Here’s how the Vikings’ trade for Cam Robinson reminds me of Randy Moss, as a Viking, marching to the podium in Foxborough, Mass., and praising Patriots coach Bill Belichick, causing the Vikings to cut Moss, then refuse, for years, to admit that they had ever met him.
Souhan: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s moves as Vikings GM play to his strengths, reminding us of value of good timing
Why draft kids when acquiring veterans is cheaper and more certain? And why not take a lesson from the master Bill Belichick and show you know when to grab players and when to separate from them?
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 2, 2024 at 9:17PM
This may take a while.
The Vikings’ trade for Robinson, the offensive tackle who had played his entire career in Jacksonville, prompts an important question about the front office’s current and future plans, summed up thusly:
If you’re not good at drafting football players, why draft so many football players?
The Vikings have three picks in the 2025 draft — a first-rounder and two fifth-rounders. They couldn’t afford to winnow that wimpy stockpile, so they traded a middle-round pick in 2025 for Robinson, a veteran who will try to replace the excellent and injured Christian Darrisaw at left tackle.
The move signals that the Vikings, despite playing a journeyman quarterback and losing one of their least replaceable players in Darrisaw, think they’re good enough to challenge for a championship this season.
The move is also the latest indication that General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah either favors, or recognizes his success with, acquiring NFL veterans instead of relying on the draft.
His first three drafts have yielded zero players you can currently describe as “Pro Bowl caliber.” His first two picks in the 2022 draft, Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr., were the worst kinds of busts. His first pick in 2023, Jordan Addison, is not playing like a first-round pick this season after an impressive rookie campaign. His two first-round picks in 2024, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and rusher Dallas Turner, aren’t contributing because of McCarthy’s knee injury and Turner’s lack of readiness.
Adofo-Mensah’s veteran acquisitions include quarterback Sam Darnold; tight end T.J. Hockenson; running back Aaron Jones; offensive tackle Cam Robinson; defensive linemen Jerry Tillery, Harrison Phillips and Jonathan Bullard; linebackers Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard; and cornerbacks Stephon Gilmore, Byron Murphy Jr. and Shaq Griffin.
If you’re very good at identifying current NFL talent and not so good at identifying 22-year-old college talent, why wouldn’t you play to your strength?
There is precedent for this in NFL history. Former Washington coach George Allen hated playing rookies, so he kept his veterans around as long as possible and augmented his roster with veterans he could acquire, although free agency was not a big factor in the old NFL.
For all of his renown, Patriots coach and de facto GM Bill Belichick drafted poorly for much of his stay in New England and made up for his lack of draft prowess by keeping his most valuable veterans and augmenting his roster with veteran free agents.
It’s a more expensive strategy than building through the draft. It’s also more reliable.
Look at the players the Vikings acquired last offseason. Now look at the players available for low prices on the trade market during this season — Davante Adams, Diontae Johnson, Ernest Jones, DeAndre Hopkins and Amari Cooper. The highest price paid for these quality veterans: the conditional third-round pick the Jets sent to Las Vegas for Adams.
If modern sports analytics is about identifying underappreciated value in the marketplace, then modern sports analytics should love trading middle-round picks for proven players.
All of the veterans Adofo-Mensah acquired could easily be identified as quality players. The only question was whether they would fit into the Vikings’ salary structure and schemes. The cohesiveness between Adofo-Mensah, coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores helped the Vikings bring in exactly the right kind of player.
The Vikings’ reputation as a player-friendly organization with exceptional facilities also may have given them an edge when attracting or keeping veteran free agents.
So why does the trade for Robinson remind me of Moss’ rant at the Vikings’ postgame podium in the bowels of Gillette Stadium in 2010?
Because Belichick, in his prime, excelled at acquiring and ditching veterans at just the right time.
He landed Moss with a fourth-round draft pick, and then Moss helped the Patriots go undefeated in the regular season.
When Moss lost a step, Belichick traded him, with a seventh-round pick, for a third-round pick during the 2010 season.
Adofo-Mensah is shopping in the same marketplace today.
Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is completing more passes more often for more touchdowns than he ever has. “What we’re trying to get from Sam is to play the best football of his career,” coach Kevin O'Connell said.
