Expect Vikings to Prioritize Youth, Measurables in Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's First NFL Draft

Adofo-Mensah's mentor, Andrew Berry, has focused heavily on drafting younger prospects over the past two years.

What makes this year's NFL Draft so intriguing for the Minnesota Vikings is that we don't know exactly what to expect from first-time general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

Ever since he was hired, Adofo-Mensah has talked about how everything the Vikings do centers around collaboration. In preparation for this year's draft, he's worked closely with dozens of people on the personnel side of things and on the team's coaching staff, with head coach Kevin O'Connell obviously at the top of that list.

Adofo-Mensah compares the draft process to an algorithm, where you take all of the input from various sources and collectively come up with an output, in this case a decision on who to draft.

"I wanted our draft room to essentially be that, a lot of different voices coming together," he said at his pre-draft press conference on Tuesday. "It’s using them all equally [scouts, coaches, analytics staffers] and then closing the loop when they don’t all agree."

But when it comes down to it, Adofo-Mensah is going to be the one making the final decision. And while this will be his first draft pick as a GM, we can look back at his previous job and make the guess that those tendencies could carry over.

As Andrew Berry's right-hand man over the past two drafts with the Cleveland Browns, Adofo-Mensah was part of a front office that prioritized youth and physical traits in prospects, particularly the former. It's a sample size of just two drafts, but Berry has been a clear outlier when it comes to focusing on young prospects in the first three rounds. He also ranks near the top when it comes to taking players with high relative athletic scores, which is a metric that combines size and athletic testing numbers into one score.

Here is another look at the #NFLDraft history of NFL GMs this time including #RAS data courtesy of @MathBomb pic.twitter.com/PUkRHSOHpP

— Felix Zurek (@felixzurek) April 25, 2022

Adofo-Mensah didn't confirm that he'll do the same, but it feels like a reasonable thing to project, considering Berry is his closest mentor in this business.

“So when we do these studies, you’re looking for information variables," he said. "And you’re always asking yourself, ‘All else being equal, does this variable correlate to success?’ So if I had had a player of equal ability and equal this and equal that, would I want the younger player? Those are things that people can disagree on or agree on, and I don’t want to speak for [Berry] and exactly what was in his mind. 

"But there’s also dynamics that come with a younger roster, right? So you’re dealing with things that, you know, maybe you wouldn’t deal with with older players. Again, it’s not this perfect equation and I don’t think Andrew looks at it like that that. But it is something where clearly he considers it an important factor. Ultimately, again, you can put all this information together. It does impact choices, but I wouldn’t say it's something we’re stressing or trying to do."

Age is just one variable, as Adofo-Mensah says. You're not going to take a player you have a lower overall grade on just because he's younger than another player. But when the evaluations are close, variables like age and size/athleticism can be the tiebreakers, particularly if analytical models suggest prospects with those traits pan out at a higher percentage.

What does that mean for the Vikings in this year's draft?

Derek Stingley, Kyle Hamilton, Travon Walker, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Jameson Williams are among the youngest top prospects in this year's draft who could make sense for the Vikings, though it's possible all five are off the board at the 12th pick. Sauce Gardner, George Karlaftis, Trent McDuffie, Andrew Booth Jr., Drake London, Nakobe Dean, and Dax Hill all fit the mold as well.

Here is a list of 1st/2nd round players from The Beast that will be under 22 on 9/1 (note - Sauce Gardner turns 22 on 8/31), sorted by age. Expect the Vikings to draft someone from this group.
(ages listed are for the day of the draft) https://t.co/28MU8vbQVR pic.twitter.com/oEDHvTEiQe

— Matt Fries (@FriesFootball) April 23, 2022

Older prospects that the Vikings might be less likely to take in the top two rounds include Jermaine Johnson, Treylon Burks, Chris Olave, Boye Mafe, Arnold Ebiketie, Devonte Wyatt, Devin Lloyd, and Jaquan Brisker.

Again, we don't know if Adofo-Mensah will follow in the path of Berry's small-sample Browns tendencies. But the age factor is enough of an outlier that it's at least worth keeping in mind heading into the draft.

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