The Minnesota Vikings have leaned hard into youth this season, and the roster they kept after cut-down day makes that plain. Eight of their nine draft picks survived to the active roster, and they were joined by three undrafted free agents: Jacob Thomas, Brett Thorson, and Dillon Bell. For a team trying to reset its identity, that is a loud statement.
This shift didn’t happen in a vacuum. It follows the end of the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah era after the 2025 season, a run defined by a very particular way of building.
Adofo-Mensah, a former commodities trader, approached roster management like a hedge fund manager, squeezing value wherever he could and moving off assets that no longer fit. That mindset was especially visible in Minnesota’s 2022 draft class, which the source describes as historically bad, with Jalen Nailor, now with the Raiders, standing out as the only consistent contributor.
That philosophy eventually ran into a wall. The Vikings could not make up for those draft misses with enough strong free-agent additions, and the whole operation lost balance.
Now Nolan Teasley is trying a different formula. He arrived in Minnesota after spending years with the Seattle Seahawks, where he started in scouting in 2014 and worked within an organization that gave young players time to grow. Under John Schneider, Seattle built a Super Bowl-winning roster around homegrown talent, and the source points to Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba as major pieces of last season’s title run, with Derick Hall also contributing as a late bloomer.
That same blueprint is now showing up in Minnesota. Teasley did not draft this year’s class, but the roster decisions reflect his willingness to bet on young players. The Vikings kept 8 of their 9 picks, with the first eight players they selected all making the team, and that group has a chance to matter right away.
There’s risk baked into that plan, though. Rookie development takes snaps, and snaps come with growing pains. The idea is for players such as Caleb Banks and Domonique Orange to eventually take over for Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, but that kind of transition does not happen overnight.
And then there’s Kevin O’Connell. He has been excellent in the regular season and won AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2024, but the playoff results have not matched that résumé.
The Vikings are 0-2 under O’Connell in the postseason, and they missed the playoffs in the other two seasons. That has fueled talk that he may be on the hot seat entering 2026, or at least sitting on a warmer seat than most.
His reputation as a quarterback developer has also taken a hit because of his work with J.J. McCarthy, which has only added to the uncertainty around his future.
Still, the path forward is clear enough. Minnesota is going to play these rookies, and it is going to ask them to grow fast. Banks, Orange, Thorson, and Max Bredeson all have a shot at starting roles to open the season, while other rookies have a direct route to meaningful playing time.
The Vikings have made their choice. Now they need this class to deliver early.
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Vikings May Already Have C.J. Hams Successor In Place
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Enter Max Bredeson, the fifth-round pick who already looks like a logical fit for that job. He is expected to bring the kind of blocking and versatility the Vikings value, and his ability to work in heavy packages alongside T.J. Hockenson and Josh Oliver gives Minnesota some flexibility as it shifts toward a more run-heavy approach. The question now is less about whether the role will be filled and more about how quickly Bredeson can make it his own. [Read more 🡒]