There was an almost childlike excitement from general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell on Tuesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center as they set the stage for the Vikings to start training camp.
The humbling loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs is in the rearview mirror, as are the feelings of failure attached to it.
Instead, the Vikings get to operate with overwhelming optimism, at least for the time being, after spending more than $300 million in free agency to address all of the weaknesses the Rams helped reveal.
“We’ve spent this offseason focusing on building the idea of the 2025 Vikings,” Adofo-Mensah said. “This is the time to really build the reality of what this team is going to be.”
What exactly does Adofo-Mensah want that to look like? He described it by saying he wants the Vikings to be able to show up to a fight, not necessarily knowing what the fight is going to be like, and leave as the last man standing.
“When it’s single elimination in the playoffs, we might have to play a certain type of game,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We wanted to build the type of team that’s versatile and can win in different ways and we think we’ve done that.”
There’s a big difference between thinking and knowing, however, and whether the Vikings have accomplished that goal won’t be known until they either make or miss the playoffs at the end of the regular season.
In the meantime, O’Connell is trying to get this particular group to focus on the journey rather than the destination, believing that if they lean into the work every, then everything else will take care of itself.
“How do we do that?” O’Connell said. “We have a good training camp.”
Though there are storylines aplenty for the Vikings as they prepare to return to the field, the maturation of young quarterback J.J. McCarthy will be chief among them as he steps into the spotlight as the new face of the franchise.
Not that O’Connell seems to worried about how McCarthy will handle the pressure.
“We feel like we’ve built a team with leadership on both sides of the ball, and with experience on both sides of the ball, all designed to help him be comfortable in his role,” O’Connell said. “You feel the energy and the enthusiasm that J.J. has brought to the group and that they’re reciprocating right back to him.”
That should serve as a good starting point for the Vikings as they set their sights on that elusive Lombardi Trophy.
Never mind that neither Adofo-Mensah nor O’Connell directly referenced the Super Bowl ahead of training camp. It’s pretty clear that everybody associated with the Vikings is moving forward with that at the forefront of their mind.
“It’s time for us to acknowledge what we’re actually trying build here,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got to put in a lot of work to feel totally worthy in those moments to get to where we want to get to.”
Briefly
The only players starting training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list are tight end Gavin Bartholomew and edge rusher Chaz Chambliss. The fact that left tackle Christian Darrisaw was not placed on the PUP list speaks to his progress as he continues to work his way back from torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee.
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