KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Obviously we just finished our last selections to put a bow to this part of the 2023 draft process. We had a really good day 3. We added Jay Ward, Ja Roy, Jaren Hall and DeWayne McBride. Really excited to add those guys. They bring a lot of talent to our rooms. A lot of versatility, a lot of production, and again, we always talk about fit in our culture and what we're trying to build, and those guys all do.
Really excited to add them and obviously get to this stage and process and also add to our group there, and with that, I'll open it up to questions.
Q. Just wanted to see what kind of background you have on DeWayne McBride. What did you guys see there, and can you take us through the process of landing on him in the seventh?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Sure. He was somebody we had fairly high up on our board, kind of a starter grade, somebody that obviously carried the ball a lot, was really productive.
I think a lot of times in college, a lot of times the running backs aren't using the passing game, so maybe there was some questions on his ability, but Coach Modkins has been doing this a long time and coached some really good ones, and he kind of knows what to look for in those limited opportunities when you get a chance, and he is super connected with running back coaches, so we had some good intel that he's got more pass game value than he showed.
I think there was some ball security issues at times, but other than that, really good contact balance, super productive, like I said, ability to create at the line of scrimmage but also turn a good run into a great run. So we're really excited to add him.
Q. Now that you're on the other side of the draft here and you took the quarterback and you can sort of factor that in, I'm curious how you'd sort of articulate what your plan is at that position in the longer term, knowing the contract situations and all the things we've talked about?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Sure, yeah. You can have a long-term plan of understanding how important it is and what you need to do in that room, but for me to tell you that this person will specifically be in a certain performance bucket at a certain place, I can't do that.
But I know we added a really talented player that we think has tremendous upside in this league. You talk about the things we look for at the quarterback position, ability to make good decisions, throw the football accurately, deal with conflict when it comes his way, and then sometimes try to make a play outside the framework of the play call, and he does all those things at a really good level.
I don't know if you've already heard from him, but that's an outstanding young man. I'd like to see him lead my team or any other organization I was a part of. As part of this process we really dig in, so I've watched him and seen a good amount YouTube videos of him talking. I got to go see him play in person, and so really excited to get him.
Again, still a little bit surprised I was able to do it where I was.
Q. Just to follow up, the YouTube videos, to hear him talking, what do you get out of that?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Just his person, his presence, when they win what do they say, who do they credit. Whey they lose, different things. There's no right or wrong answer, but you just really learn how somebody is as a competitor, what they value.
I think if you heard me talk, I'm sure you heard the weird math words come up a bunch of times because you know those things are important to me, so if you listen to somebody else talk and you hear those things, then you know what's important to him. I think what's important to him is the right stuff at the quarterback position.
Q. Just wondering on Jay Ward specifically, he played so many different positions in college at LSU. I guess I wonder about the evaluation process and trying to see how that translates when he was sometimes in the nickel, sometimes at safety, sometimes in the box and just kind of how you valued that.
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, I think -- I can't speak for other teams. I could see maybe that being a negative, a hard thing to do. But I think when I step back and obviously I value the guys and I saw our guys in the meeting, and people write them as the best position. They get to choose.
People wrote him as best position at three different positions, and they all thought he had starter potential.
I kind of stepped back and was like, well, if this guy could be a starter at three different positions, it's pretty likely that he figures out one of them, as long as we have a plan for him and he's a good hard worker, and we know what kind of person he is obviously with the experience with Daronte at LSU.
Really excited to have him, and again, as a general manager, the flexibility that he gives you in that room, emergency guy at three different positions, in addition to whatever position he ends up being, a starter position. You only get four to six on game days, going through that as a general manager, and having somebody that can really fill in and step in, along with Duke Shelley last year, who we counted on to play multiple positions for us is something that I value greatly.
Q. Are you saying that you had three people in your organization view him as a starter at different positions?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Just everybody, scouts, personnel, a lot of different people. Everybody watches him and then they get to choose what they think his best position is. To think for an offensive lineman, hey, we might project him as a center, somebody might think he's a guard or a tackle. With Jay Ward, some people thought he could probably be a starter at cornerback, some people thought he could be a deep safety, box safety, a nickel. Now I think his versatility has just really showed through that process.
Q. How important was versatility as you looked at this draft and maybe what Brian Flores is telling you?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, I would say it's a big part of what they do. It's a big part of obviously what I've looked for in the past, but especially in his defense, he is so good at optimizing people's skill sets, and he will match personnel, he will match different schemes, and giving him weapons to do so is ultimately my job, and I'm happy to do so for him.
Q. When you talk about watching videos to see how guys carry themselves and the way they talk about things, is that something that you place more of an emphasis on at the quarterback position knowing the face of the franchise, leadership type responsibilities that are inherent with that position?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Certainly. I can't tell you that I do that for every position. And not saying that it doesn't get done, but I wouldn't say that I personally would be doing such things. I think the battery of questions that we ask them is a little different, but again, that's a leadership position.
