When the Vikings decided to fire GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Friday, it seemed like a decision that came out of the blue. Adofo-Mensah was conducting business as usual at the Senior Bowl 24 hours before he was fired, four weeks after the end of the regular season and two months after the Vikings were eliminated from the playoffs.

But in the immediate aftermath, several reporters alluded to the timing being the only surprising aspect of this situation, as apparently Adofo-Mensah had been on thinning ice internally over the past few years. Since then, they’ve gone into more detail. 

The Athletic

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini and Alec Lewis emptied their reporting notebooks on Adofo-Mensah and his firing. Citing a text from a team source: “I’m not shocked that he was let go. I’m just shocked at the timing.”

Added another: “This is wild. We all thought the time passed and they decided to keep him. Something changed.”

The Athletic wrote that Adofo-Mensah’s non-traditional background as a commodities trader who transitioned to working as a data analyst for the Browns before landing Minnesota’s GM job led to skepticism among others in the front office with a more traditional football background. There was also tension between him and the coaching staff, which had doubts about Adofo-Mensah’s ability to do the job. 

Russini and Lewis detail how the Vikings’ ownership conducted their annual end-of-year review. In that process, initial talks with several members of the team revealed concerns about the team’s ceiling under Adofo-Mensah and his overall body of work. This past Wednesday, ownership reconvened and those concerns all loomed large. That seems to be when the decision to fire Adofo-Mensah was made. 

Team sources told Russini and Lewis that ownership believed they needed a more experienced GM who could better create consensus among the top decision-makers and manage an occasionally heavy-handed coaching staff that has had a major influence on significant personnel decisions. 

Among Adofo-Mensah’s shortcomings, the whole decision to move on from QB Sam Darnold loomed large, especially after he and the Seahawks booked their trip to the Super Bowl. Russini and Lewis note there were a lot of people in the organization who thought Darnold was an ideal fit for the Vikings but ultimately a commitment to him was weighed against the resources the team had already invested in QB J.J. McCarthy.

They add the fractions continued into the spring when people with the team expressed doubts about how ready McCarthy was to be the starter in 2025, doubts that were later validated by an inconsistent season from McCarthy marred by even more injuries. 

The Vikings explored the idea of signing QB Aaron Rodgers, per the Athletic, and it had support from many executives, coaches and even key players. Ultimately, however, the Vikings thought it would be better to give McCarthy a crack at things so they could understand what they had. A team source said to the Athletic: “I would still like to know who made that final decision (not to sign Rodgers). I still don’t know. What I do know is it affected a lot of livelihoods.”

They also explored signing veteran QBs Joe Flacco and Ryan Tannehill, per Russini and Lewis, but Tannehill wanted a starting-level contract which was a dealbreaker. 

Minnesota’s 14-3 record in 2024 helped overshadow some more signs of disharmony between Adofo-Mensah and the coaching staff, per the Athletic. While disagreements are inevitable, Russini and Lewis note the extent of the division over multiple years regarding trade targets, free-agent rankings and offseason brainstorming sessions undercut any attempts to create a culture of collaboration. 

Russini and Lewis go on to say Adofo-Mensah needed to establish credibility early given his lack of an experienced background, and the opposite happened. His first draft was a disaster, trading back with the division-rival Lions and passing on S Kyle Hamilton in the process, then selecting S Lewis Cine instead in the first round who barely saw the field before being cut after two seasons. 

After that, Russini and Lewis detail how the coaching staff intentionally tried to assert more influence in the pre-draft process the following season in 2023, openly talking about avoiding a repeat of 2022. From there, team sources said coaching staff priorities played a major role in how the Vikings organized their draft board and picked which UDFAs to sign. 

The two add even the analytically-inclined members of the Vikings were critical of Adofo-Mensah, who responded to criticism of his drafting record by citing historical odds of success or failure in the draft.

Another incident that didn’t help his standing with the traditional football personnel was a decision to take two weeks off for paternity leave after the birth of his child in August of his second season running the team, per the Athletic. Adofo-Mensah remained available remotely but it was a departure from the norms in a league where coaches will sacrifice personal time with families even including the birth of their children. 

Russini and Lewis discussed personnel staffers who didn’t think certain signings fit their timeline, but were overruled by a coaching staff that prioritized veterans who could make immediate impacts. As time went on, it became less clear whether Adofo-Mensah or others like HC Kevin O’Connell or DC Brian Flores had more influence in certain decisions. One prominent agent told the Athletic recently: “I’ve seen and heard enough from leadership to question (the dynamics), personally.”

