Vikings wide receivers provide plenty of intrigue for the upcoming season

Kirk Cousins piqued interest on Thursday night by wearing his helmet throughout the first half on the sideline, even though he wasn't playing.

Broadcasters gave him credit for paying rapt attention to the signals being called. The suspicion here is that Cousins, veteran that he is, has turned his helmet into a portable man cave. A Cousins cavern. He's probably got a stereo system hooked up in there, maybe a hidden tap and a virtual movie screen.

Cousins knows better than to care about preseason games that do not require healthy starting quarterbacks to wear shoulder pads, but he might have been intrigued by the Vikings' training competition at receiver, which continued to play out in their 24-13 loss to the Seahawks in Seattle on Thursday night.

Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has made the receiver position, always a focus of talent and attention for the franchise, into a two-year drama.

First, he traded the 12th pick in the 2022 draft — the first pick he held as an NFL GM — to division rival Detroit. The Lions chose Jameson Williams, a talented player who produced almost nothing as a rookie. He had one catch — a 41-yard touchdown against the Vikings in Detroit. Adofo-Mensah traded into the 32nd pick and drafted Georgia safety Lewis Cine, who missed most of last year because of injury and is not guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup this year.

In Adofo-Mensah's second draft, he used his first-round pick on Jordan Addison, who missed offseason work because of an injury but looked sharp on Thursday night. Addison dropped a short pass while being hit on the first drive, but later made a spectacular two-toe-tapping, diving catch of a pass thrown out of bounds that was ruled an incompletion.

It looked like a completion, a catch displaying coordination, awareness, sticky hands and deft feet.

Addison later caught a 22-yard pass that was underthrown by quarterback Nick Mullens, robbing him of a chance to display a reputed strength — an ability to run after the catch.

Adofo-Mensah has yet to reach an agreement with his star receiver Justin Jefferson on a long-term contract extension. He does have four first-round draft picks in his receivers room — Jefferson, Addison, Jalen Reagor and the recently signed N'Keal Harry.

Jefferson is, to put it conservatively, one of the best receivers in the NFL. Addison has the ability to become a star-caliber second receiver. K.J. Osborn is a quality third receiver. And the Vikings brought in Brandon Powell to compete with Reagor as a reserve receiver and the team's primary punt returner.

One way to read these moves is that the Vikings don't want to pay Reagor roughly $2.4 million to catch a few passes and make fair catches.

Harry could replace him as a fourth receiver with upside, and Powell could replace him as a punt returner and reliable extra receiver.

Powell was used as the starting punt returner on Thursday. Reagor played well, catching four passes on four targets for 55 yards. Powell caught both of the passes thrown to him for 22 yards.

Harry looked good in his first extensive practice with the team on Tuesday night, and caught two second-half passes for 24 yards on Thursday, including a contested 19-yarder for a first-down.

The onus is on Reagor to prove he's worthy of his contract.

A player making $2.4 million might not seem expensive, given the largesse and large payrolls in the NFL, but the Vikings are trying to get a deal done with Jefferson while maintaining the flexibility to make in-season moves.

Harry signed a one-year deal with the Vikings for $1.08 million. Powell signed a one-year deal worth $1.2 million. In other words, the Vikings could keep Harry and Powell for less than Reagor alone would cost.

Pull back the camera, and what's most interesting about Adofo-Mensah's approach to the receiver position: he started with him trading away from a chance to get a few talented receivers, including Williams, in his first pivotal day on the job, and has since assembled as many talented receivers as possible, regardless of their NFL production.