Kevin O’Connell & Kwesi Adofo-Mensah 2022 NFL…

The interview window for offensive linemen and running backs was scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday. Those groups will hit the field Friday.

Defensive linemen and linebackers will be available for interviews from Wednesday through Friday before hitting the field Saturday. Cornerbacks and safeties will follow with interviews Thursday through Saturday and workouts Sunday.

The cycle can get quite repetitive, but O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah value the opportunities.

Fourteen years ago, O’Connell was in the shoes and seat of prospects. His combine experience and college career as a QB at San Diego State factored into New England drafting him in the third round of the 2008 NFL Draft.

O’Connell told Twin Cities media members Tuesday, “Those formal interviews will always be unique from the standpoint of being able to use the 15 to 18 minutes, whatever it is to get, really, three questions answered that I look for, right? Do they love football? And really, this is all positions. What’s their capacity to recall the things they’ve already been taught, and then what is their capacity to learn the things we’ll directly try to teach them moving forward?

“So it’s a lot to figure out in a 15-minute sit-down setting, whether you’re using film or the white board or just have those guys speak in the language they’re coming from,” O’Connell continued, “and how much ownership they have with that can tell you a lot about their capacity to learn what we’re going to try to do with guys.”