Obviously leadership can come from anyone on a football team, but there's something different about commanding the huddle and making people believe that you can operate this play.
So that's something we look for, and obviously having been around some great ones, including our starting quarterback right now, you know what it sounds like and know what it looks like, so you're just trying to find people who match that.
Q. This was your first draft back with Demetrius. I was wondering, how much do you value having his voice among your decision makers, and what does he provide that maybe made you so interested in bringing him along with you?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: He's one of the most talented people I've met in the NFL. I would probably say just in general, one of the most talented people I've ever met.
I think there is a hunger -- I would consider myself a curious person. He is just hungry to figure out what could be missing. So I don't know if we come at it from the same reason, but like, I just know when he brings me an answer he's vetted every possible what-if, what-could-be, what-am-I-missing.
So the safety that I feel in anything he's telling me, he's the one type of person, if he believes something that I don't, I stop and maybe relook at my process. We shared an office together, so he knows the very inner workings of how I think and see the game and we learned it together in a great place in San Francisco.
Again, you talk about someone like Jay Ward. We were around Jimmie Ward, so a player that was used in a similar fashion, drafted as a safety, played nickel as a rookie, played outside corner, eventually became a Pro Bowl free safety, so he saw him, and we were kind of joking, hey, his last name is Ward. Funny but then ultimately we end up drafting the player, and again, that starts with him and obviously have a great scouting staff, but just having somebody like that in your corner is so invaluable, and again, don't get me started talking about the rest of those guys. We have a great staff here, and I'm so fortunate to have them.
Q. Kind of along the same lines, just this being your second draft, what was the biggest difference maybe between last year when it was your first time approaching it and then having already seen the process how it goes, the lead-up to it and command that kind of all yourself through this whole thing?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, I would say the thing that you just felt so much more prepared. I can't say that -- I watched so many more players, we were so much more strategic about parts of the board that we thought would be available to us, knowing our roster, knowing our needs, and every single player that was in our queue, we all had an idea, a good hypothesis for why they would make our team better, make our team to begin with, and then make our team better. The character, all these different things, it just felt like we as an organization were just so much more aligned.
But there's also a part of it that's got that element of, what's it, "50 First Dates," that move with Adam Sandler, and he dates the same girl but every date is different. Because like that first round comes and you forget what the first round was like last year in a sense, so it's a year ago, and the butterflies start coming again, and is that guy going to be there. That's not something you can really simulate throughout the year.
Maybe my tenth year will come and that won't be there, I don't know. But that's the type of thing that I think will probably maybe always be there year two or year ten.
Q. To keep drilling down on the quarterback position, I wanted to get an idea of how you were going to view and think about the position over the next eight to ten months or whenever next season is going to be over. Are you trying to decide if you want Kirk to be the starter beyond that point? Is there information that you still need to see and process?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: No, Kirk doesn't need to show anything to me. Kirk has played football at a high level before I got to the Minnesota Vikings. Last year we won 13 games. I don't know what he would need to prove to me or anybody else.
When you go into a contract negotiation, you're trying to come up with solutions together. It's not just what Kwesi wants or the Vikings want or even what Kirk wants. It's what we can do together and ultimately put together that Lombardi. Sometimes you come to a place where it's like, let's talk later, this is the solution for now. That's all that's happened.
In this year and this draft we found an opportunity to get a player that we frankly thought should have been picked long before then and was there just like every other position. But like you said, this is an important position, so obviously you emphasize that when you can, but we like where we are at the quarterback position, but every option is open to us going forward, and we're just really excited about Kirk this year, the weapons we've added in free agency, the weapons we've added in the draft, and we'll see what happens after that.
Q. With Roy's kind of versatility on the interior of the line and then projecting what he could possibly do, he's only a one-year starter, but what do you see in his game and that can add to that group and rotation?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Exactly what you said. He's got the ability to be stout at the point of attack, play nose tackle, but he's also got a little wiggle in his body. He can rush the passer, and obviously you've seen in free agency the past couple years with the contracts of some of those guys in there, it's really hard to chip on the edges, slide one way. Somebody is going to get a one-on-one, and it's typically that guy. To have somebody with some pass rush value from that spot is really helpful, but we've got some guys on this roster already who can do that, as well, but just adding another body to that presence is something we wanted to do. We're excited to have him.
Q. Did this draft give you any clarity on Dalvin Cook and Zadarius Smith?
KWESI ADOFO-MENSAH: Yeah, obviously we're keeping communication open with both those guys, and like I said earlier, we're always trying to find solutions for both them and us, and we'll continue to do so. Again, the dialogue will remain open with them.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports