Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s media conference at the NFL scouting combine offered a first glimpse into the franchise’s plans for the 2023 season and beyond.
And apparently, that future could be without All-Pro inside linebacker Eric Kendricks.
Adofo-Mensah was asked if linebacker is a position they’ll look at during the combine. He mentioned his confidence in all three reserve linebackers, conspicuously leaving out starters Jordan Hicks and Kendricks.
“It’s a position, just like every position we look at. We have a lot of confidence in Brian Asamoah, who is also in that room. Troy Dye is a very good player. William Kwenkeu has shown some really good things on special teams,” Adofo-Mensah said on February 28. “We’re going to take a look, just like we do at every position. But we have decisions to make, just like every other team.”
It would be naive to see Adofo-Mensah’s omission of his two starting linebackers as a simple slip of the mind. He mentioned Kwenkeu, who played just 13 defensive snaps, compared to over 2,000 snaps combined by the starting duo.
Hicks and Kendricks are both over 30 years old and seemed a step behind in the first-year install of Ed Donatell’s 3-4 base defense. Kendricks especially fell off a cliff from his former All-Pro days as one of the best off-ball linebackers in the league. He finished the 2022 season graded 50th among 81 qualifying inside linebackers by Pro Football Focus.
The Vikings are currently $24.4 million over the salary cap and must be cap compliant by March 15. Cutting both linebackers would create $14.5 million in cap space, getting halfway to under the cap in just two moves.
Eric Kendricks Doesn’t Fit Brian Flores’ Mold for LB
Last offseason, former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber raised his concerns about whether Kendricks was a fit in a 3-4 defense due to his size and the added amount of blockers reaching the second level due to only three defensive linemen up front.
“To say that he can’t make the transition, I think, is foolish. I think it’s going to be difficult for him, though. It’s a defense, in my mind, that doesn’t speak to his specific skillset and I think it’s going to enhance the weaknesses that he has,” Leber told KFAN’s Paul Allen last February. “You are (as an inside LB in a 3-4 defense) taking on a fair amount of more blockers. We’re not talking fullbacks and tight ends. We’re talking guards and tackles. That is not his strong point. He does not have long arms. He’s not a thumper when it comes to getting off blocks. It doesn’t come natural for him to play off blocks.”
Although Donatell did the defense no favors in not making adjustments to the scheme over the season, new defensive coordinator Brian Flores may not be the answer either.
Flores, whose primary role as a position coach was linebackers, has preferred taller players in the past.
Despite Being Undersized, Brian Asamoah Has Ideal Traits of New Age LB
While Asamoah is the same size as Kendricks, he has the speed to maneuver around blockers and erase mistakes and has freakish arm length as well.
Asamoah has shown a high football IQ throughout his first season in the league to go along with his blazing speed. He tested in the 86th percentile of linebackers with a 4.56 40-time at the 2022 combine, per Mockdraftable.
He may be small at 6-foot, 226 pounds, but his 6-foot-8 wingspan (93rd percentile) coupled with his speed and ability to sniff out plays before they happen make him a devastating force in the second level.
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Vikings GM Casts Doubt on All-Pro Veteran’s Future