ESPN Article Highlights Culture Vikings Have Created

And, yes, it matters

Since they were hired during the 2022 offseason, the tandem of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell have brought a significant change to the Minnesota Vikings. Yes, they’ve been successful on the field. . .the team has won two-thirds of their games in the three years since the hirings. . .but just as important is what they’ve done for the team’s reputation around the NFL. A recent article from ESPN sheds a significant amount of light on that.

The article talks about how players’ family members are treated by the different NFL teams, and some of the differences that are highlighted are pretty stark ones. For example, they speak to running back Aaron Jones about how the team handles things with players’ families for road games, asking players whether or not they have their hotel situation figured out and how many tickets they need. The players, ultimately, pay for all of that stuff, but the team does help them organize what they need.

Contrast that to what a “veteran member” (who requested anonymity) of the Jacksonville Jaguars said when asked about similar situations:

“I know we’re supposed to be the ones to tell our family certain things, but when there’s 30 other things that us as players have to worry about and then we tell our family [information] at the last minute, things can get miscommunicated in the information,” the player said. “When we have to [be the person] to give them the tickets or [be the person] to give them all these things, [stuff] happens, you know what I mean?

The player continued: “I want to make sure that my family is OK so I don’t have to worry about them. [Sometimes] these security guards ain’t letting my damn wife in. I’ve got to worry about that or we’ve got to call [a team rep] to handle this. It shouldn’t [happen]. Family should be already taken care of. They should be an extension of a player in certain areas.”

To see just how seriously the Vikings take not only their on-field performance but what happens off the field, one need look no further than the report cards that the NFLPA puts out during the offseason. In the past three offseasons with O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah at the helm, the Vikings have been in the top two in overall grade, taking the top spot in 2023 and the #2 spot in 2024 and this past offseason.

If you don’t think those sorts of things matter, center Ryan Kelly. . .who signed with the Vikings in March after spending his first nine seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. . .will assure you that they do.

“The survey has had a major impact,” 2025 Vikings free agent signing Ryan Kelly said. “Because you’re a guy looking for a new home, you’ve got kids, you have a family. It’s like, ‘what’s the treatment like?’ If you treat my family well, I’m going to be happier as a person, I’m going to be happier as a player, I’m going to be in a better mood, and we’ll probably have more success.”

. . .

“Being only there for a little over 24 hours [to sign his FA contract], we felt that as my entire family was there,” Kelly said. “It didn’t matter if it was my mom or my dad or my kids or a nanny, everybody felt the love and that goes to show you it’s a special place.”

So, while the Vikings ranking highly on the NFLPA grading system is something that some may dismiss as unimportant, stories like this one can serve as an assurance that the players are paying a great deal of attention to those sorts of things. I’m sure that, in at least a few cases, such things have been the deciding factor in where a player chooses to go in free agency.

As we’ve seen over the past two offseasons, the Vikings have had no problems attracting impact free agents to the Twin Cities, and as long as the Vikings’ current regime is running things, they’re likely going to continue as a premier free agency destination.