Kwesi Adofo-Mensah: We weren't in right place to draft Sam Howell in 2022

The Vikings didn’t draft a quarterback on Saturday, but they did make a change to their depth chart at the position.

Minnesota picked up Sam Howell in a trade with the Seahawks that also included a swap of fifth-round picks. General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said in a post-draft press conference that he and head coach Kevin O’Connell considered drafting Howell in 2022, but that they didn’t feel the timing was right with the two men heading into their first season with the Vikings.

Adofo-Mensah likened picking a quarterback to “a marriage” and said he didn’t feel " that was the right time in our journey to make such an investment.” Howell wound up as a fifth-round pick by the Commanders and he spent the 2023 season as their starter, but threw 21 interceptions and was traded to the Seahawks last year.

“We weren’t in the right place to do that type of thing,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And, so, we didn’t think that was the right time. But he was a pure talent and all those other things we talk about, he was high up on our board but just didn’t think it was the right time and place. And sometimes that happens in life, that maybe a person you’re dating is not the right time and place, but then later on in life it happens at a better time.”

Adofo-Mensah didn’t rule out any further quarterback moves, but said the team would be “fired up” to go into the season with Howell and Brett Rypien backing up J.J. McCarthy.