With his third offseason in Minnesota finalized and ready to compete on the field, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has had a knack for making splashes in undrafted free agency. This differs from former general manager Rick Spielman, who insisted on trading back and amassing seventh-round picks to select players they felt were too good to let test the undrafted market. In the three drafts under Adofo-Mensah’s the Vikings have used four seventh-round picks. In 2020 alone, under Spielman, the Vikings used four. It may seem insignificant, but there are a multitude of reasons why this is an important change in team building.
How the Vikings Use Undrafted Free Agency to Their Advantage
Draft Capital
Adofo-Mensah has been much more willing to move draft picks than his predecessor. In his first draft, he traded back a few times, but since then he’s been aggressive. Whether it’s an in-season trade to acquire T.J. Hockenson or trading up for first-rounders J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner, he’s proven to value higher-ranked players on their draft board or trading for pro-bowlers like Hockenson instead of taking more risks with deeper draft classes. Not to say one is more effective than the other, but what was Spielman’s undoing at the end was the inability to hit on the early-round picks and his late-round picks weren’t able to pick up the slack. In 2018, the Vikings signed Kirk Cousins. With a big-money contract, this team couldn’t afford to make big moves in free agency. Outside of a few homerun draft picks, the Cousins-era of Vikings’ draft classes weren’t nearly good enough. Without that massive contract on the books. Minnesota was as active as any team in free agency this year. This willingness to spend in free agency has translated to undrafted free agency, which is something the Vikings have needed to do with only drafting 13 players over the last 2 years. Adofo-Mensah has chosen to use his draft capital on high-value picks and players instead of recouping picks and filling out the roster.
Big-Spenders
The NFL as a whole has been spending more money ever since 2020- when the cap space took a hit, due to some virus or something- and the Vikings have caught up with the league in that area since Adofo-Mensah took over. According to an article from OTC, the Vikings $473,000 on their UDFA class. Their 2024 class spent $480,000 just on their top two earners, Gabriel Murphy and Jeshaun Jones. Spielman had his moments of big spending in the UDFA pool, like when they signed quarterback Jake Browning for $140,000, which was much higher than an average UDFA singing at the time. While both regimes have had their moments of spending large, Adofo-Mensah has already found many hidden gems early in his tenure.
Signing Talented Players
The most obvious reason, the Vikings have been so successful in undrafted free agency because they’ve scouted and signed some great players on efficient contracts. In 2022, Minnesota signed starting punter Ryan Wright as their only real impact player on the roster. 2023 was very different, spending about a half-million dollars on linebackers Andre Carter II and Ivan Pace Jr. Carter II played sparingly and was stashed on the active roster most weeks, so teams weren’t able to sign him off the practice squad. He’ll compete for a role as a rotational pass rusher in 2024 and spent the last season building up muscle as his major pre-draft critique was his strength. Pace Jr. on the other hand is as big of a hit as you can get. Racking up over 100 total tackles and 2.5 sacks, while playing the most snaps of all rookie linebackers in the league, he’s proven to be a building block for the future of this defense. Players like this don’t go undrafted every day, Minnesota proving to not be afraid to spend the money and have the scouts see something like this in him is a massive advantage. An underrated highlight of this UDFA class is Najee Thompson, who was strictly a special-teamer who made plays as a punt-gunner.
The 2024 UDFA Class
Many draft analysts and UDFA-specific ranking have given this UDFA class raving reviews. Linebacker Gabriel Murphy is someone many people thought would get drafted early on Day 3, and Dwight McGlothern is a tall and lengthy corner who’s already caught the attention of reporters at Vikings camp. Most of the attention will be given to the first-round picks in this class, and rightfully so. But the undrafted guys make up so many roster spots around the league, so they deserve your attention because if history tells you anything, you’ll be seeing some of them playing big snaps in big games.
Vikings signed 10 UDFA in Thor500, including two top-10 UDFA:
EDGE Gabriel Murphy (144)
CB Dwight McGlothern (172)
LB Bo Richter (235)
LB Dallas Gant (244)
TE Trey Knox (270)
WR Jeshaun Jones (371)
WR Ty James (432)
WR Owen Porter (436)
OT Doug Nester (443)
OT Jeremy Flax (459)— Thor Nystrom (@thorku) April 28, 2024
Main Photo: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
