In a stunning move, the Vikings have fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. Adofo-Mensah, 44, had been the Vikings’ GM since 2022.
As part of their official statement, the Vikings said: “Following our annual end-of-season organizational meetings over the last several weeks and after careful consideration, we have decided it is in the best interest of the team to move forward with new leadership of our football operations. These decisions are never easy. We are grateful for Kwesi’s contributions and commitment to the organization over the past four years and wish him and his family the best in the future.”
Executive vice president Rob Brzezinski will take over for Adofo-Mensah on an interim basis, the team announced. Brzezinski will lead the front office through April’s draft, but the Vikings “intend to conduct a thorough search” for their next GM after that.
The Vikings’ decision to cut ties with Adofo-Mensah comes less than a year after they locked him up to a contract extension last May. The deal prevented Adofo-Mensah from entering 2025 as a lame duck, but the team will now go in another direction after finishing 9-8 and missing the playoffs.
There was “tension” in the Vikings’ building leading up to Adofo-Mensah’s firing, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who hears that it had been “ugly” throughout the season. Jordan Schultz relays similar information, writing “there were relationship issues” at Vikings headquarters.
The Vikings brought in Adofo-Mensah after he divided 2013-21 between San Francisco and Cleveland. He impressed enough over two seasons as the Browns’ vice president of football operations to earn a promotion in Minnesota. With the hiring of head coach Kevin O’Connell three weeks later, Adofo-Mensah checked off his first key task atop the Vikings’ front office. The well-regarded O’Connell remains in place four years later, but he’ll pair with Brzezinski for now before potentially teaming up with a different GM.
The Adofo-Mensah/O’Connell tandem helped the Vikings to a 13-4 mark and an NFC North title in their first season together, though the team suffered a wild-card round upset against the Giants. The Vikings dropped to 7-10 in 2023, after which they allowed longtime starting quarterback Kirk Cousins to walk in free agency.
With Cousins heading to Atlanta on a massive contract worth up to $180MM over four years, the Vikings brought in veteran Sam Darnold on a one-year, $10MM pact and then used the 10th pick in the draft on former Michigan signal-caller J.J. McCarthy.
Adofo-Mensah traded up a spot for McCarthy, who went on to miss his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus. That didn’t faze Minnesota, where Darnold enjoyed a long-awaited breakout campaign six years after the Jets drafted him third overall. The Vikings posted a tremendous 14-3 record en route to another playoff berth, but they once again lost in the wild-card round.
A couple months after a rough showing in a blowout against the Rams, Darnold signed with the Seahawks on a three-year, $100.5MM deal. The Vikings made a similar offer, and they also tried to re-sign veteran passer Daniel Jones after he ended 2024 in their uniform, but they struck out in both instances. Jones saw a clearer path to playing time in Indianapolis, where he went on to revive his career before tearing his Achilles in early December.
Meanwhile, a Darnold-quarterbacked team finished 14-3 for the second year in a row. The Seahawks are now preparing to face the Patriots in Super Bowl LX after Darnold’s 346-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 31-27 triumph over the Rams in the NFC title game.
After Darnold and Jones slipped through their fingers last March, a season of subpar quarterback play was likely the main culprit in the Vikings’ disappointing 2025. Adofo-Mensah’s big bet on McCarthy hasn’t paid off to this point.
McCarthy battled multiple injuries in his first year at the helm, leading him to miss seven games, and was statistically among the league’s worst QBs when healthy. Journeyman backup Carson Wentz, who was a mixed bag filling in for McCarthy early in the year, required season-ending shoulder surgery in October.
Wentz’s injury left undrafted rookie Max Brosmer as McCarthy’s backup for the rest of the year. Brosmer was dreadful over eight appearances and two starts, including a four-interception outing in a 26-0 loss to Darnold’s Seahawks in Week 13.
Shortly after the Vikings’ campaign ended, Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell indicated they’d bring in competition for McCarthy this offseason. It’s not clear how aggressive Adofo-Mensah would have been, but that decision is now out of his hands.
While the Vikings’ lackluster QB performance this season likely contributed to Adofo-Mensah’s ouster, a poor track record in the draft also didn’t help his cause. As Kevin Seifert of ESPN points out, players the Vikings drafted from 2022-25 have only made 172 starts – the second-lowest total in the league during that span. To make matters worse, Adofo-Mensah’s drafts haven’t produced any Pro Bowlers. With Adofo-Mensah suddenly out of the organization, the Vikings will hope for better results from their Brzezinski-led front office this April.
