Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah shed some light on how close his club got to signing veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers in free agency.
Although the club ultimately decided to stick with JJ McCarthy, Adofo-Mensah detailed how far they got into conversations with Rodgers after his unpleasant divorce from the New York Jets.
The GM confirmed what the fanbase has known since Rodgers entered the market. The consideration involved head coach Kevin O’Connell discussing matters directly with Rodgers.
‘Yeah, so, you’re talking about a player that Kevin’s known for a long time,’ Adofo-Mensah said. ‘When you have a relationship like that, I’m typically the type that says, ‘Hey, whoever’s got the best relationship, talk to him.’
‘He’s got a great relationship with Aaron. They’ve had a lot of great conversations. Obviously, he looped us in and we kind of met and [went] from there. It’s a huge thing to talk about a player of that caliber … Being involved in those dialogues was special.
‘From our delineations at that time, we’re happy where we are going forward, but obviously, the caliber of player he is, we had to make it part of our considerations.’
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah confirmed nearly signing QB Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers has been linked to several teams in the NFL since parting ways with the New York Jets
Furthermore, he added McCarthy, who they drafted in the first round last year, was meant to compete for the starting spot before getting derailed by a knee injury.
‘You guys talk in terms of QB1 and all those conversations, different things like that when we pool the resources that we did to draft JJ and you go through that long process and all those things, I can’t stand up here and say that’s not the outcome we want and that’s the outcome we’re headed towards,’ Adofo-Mensah said.
‘At every checkpoint, whether it was the draft process or practice until the injury, the offseason now, he’s met the bar. He’s exceeded our expectations at every point.’
After Sam Darnold’s exit, the Vikings brass wants to secure backups at the quarterback position to support McCarthy and Brett Rypien.
‘We want to make sure there’s competition in the room,’ Adofo-Mensah said. ‘We’re trying to solve for a lot of different things at once.’
The Vikings are keen on finding a backup who can ‘provide insurance in case someone needs to come in for a couple of games.’
Aside from Rodgers, Joe Flacco and Carson Wentz are among the signal-callers up for grabs.
