Vikings GM admits mistakes on Daniel Jones; trusted J.J. McCarthy despite ‘incomplete information’

Note: The original version of this story suggested that the Vikings drafted J.J. McCarthy with “Incomplete information.” That was wrong, and we have corrected the story to better reflect what general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said. We apologize for the error.

In an eye-opening press conference on Tuesday, Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah admitted that the Vikings didn’t handle Daniel Jones’ free agency the right way last offseason, while also acknowledging that J.J. McCarthy started in 2025 despite “incomplete information.”

After head coach Kevin O’Connell said the plan this offseason is to bring in competition for McCarthy, Adofo-Mensah’s first admission was that they thought there was a better chance of Jones re-signing with them instead of going to the Indianapolis Colts, where he was a star before a season-ending Achilles injury

“You’re trying to make sure that you don’t lock yourselves into what you did and thinking that it’s always right,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time. It’s easier to go and be revisionist and results-based, but going to really think through what we had at the time, I still understand why we did what we did. The results maybe didn’t play out the way we wanted them to, but ultimately, I think that at the end of the day, we could’ve executed better in certain places.”

Adofo-Mensah didn’t give specifics initially, but he later admitted that he regrets how they handled the Daniel Jones negotiations. Here’s what he said when a reporter asked if the Vikings were “overconfident” about Jones returning.

“I don’t want to say overconfidence, but I do think him being here was something that we kind of considered and thought would impact his decision. But ultimately, there are free agents, and to your point, learning lessons. I think, execution-wise, you have to treat it as such. No matter what the conversation is or relationships are, free agents are free for a reason, and they’re allowed to vet all their options. Ultimately, we could’ve executed better around that.”

Jones led the Colts to an 8-4 record before he ruptured his Achilles on December 7. He completed 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.

Dec 7, 2025; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17) stands on the field during the National Anthem before a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Adofo-Mensah then said that they gave McCarthy the chance to start this season even though they had limited information to support the notion that he was ready.

“We talk a lot about the path of young players isn’t linear, and you don’t know how the first three games, four or five games are going to go. We have a lot of historical studies about what the first few games are going to look like, or that first year could look like, in a sense, and ultimately, that’s why we tried to build the team, knowing those growth pains could come, to be able to overcome them and withstand them, in a certain sense,” Adofo-Mensah began.

“Ultimately, a lot of this job — RG [Ryan Grigson] calls it fast eyes, and this isn’t a fast-eye decision, but in a perfect world, you would have had a full sample, three years of watching him play in the NFL before. That’s not how this works. And sometimes you have to go on incomplete information. And the
information we had was all good, but it was admittedly incomplete and small-sampled. So ultimately, we trusted in the information we had, we trusted our coaches, we trusted in the team around him to do that. And so, it’s hard to — really when you think about that and then go look back at the season, as I talked about, you saw the improvement at the end. You saw the flash of the player we thought he could be. So, in that sense, I can’t say that we were overconfident. Maybe the timing didn’t work out with other aspects of our team, whether that be injuries or different things like that. But ultimately, we’re comfortable with where we are, and we’re excited about where he can go.”

Clearly, the Vikings aren’t sure he can go far enough to be guaranteed the starting job in 2026, and that means they’ll be bringing in competition.

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