Bad day to run a Minnesota sports front office.
Or the Twin Cities in general.
For those not already aware, Derek Falvey is out as the Twins’ president of baseball operations.
Bruh, what???
What’s going on in Minnesota? Not just the team the state? Had no idea this was the GM???
Shit show on and off the field…
Is it really stunning? Mediocre drafts and a poorly executed all in plan last off-season had to put his job in some jeopardy.
The timing is.
Not really. The off-season is about to start. It’s not like there was a ton of GM openings and the Vikings missed out on some great future GM. As long as he’s gone before the super bowl, which he is, the timing is fine.
It is. Like Kevin Seifert said on ESPN
Mensah gave the postseason news conference
two weeks ago. Plus he knew scouting at the senior bowl. On top of that there could have been a candidate they would have considered off the board now that other teams have signed new GMs.
Scouting at the senior bowl is weird, that’s true. Something must’ve happened between then and now, IE some kind of a blow up with KOC or something. Hopefully one of these reporters actually does some digging.
Disagree. There’s been plenty of front office hires already.
Seemed like a weird hire out of nowhere at the time. Obviously not a match.
Everybody and their mother was talking up JJ as the real deal going into the season.
Yep, but it felt like it was because he had KOC as his coach. If Atlanta does release Cousins, look for the reunion up in Minny.
How about either initiating, authorizing, letting McConnell talk him into, or being involved in the decision making process regarding moving Darnold out and the untested, injured, and skillset deficient QB kid from Michigan in as a disaster of epic proportions….now they’re more than likely in search of QB options moving forward wasting Jefferson’s best years…p
Or maybe even O’Connell.
No idea what you are trying to say, rocky. But I support your right to say it!
Whoa. Weird firing and even weirder timing.
Odd timing for sure
Timing is so off. Who fires a GM right before February?
You have to wonder if this has to do with Darnold going to the Super Bowl, honestly. And not even just in the sense of “Hey, you let this guy walk for McCarthy!” but in the sense that “tension” seems to be the reason for the dismissal.
Well, to me, you get over “tension” and do your job, especially if you’ve been doing well, but I get that things can cross the line. I can easily see how how Darnold going could start a personal row between people who maybe wanted to keep him, people who were for tossing him, people who only say that after seeing the result, and people who realize hindsight isn’t 20/20. Whatever the case, it’s still a shock.
The timing is what makes me think that could have been the case-after all, if ownership thought that Kwesi was doing such a bad job, they’d have fired him at the end of the season. He got to begin scouting and drawing up postseason strategy. It makes you think that a specific incident triggered this, and while it must have hurt to watch Darnold’s success in comparison to McCarthy’s struggles throughout the year as a whole, this is awfully close to the Super Bowl to eliminate the possibility entirely of it being related.
Nobody expected Darnold to do what he did with Vikings. I think that’s probably a small part of his overall firing. Look at his last three draft picks years. So many duds and players who are either out of the league or on another team
If that were the case, why did they wait until almost February? Something obviously just occurred to tip the scale. I mean, this doesn’t happen without those mistakes, but the article also does point towards “tension” being the main reason that this just happened. It just doesn’t specify what that tension precisely was exactly (the record probably is part of it, but I would imagine that Kwesi had counterpoints, fairly or unfairly argued), or if there was a single incident that finally pushed them over. The timing makes it look likely to me that there WAS a specific incident, and it’s easy to see how the Super Bowl, which was just decided, could factor into that (especially given how Darnold played to get there).
Something happened and I don’t think it’s Darnold making the Super Bowl. We aren’t privy to everything that prompted this. Perhaps it was a discussion about what to do at QB in 2026 that got him canned. In other words, Kwesi had an extremely different idea than KOC as to what needed to be done at QB for next season. It’s just speculation on my part. As I said, much goes on that doesn’t make it out of the Vikings front office. For now anyway.
Totally possible. That’s really part of what I mean, though-it may not be exactly Darnold going to the Championship on its own, but that could easily factor into that very discussion that you bring up. Any leftover tension (rightful or otherwise) over Darnold leaving, or the perceived amount of effort to keep him, could easily help turn up the tension to the point where a line got crossed somewhere.