Regarding what’s next, the Vikings have announced that EVP of football operations Rob Brzezinski will work as interim GM until after the draft, when a search for a new GM will take place. The Athletic says Brzezinski is a strong candidate to remain in the role full-time. 

ESPN

In his own post-mortem article about the end of Adofo-Mensah’s tenure in Minnesota, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert writes the former GM’s lack of experience ultimately proved most damaging, citing a quote ahead of his third season when Adofo-Mensah was asked what he’d learned the most: “You get to this job by being a good worker. A lot of things are needed from a leadership standpoint, just outside of that role, that I’ve had to grow and adjust and adapt to. So, that’s something I’ve definitely learned a lot through.” 

Added Adofo-Mensah: “A lot of things happen in theory when you’re behind an Excel spreadsheet or a computer and you get to the job and you see the actual implementation of these things, and just seeing what that growth in development of a player looks like or different things like that, room dynamics. Just the experience of making these decisions, seeing them up close, seeing the actual implementation of them has been invaluable to me in my first two years.”

Seifert adds that quote was believed to have come after a meeting with ownership in which Adofo-Mensah was asked to be more accessible to the people who worked for him. Seifert notes ownership thought Adofo-Mensah spent too much time in his office working through statistical models and long-range planning rather than circulating among staffers building relationships.

Per Seifert, multiple sources relayed to him that Flores’ decision to let his contract lapse and explore other options this offseason (before signing a lucrative extension to return as Minnesota’s defensive coordinator) was rooted in unease with the direction of the front office. 

Seifert notes that Adofo-Mensah has internally shouldered much of the blame for failing to provide the Vikings with a legitimate alternative to McCarthy on the roster this past season. 

Purple Insider

Vikings beat reporter Matthew Coller details how the Vikings were looking for more depth at receiver this past August with Jordan Addison set to serve a three-game suspension. They zeroed in on a reunion with former Vikings WR Adam Thielen, and Adofo-Mensah discussed a trade multiple times with Panthers GM Dan Morgan. Neither side was budging on their price. 

The standoff continued through roster cutdowns. As the season opener neared, Coller says there was more urgency from the coaching staff which felt like Adofo-Mensah hadn’t given them enough depth despite Addison’s suspension not coming as a surprise.

In the end, Brzezinski was the one who called with a more aggressive offer (roughly equivalent to a fourth-round pick) than what Adofo-Mensah had put on the table and got a trade done for Thielen, per Coller. Thielen finished the year with eight catches in 11 games and asked for his release late in the season to try and land on a playoff team. 

Coller also relayed the impression that Adofo-Mensah’s disastrous first draft sandbagged him in a way he wasn’t able to recover from given his background. He also confirmed that some people with the team didn’t think Adofo-Mensah was as strong of a leader as previous GM Rick Spielman, and that some coaches and front office personnel were frustrated by communication gaps stemming from his paternity leave in 2023. 

Ultimately, Coller writes the Darnold situation proved to be the final nail in the coffin. In 2024, things went well. Adofo-Mensah landed several high-end defensive contributors who fit well with Flores, while O’Connell steered the quarterback pursuit toward McCarthy and Darnold. The Vikings went 14-3, but lost the No. 1 seed in the final game of the regular season and were bounced on the road in the first round of the playoffs. Darnold played poorly in both games and other holes on the roster were exposed. 

Coller goes on to say this prompted the Vikings to elect for a similar strategy they had employed successfully in previous years — allowing notable players to walk when it felt like their compensation would exceed their future production. They did not re-sign Darnold and pushed their chips in on McCarthy, using the savings to try to upgrade the roster on the offensive and defensive lines. 

Coller adds there will be a lot of debate over who deserves the blame for how this decision ultimately played out between Adofo-Mensah, O’Connell and others. At the time, he says Adofo-Mensah definitely wasn’t on an island with how he wanted to proceed versus other decision-makers. 

Coller points out most people with the Vikings expected to be able to re-sign QB Daniel Jones, who they added late in the season after he was cut by the Giants, and were caught off guard when he chose the Colts and what he (correctly) perceived as a better starting opportunity. 

Adofo-Mensah, 44, was hired as Cleveland’s VP of Football Operations in March of 2020. He was also with the San Francisco 49ers for seven years and served for nearly three years as their director of football research and development.

Minnesota hired him as their GM prior to the 2022 season. The Vikings signed Adofo-Mensah to a contract extension after the 2024 season, but fired him less than a year later.

In Adofo-Mensah’s four years as GM with the Vikings, Minnesota had a record of 43-25 with a postseason record of 0-2.

We’ll have more on the Vikings as the news is available.