ESPN Reveals Who’s Really Running the Vikings
Last week, the Minnesota Vikings fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after four years in charge of football operations. The second man in the front office, Rob Brzezinski, is now the de facto GM in the building, but folks have speculated about more power for the top coaches, Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores. ESPN explained the new power dynamics on Friday.
At first glance, there appears to be no clear captain on the ship — a perceived power vacuum — without a real GM. It’s fair to wonder whether O’Connell is now managing the offense and Flores the defense. But is that really the case? ESPN’s Kevin Seifert clarified that Brzezinski will make the decisions.
He wrote, “Amid league-wide assumptions that coach Kevin O’Connell is now the most prominent voice in the building, it’s important to understand the expanse of Brzezinski’s experience and career.”
Brzezinski has all the trust from the ownership group after over two decades in the Twin Cities. Mark Wilf announced last week that his longtime employee will lead the organization through the Draft in April.
“Although he most recently has focused on contract negotiations and salary cap management, Brzezinski was the Vikings’ top football executive for three seasons from 2003 to 2005, as former owner Red McCombs worked to sell the franchise. In that role, Brzezinski modernized the front office’s process, administered football decisions and managed much of the staff while working alongside coach Mike Tice and director of college scouting Scott Studwell,” Seifert noted.
There’s no single blueprint for how NFL front offices are run. Some franchises have strong GMs with ultimate power, others have owners making the decisions, and in some places, the coaching staff has more authority than in others.
The Vikings, in recent years, have preached the word “collaboration,” meaning they wanted solutions to be found together. Whether that was actually the case is part of ongoing public discussions and reporting.
Seifert concluded, “In other words, Brzezinski has too much stature in the organization to be a simple conduit for the impulses of O’Connell, defensive coordinator Brian Flores or any other member of the organization. The better way to think of him over the next few months is as a gatekeeper who decides which ideas are implemented, and how.”
There’s an easy example of a potential clash. Even if both Flores and O’Connell have a strong voice over the next couple of months, there will be disagreements. Let’s say O’Connell wants a tight end (or another offensive player) in the Draft, while Flores desires an edge rusher, someone needs to make the final call. That person seems to be Brzezinski. Similar problems could arise in free agency or when the club decides to move on from players to get under the salary cap over the next two months.
Still, it is likely that Brzezinski wants to fulfill the wishes of both his coaches. They are the ones who have to make the roster work.
We know, over the past couple of seasons, Isaiah Rodgers and Blake Cashman were high on Flores’ wish list. Among many others, of course, O’Connell wanted T.J. Hockenson in 2022 and Jordan Addison in 2023. That’s where the collaboration comes into play. No franchise should function like the previous regime, when Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman didn’t talk to each other. That’s a recipe for disaster.
It’ll be an important offseason for the Vikings, as some decisions will impact years beyond 2026. Getting the structure right matters just as much as getting the picks right. And for now, ESPN has made it clear: the final say doesn’t belong to the coaches — it belongs to Rob Brzezinski.