It’s easy to speculate. In my mind, Darnold leaving is definitely involved, in some capacity, to some degree. Maybe Kwesi wanted him to stay more than the others did. Maybe he wanted him less. Maybe he’s bringing it up now to show that he was right. Maybe others are bringing it up to show that he was wrong. Maybe someone made a comment about it when they were discussing QB plans, or when they were figuring out what to do about McCarthy.
Who knows, it’s impossible (and likely pointless at this point) to tell right now. I do think, though, that this was involved somehow, and we do have to consider the quality of the year that Darnold’s team had as part of the reason why. The backdrop of draft failures certainly opened the door for this, I don’t want to dismiss that, for the record. It’s the timing of this, though, that points to the Darnold issue being a big factor. By all appearances, Minnesota was prepared to let Kwesi run another offseason after the end of 2025. Why would they do that, if they planned on firing him for his lack of prior draft success? There was a change, somewhere, and it coincides with the playoff schedule. I don’t think that it’s 1:1 necessarily, but it’s hard for me to dismiss.
I agree with mustard. Somethings fishy
I got to say, Darnold was brutally bad for Minnesota regressing to his former self in his last two games and in that one playoff game against the Rams. And it was always the plan beforehand to draft McCarthy and get Darnold or Jones as stopgaps until McCarthy is ready. Darnold was mediocre to bad before he came to Minnesota so no one expected this surprise performance.
Give the job to KOC and give Flores the head coach spot
I was a fan of Kwesi until PFF broke down his tenure with his draft record, strange drafting decisions, and inability to stabilize QB.
I didn’t think it would happen this offseason, but not completely shocked.
The only :inability to stabilize the QB” question was how involved he was in discarding Darnold in favor of a QB who got the credit when the program and its athletes at Michigan were the reasons for its success…..now they’re in QB Hell and basically as GM the buck stops at his desk….
That’s one of the questions, but it certainly isn’t the only one, IMO. Had he drafted Nix instead of JJ, this might not be a conversation. Had he been able to re-sign Daniel Jones, letting Darnold go may be forgiven (I’d say Jones was outplaying Darnold at the time of injury).
There were lots of ways he could have played QB and, let’s be honest, Darnold isn’t even close to infallible.
myaccount2:
I know it’s not the point of your post, but Jones was starting to struggle, especially against good teams.
Well…not defending Darnold but he’s in the SB isn’t he….Darnold gets the blame in 24 for an end of season flame out when in reality he was running for his life against both defenses he was up against….if you’re looking for a villain….check the O-Line and its coach…that’s who let the team down….they played like shit….but everyone jumps on the media easy street narrative that Darnold was at fault….
But they made him a similar offer to Seattle’s(?). I get that the 1st round pick was still in the QB room, but that seem like a lot of coin for somewhat to be etched in as the backup.
Yeah, Darnold wanted to leave. The Vikings did make him an offer.
I’d caution against the Nix comparison, though. O’Connell is a good coach in my mind, but bear in mind that Nix is with Payton, and Payton is shaping his offense around him. Even with that in mind, Nix is still wildly inconsistent between his highs and lows. The Broncos have also the league’s best or near best defense for about the last two years. Vikings have a good defense, but they don’t have the other thing that Nix enjoys in Denver, and that is possibly the league’s best offensive line. With the exception of Denver’s center, they are strong at all positions when healthy (as they mostly were last year).
I don’t think that it’s a given that Nix, who certainly has positives to offer, is as successful in Minnesota as he has been in Denver. Minnesota actually isn’t even necessarily a bad place to go, that’s not my argument. I’m just saying that hypothetical redrafts are extremely speculative, especially in regards to quarterbacks.
I’m not trying to bash on Darnold but he’s got an elite defense, the best in the league, behind him. It’s not like he put a poorly constructed team on his back and willed them to the Super Bowl. But yes, he absolutely deserves credit for the season he’s had.
I don’t disagree. He played very well. One of the best quarterbacks this year, of course. Going to the Super Bowl is a team effort, unless you’re John Elway (sort of a joke, because it was the offense that needed help more than the Orange Crush did).
Missing Super Bowl Sam
Not really. No guarantee he would take man to the Super Bowl. People give all the credit to the players which i understand but it is the coordinators callings plays that actually make the difference. You put Dan Marion on the 49ers he would have gone to multiple super bowls. You put him in the Jets or the Bucs back then and he probably doesn’t even make it one time. That is why this is a team game.
