We’ve all seen the Lions War Room video of their trade-up to get Jameson Williams at 12. Here’s the opposite end of those phone calls between Brad Holmes and new Viking GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Lions enter the conversation around 3:40. Trade is consummated at 5:00.
It’s interesting to see how their rookie GM conducts himself compared to Holmes. KAM doesn’t seem as polished or refined as Brad. O’Connell doesn’t carry nearly the charisma Dan Campbell does. But then, not many do.
The Lions brass collectively seem to have a presence about them. They seem more sober. More resolute. I’m biased. Their fans are gushing over their two new rookies- Head Coach and GM. But I wasn’t really that impressed with their room. And I think we schooled them in the trade up.
I get falling in love with the 2nd round, that has largely been considered the best draft spot, when comparing production to cap dollars. There is probably a 2nd rounder that will turn out to be as good or better than Jamo, but it’s harder to find.
Kudos to Brad for finding the GM that loves his analytics and the 2nd round.
Nice find. Weezy needed all those 2nd rounders to get players to try and stop Jamo. Brad and Dan found a game changer. Not saying you can’t find one in the second round, because the league is littered with them, but I think Jamison Williams is more of a sure thing than any of the players the Vikings got in the second. The downside of course is injury. If Jameson turns out to be not durable then the Vikings have a significant advantage.
Thanks for sharing that. I think they said they viewed the most value in the draft was between picks 34 and 77. It seemed like they got their guy in Cine and some extra picks in that range, so they were happy.
If Jamo turns into the player we hope, we win that trade but if he gets injured or whatever, they possibly could win that trade, as crazy as that sounds.
The Vikes did a lot of wheelin n dealing, twice within the division, they were like the honeybadger and didnt give a shit. We’ll see how it works out for them i guess. Look at the trade section of this article. I think they made 5 trades overall.
This trade will always be about how good is Jameson Williams.
If the Lions stayed put and drafted Hutch, say safety Cine then say WR Christian Watson and we could also add a player in the early 3rd round I would have LOVED a draft like that. Say we grabbed LBer Dean in rd. 3 AND there is still that late 3rd rd. pick available for us. Yea, that would be fantastic. Hell, make the Cine pick Paschal and give us Joseph still.
Instead we draft WR Williams, Paschal and then S Kerby Joseph. I like Kerby close to as much as I liked Cine.
We in essence gave up the 3rd rd pick to get Williams. I’ll take that.
I fully agree with you but I also think that our situation with our room is unique. So while the comparison is valid, I think most rooms in the NFL would fall short of what we have right now based on that criteria. That being said when I compare Qwesi to other GMs and other “rooms” they seem to be more fun and more practical in their thinking. And while they seem a little stuffy compared to Dan and B-Rad, they are pretty chill compared to what our room used to look like and many other rooms across the league. They come off as guys who actually know what they are doing, so they don’t have to hide behind formalities or gimmicks.
As an example, I point to when he said he asked prospects about their favorite song to describe them…then they play it and let the guy describe it. I connected with that concept, and I feel like Qwesi believes in it and knows what he’s trying to get out of that moment. Alot of times in the NFL you’ll see guys ascend up the ladder and they saw someone else do that along the way…so they started doing it. They can roughly explain what’s going on, but they don’t truly understand it and never will. But there they are trying to do things the way someone else successful did it, instead of finding their own path.
Thank you for sharing that.
Even though I think the Vikes say we’re all about collaboration and everyone has input…in the end it seems like Qwesi’s way. At one point Qwesi said to the new head coach…“are you asking whether a trader wants to trade?”. To me that sounds like the HC wasn’t fully bought in.
I like our staff ALOT. We are truly collaborative.
That was very interesting. A few points I thought of:
-I’m surprised they post that much information about draft day. If I were other teams, I would scout that video, and that room to gauge dynamics, as well as their thought processes.
-When I watched it, it seemed like two different guys (the head coach, and another guy to the right of them) both lightly questioned the trade. Like, “are we doing that, are you sure? Etcetera.” Nothing over the top, but I think some people in that room had some serious reservations.
-Kwesi called getting those extra seconds a ‘dream scenario.’ It seemed like he was locked in to getting into multiple picks in the late first/early second THIS year… I bet that’s how Holmes was able to get the 46 pick back… we were one of the few teams with multiple picks in Kwesi’s target range.
-It was interesting how he KNEW the fanbase was going to be mad. He said ‘all that good will will go out the door when we trade 32’ or something like that.
-He really believes that the trade back from 12 was a very good deal for the Vikings. And, he thought that the trade back would net him positive kudos from the fans (only for that positivity to be lost when they traded 32)
-He seems very confident in his methodology. Only time will tell if he’s right, but it does seem like a ‘smartest guy in the room’ vibe, which a few people on here guessed immediately post draft.
Didnt seem the head coach fully agreed with the picks. He is a offense head coach and they went heavy on defense early. Got the idea he would have liked a offense guy at 12
The set up of the Vikings draft room with rigid rows and restricted spaces limits and impedes personal interactions. It was definitely stuffy compared to the Lions looser room where everyone could easily access anyone else if it was urgent.
To his credit, Qwesi knew the reaction he was going to get from Viking fans, but stuck to his model and convictions…which I know to be wrong.
That is a really good observation and I wonder if Kwesi is going to change that going forward. I think the B-Rad/MCDC style draft room suits his personality better. You are absolutely right. The Lions draft room allows quick access to other people’s physical space and its geared toward free movement between all parties.
Here is the draft room under Quinn with the rigid constraints you were talking about:
It was an interesting exchange
Coach asked a simple “second-thought” type of question
Obviously he was not fully bought in
These scenarios should not be a question in round 1
Either they were ALL in on trading back or … not
Clearly the coach was not all in
Qwesi essentially blew him off at that point
At that point, blowing him off was appropriate OR the trade back was not fully discussed and agreed upon in advance of draft day.
To me, it does look like they weren’t fully on the same page. I much prefer all this stuff is planned in advance and the coach is not questioning the move as it’s happening.
I think somewhere there had been a communication gap.
