A few months after the Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, he sat down for an interview with USA Today’s Jori Epstein. If they had taken a photo, the X account known as “football images that precede unfortunate events” would have featured it because it introduced Vikings fans to the term “Full Rams.”
Adofo-Mensah used the term to describe the Los Angeles Rams’ roster strategy to win the Super Bowl in 2021. While the Rams achieved their ultimate goal, it was extremely risky. They traded away most of their draft capital to go all-in a championship window because so many variables go into a one-game sample size.
“If it were a seven-game series, yeah, best team wins,” Adofo-Mensah said at the time. “That’s ultimately why when you’re team building, you never want to go full Rams. Because you need to give yourself three chances at it, four years at it. I know that’s hard for fans to hear.”
For the first three years of his tenure, Adofo-Mensah has resisted the temptation to go “Full Rams.” But after a 14-3 season that ended in the Wild Card round, it may be tempting for him to hit the Rams button and make Myles Garrett the exception to the rule.
Garrett requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns on Monday, and everyone is cooking up their speculative deals. The Vikings have limited draft capital, but there’s always a way to get creative to make a deal. With the possibility of their championship window cracking open, Garrett could rip it out of the frame and make Minnesota an even bigger contender over the next several years.
We should start by saying the Vikings don’t need Garrett. They did an excellent job building their defense with the money Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter left behind, signing Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Blake Cashman in free agency. The Vikings added to that core by trading up for Dallas Turner in the first draft round and signing Shaq Griffin and Stephon Gilmore as supplementary signings as the season drew near.
It was a dream scenario for Brian Flores, who could unleash his defense against the NFL. The Vikings ranked fifth in scoring defense and 11th with 5.3 yards allowed per play. Greenard was third in the NFL with 83 pressures. Van Ginkel made the Pro Bowl. Turner improved as the season went along, and the defense carried Minnesota to their best season since 1998.
However, it wasn’t just the defense that did the heavy lifting. The Vikings offense held up its end of the bargain by ranking fourth in points scored and 12th with 5.6 yards per play. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson were reliable targets in the passing game, and Aaron Jones stabilized the running game. Sam Darnold also had a revival at quarterback but the sum of the parts helped Minnesota break into contender status.
Again, this is not a team that needs Garrett. But it’s pretty damn fun to think about what could happen.
Remember how we said Greenard finished third in pressures? That’s because the guy who finished first was Garrett, who tied with Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson with 83.
Garrett has also been among the greatest pass-rushers of the past decade, collecting 102.5 sacks since the Browns took him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Players like Garrett don’t become available at age 29, but they come at a cost.
The best example may have been Khalil Mack, who the Oakland Raiders traded to the Chicago Bears before the 2018 season. The Bears coughed up two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and a sixth-round pick for Mack and received a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick in return.
Chicago also gave Mack a six-year, $141 million contract extension. It was the cost of doing business for a player they felt could get them over the top. Chicago had Mitchell Trubisky on a rookie-scale contract, and loading up the roster helped the Bears win the NFC North title in his first season.
The next few years weren’t as kind to the Bears as Trubisky and head coach Matt Nagy regressed. However, the Vikings already have one of the best infrastructures in the league, and they could have a rookie-scale quarterback if J.J. McCarthy has recovered from his knee injury.
Garrett’s contract is another aspect in Minnesota’s favor. While he is set to make $19.7 million against the cap, the Browns would eat $36.2 million in dead money and incur a $16.4 million cap penalty if they traded him before June 1. That means the Vikings wouldn’t use one of their four picks this year. Instead, they could use their 2026 capital, which features the team’s first, second, and third-round picks.
Of course, that may not be enough to get the job done, and Adofo-Mensah might not want to dive into his 2027 draft capital. Could that mean trading Turner or Addison? Or would it require something more creative?
The possibilities will make Adofo-Mensah and Vikings fans swallow hard, but it might be worth it to help this team right now. The rule is never to go full Rams. Still, after losing in the playoffs to that team Adofo-Mensah thought was on death row, it’s something he has to think about with a game-changer on the open market.