 to No. 10 and select McCarthy ahead of the Vikings. But based on their accumulation of draft insight, the Vikings were confident that Payton preferred Oregon’s Nix, whom he drafted at No. 12.

Back in the draft room, Adofo-Mensah turned his attention to a trade that would flip the No. 23 pick into No. 17, which he used to select Turner.

“Cooking!” Grigson said.

“Cooking with gas!” Adofo-Mensah replied.

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THE VIKINGS MOVED through their spring practices with Darnold atop the depth chart, and O’Connell confirmed the obvious in mid-June: Darnold would open training camp as the Vikings’ No. 1 quarterback. For the first time under Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell, the Vikings appear set to bring four quarterbacks to camp — Darnold, McCarthy, veteran backup Nick Mullens and Hall, the 2023 fifth-rounder — perhaps an extra step to prevent McCarthy from playing before he is ready.

O’Connell brings scar tissue to the job of developing McCarthy. As Washington’s offensive coordinator in 2019, O’Connell had a front seat to the franchise’s botched work with first-round draft pick Dwayne Haskins. Despite initial plans to take a methodical approach to his development, coach Jay Gruden put Haskins on the field in Week 4 — long before he was ready. Haskins struggled for two seasons, was released in 2021 and spent his final NFL season as the Steelers’ No. 3 quarterback. (Haskins died in April 2022 after being struck by a truck in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.)

“When we selected him, we had a lot of confidence in what he could become under the right circumstances and development and timetable,” O’Connell said, “and that didn’t exactly end up being the mindset just a few short months later.”

The Vikings have started at the beginning, by revamping some of McCarthy’s footwork. In particular, they have him putting his left foot forward and right foot back when in the shotgun, as opposed to the “square” stance that some passers and teams use. That early work has demonstrated McCarthy is a “pretty coachable player,” McCown said.

Assuming McCarthy doesn’t win the starting job in training camp, the Vikings’ schedule has a natural transition point: A bye after their Week 5 trip to London to play the Jets. Publicly and privately, O’Connell has left McCarthy’s timetable open-ended.

McCarthy will be ready, O’Connell said, when “the comfort level that he has within our offense and his ability to then translate it to adverse situations and difficult aspects of playing quarterback in the NFL aren’t magnified by inexperience.

“But I want to be very clear that the expectation is for this player to not be perfect,” O’Connell said. “He’s going to have growing pains, he’s going to learn on the fly. I’m not trying to remove that aspect of it, either, but [deciding when he will play] is not something you can write up on a board. It’s a feeling.”

The job will test the self-preservation instincts most every NFL coach and general manager stare down at some point in their careers. O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah have given the franchise a future to build toward, but how much of the present can they sacrifice as they reach the midpoint of their contracts? During their tenure, the Vikings have a 20-14 record in the regular season and are 0-1 in the playoffs in the increasingly tough NFC North.

“It’s just more about what is in the best interest of the organization,” O’Connell said. “Those circumstances cannot affect what J.J.’s development plan is or any other player on the team for that matter. It just can’t be something that selfishly ever impacts that decision.

“That really won’t change because, and I don’t know if it’s the former quarterback in me or not, but I do feel an obligation to have the best interests of not only J.J. but our entire team, at heart, when we make that decision.”

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OF THE VIKINGS’ 22 projected offensive and defensive starters, 18 have at least four years of experience. But their veteran core has largely accepted the short-term uncertainty of this transition, none more so than safety Harrison Smith. The team’s longest-tenured player, Smith restructured his deal to return for a 13th season two days after Cousins’ departure.

The pair had developed what Smith called a “pretty cool relationship,” and in fact, Cousins stopped at Smith’s home in Knoxville, Tennessee, while driving with his family to Atlanta. But Smith said it isn’t his nature to assume Cousins’ departure, and the tenure of Darnold and McCarthy, means the Vikings have sacrificed their ability to compete this season.

“I’ve always felt it’s the opposite,” Smith said. “If you’re a competitor and you have faith in your abilities and what’s going on around you, that should always be your mentality. And this year is no exception.

“I kind of like it sometimes when it’s like this. Not that I’m playing to prove people wrong, but it’s kind of fun sometimes. The league is so volatile every year. You can think you’re making the best decision in going here and doing this and doing that, and it rarely plays out how you think it’s going to play out.”

Smith was not alone. Receiver Justin Jefferson texted McCarthy the night he was drafted, symbolically ceding his “J.J.” nickname to smooth out the rookie’s arrival, and later agreed to a four-year contract extension. O’Neill, who in January said he wanted Cousins to return “one thousand million percent,” said in April that it’s “not my job” to project the impact of personnel moves. “My job is to block people,” he said. “Life moves on. It’s a business. It’s time to get to work and time to push this thing in the right direction.”

And defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, entering his seventh NFL season, acknowledged the history of quarterback transitions but noted there are always exceptions, such as Baker Mayfield‘s success last season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“I’m getting older,” Phillips said, “and in Year 7, I probably have less years in front of me than behind me, so my window to win a Super Bowl is narrowing. But I’m extremely optimistic about the moves they’ve made. … I don’t know how the whole thing is going to come to a conclusion, but I think we are going to win a lot of football games with Sam as the captain of the ship. The veterans here are going to be like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to roll with this.’ People have confidence in the moves they’ve made.”

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LIKE MOST NFL teams, the Vikings produced and published nearly 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes video of their draft room. None of it included the kind of celebration you might expect at the successful end of a two-year journey. After completing the trade with the Jets, Adofo-Mensah smiled, stood up and said: “We’ve never picked a quarterback in the top 10,” his way of saying the deck had been cleared for selecting McCarthy.

“We got it?” a member of the personnel staff asked him.

“Yeah,” Adofo-Mensah said.

The room was still nearly silent.

“You’ve still got all your picks, man,” O’Connell told him, noting the Vikings had drafted their quarterback without giving up the second of their two first-round picks.

Finally, team executives circled the room and shook hands. They stood and clapped as the pick was announced.

“Proud of you, bro,” O’Connell told Adofo-Mensah.

It wasn’t time to pop champagne, however. Now it was first-and-10, and the work was just beginning.