True,,,,but the players have to execute those plays that are called….coaches can coach their butts off, but if they either don’t have the players that can execute or just fail to execute on any given game day….its not going to end well right?
Dude you need yo use a different keyboard or something cuz between punctuation and weird spaces and everything else you’re thoughts are getting lost in translation
If you’re directing that to me, I would ask what was the highest level of education you actually finished….maybe grade school?
Nobody’s worried about “spaces and punctuation except you….
Blowing a first rounder on JJ and bungling the Darnold situation seems like a perfect reason to fire the GM. I’m not sure why anyone is confused
The idea that everybody in the building wasn’t pushing him to draft JJ is beyond hilarious.
Doesn’t matter….he’s the boss and the buck stops at his desk….he reports either to the owner or President of Football Operations….the others “in the building” work for or with him….they have no upwards authority to do anything other than what he wants or desires for the Vikings….
You seem to be forgetting the owner.
True….but don’t think the owner was pushing for JJ or any individual player…he just wants the pieces in place to win…..
I guarantee you the owner was pushing for JJ, in addition to the fanbase.
It goes beyond just QB, though. Look at the overall draft record.
Everything starts and ends at the QB…..he blew it with JJ who looks like a kid caught in the headlights of being over his head in a game of men…thank God the Giants didn’t draft this loser….
If everything starts and ends at QB, Rodgers would have 8 rings instead of 1, Josh Allen would have a couple titles, Marino and Kelly would each have won, Brees would have more than 1, Peyton would have more than 2, etc. You have to supplement the roster with effective players, period. No QB has ever pulled an awful roster to the Super Bowl.
Elway came close. Other than 3-4 outstanding defensive players, there were alot of pedestrian Broncos players on the 80s teams. They just played well together.
Right, I agree, but they didn’t get over that hump, which is further evidence that supporting cast is still vital. That’s just my take though.
On the flip side, the Jags had a very strong supporting cast in 2017 but didn’t have the QB in Bortles. I think that shows that it really all has to come together, which is what I love about football–it’s the ultimate team sport.
Brad Johnson has an ring.
Brad Johnson is a two time Pro Bowler.
I feel like a lot of you didn’t even watch football back then or something.
Shedeur Sanders is already a Pro Bowler….
@odessa- Surely you’ve noticed that the pro bowl and its participants has changed over time. It meant something until the 2010s.
Comparing him to an actual Pro Bowler who was known as one of the best QBs in the league for a short period is hilarious.
No awful roster ever went to the SB so whats your point….isn’t the QB the most highly paid player on the team?……without Rogers Green Bay wouldn’t have been to the playoffs half the times they were in, and in the case of Allen, especially this year, Buffalo pretty much rode his play into the playoffs with the so-so roster devoid of WR help they actually had…..I didn’t say players other than the QB don’t matter but they can’t throw the ball, call the plays and know play options, etc…..would the Eagles be where they are without Hurts?….don’t think so….
Yes they easily would be without Hurts. I feel like you haven’t actually watched him play or something.
My point is exactly what you said in your first sentence: no awful roster has ever gone to the Super Bowl. That’s precisely why nuance is important. Look at Burrow’s situation.
Trent Dilfer has a ring.
He was also a Pro Bowler with Tampa and the guy who was supposed to start for the Seahawks before his injury opened the door for Hasselbeck.
I agree that he was mediocre with Baltimore but I just like inserting that bit of trivia into conversations about Dilfer.
The late 90s into 2000s was a wild era.
Dilfer also played with one of the best defenses in modern NFL history.
@rocky7 “game of men”? LOL
This seems like a major overreaction. He has done a solid job building that roster.
Look at his draft record. He inherited a solid roster and has made it worse.
2022:
32- Lewis Cine (lasted 1 season, I believe)
44- Andrew Booth (out of the league)
59- Ed Ingram (off roster)
66- Brian Asamoah (off roster)
111- Akayleb Evans (off roster)
165- Esezi Otomewo (off roster)
169- Ty Chandler
184- Vederian Lowe (off roster)
191- Jalen Nailor
227- Nick Muse (out of league)
2023:
23- Jordan Addison
102- Mekhi Blackmon (off roster)
134- Jay Ward
141- Jaquelin Roy (off roster)
164- Jaren Hall (out of league)
222- Dewayne McBride (out of league)
2024:
10- J.J. McCarthy
17- Dallas Turner
108- Khyree Jackson (RIP)
177- Walter Rouse
203- Will Reichard
230- Michael Jurgens
232- Levi Drake Rodriguez
2025:
24- Donovan Jackson
102- Tai Felton (why when Nailor is one of your only successful picks worth extending?)
139- Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins
201- Kobe King (off roster)
202- Gavin Bartholomew (missed entire season)
He inherited an aging roster still trying to replace guys from the 2017 team.
I agree his first two drafts weren’t great but 2022 looked like an absolute home run at the time. 2024 was solid and produced a future cornerstone in Turner. You can’t really blame him for Khyree Jackson. Kid might’ve been solid.
Donovan Jackson was a good pick. They needed to draft a WR because of Addison’s off field issues and future high cost. The rest? Well I mean what can you honestly do with so few picks?
The fact is he brought in some really talented players and made good extensions to keep the team competitive.
It’s been said by people much smarter than me repeatedly: if a GM is only hitting on 1st round picks, there’s nothing special about his talent evaluation. And in Kwesi’s case, he also whiffed very, very badly on at least one 1st rounder (after a trade that looks very bad in hindsight considering how good Hamilton has been, but that’s another story) and it looks like a second at a much more important position may be a bust, too.
I disagree about the extensions. Most were questionable and he put the org in cap hell. Even the “good” ones were often structured poorly or only good because they retained a very important player even if the contract didn’t fit their cap.
I don’t want to turn this into a hatefest for Kwesi because there were some things he did that I liked, but I don’t think this was an overreaction, and the reported tension makes a lot of sense given the way he managed the team overall.
This was not about team construction or player acquisition. It’s in the article.
It wasn’t in the article when I responded.
Ok. I did not know that. Please accept my apologies.
First the Twins, now the Vikings? What’s going on in Minnesota? Was Tom Homan involved?
Bill Guerin is next
If it were Homan, Adofa-Mensah could have just bribed him.
I remember seeing somewhere that Head Coach Kevin O’Donnell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s relationship went sour and they were no longer really speaking to each other , so this news didn’t surprise me that much. My guess is that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was not getting along with a bunch of people and the owner decided Adofo-Mensah was the problem and he needed to go…like now.
Now that makes sense.
I still think he’s a pretty solid GM. 2022 especially is a draft that any GM would’ve been thrilled with at the time based on the value and quality they got in seemingly every pick. Just didn’t work out that way.
How Cine busted I’ll never understand.
He was too small for his play style to translate to the NFL. Remember, a lot of people were questioning if he had the skills to be a high safety in the league. Under 200 pounds is a tough sell already for a safety, but when that player might be limited to being a box/split safety, it’s risky and why I believe his stock was trending down in the first place.
It doesn’t make sense that his coverage was so terrible given his athleticism and production in college, but I guess it shows that his instincts in coverage–which were called into question during the draft cycle–were even worse than initially thought.
A learing experience
Thanks from Seattle! We couldn’t have made the Super Bowl without you!
Yikes
It sounds like this was not about performance. If the GM and HC can’t get along, someone has to go. And in this case it was the GM.
Seems like bad timing, they sent him to the Senior Bowl.
Vikings drafts are not great but I think KOC is involved in roster too. If the gm really wanted JJ it is on the coach to actually coach, but it is pretty clear KOC and JJ have an issue.
“Not great…” — compared to Vikings drafts prior to 2022, under Spielman and Paton, there is no other word but “turrible” to describe them.
That’s what happens when HC and GM can’t work together.
It’s become obvious that to get a franchise QB, let the Jets draft them and scoop them after 3 years when they release them.
Worst Franchise in history
so we want Zach Wilson?
Fits the KOC mold.
Is this the guy that took over the ship from Captain Phillips?
I think rocky7 has it out against college sports because colleges and universities couldn’t accept someone who misuses punctuation that badly…
I’m here….whats the problem….
Now the Vikings have to find a GM who can convince Justin Jefferson not to ask for a trade.
Poorly managed qb decisions. Team needs serious help.
Minnesota is not the place to be at
He had two QBs he could’ve retained but opted to go his draft pick. Of those QBs didn’t do as well as they did, I think he may have still kept his job. He stayed his course and it just didn’t work out like he thought.