Vikings Reveal Their New GM Plan
On Friday, the Minnesota Vikings shocked the NFL landscape and certainly Skol Nation when they parted ways with general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after four seasons. Now the question turns to what the franchise wants to do to replace him.
In the immediate aftermath, Rob Brzezinski, officially the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, will lead the club into the offseason, making the calls in free agency and the draft.
When the Vikings released the statement, “Effective immediately, Executive Vice President of Football Operations Rob Brzezinski will lead our operations through the 2026 NFL Draft. Rob brings tremendous credibility and experience, understands our roster and has the ability to build consensus and rely on the expertise of our personnel and coaches. After the draft, we intend to conduct a thorough search to identify our next general manager. Building a team that can contend for championships drives us every day, and we look forward to bringing our fans the success they so deserve.”
Brzezinski has been with the organization since 1999, when he was hired as the director of football administration. In 2001, the Vikings moved him to vice president of football administration, and he was promoted to his current job title in 2014.
The experienced executive has worked with several regimes and is a trusted person within the building. He’s mostly known as the salary cap guy, working closely with both Rick Spielman and Adofo-Mensah.
On the team’s website, the Vikings offer a quick bio: “The Vikings benefit from Brzezinski’s extensive knowledge and strategic salary cap management and a philosophy that has aided in the retention of core players, the addition of key free agents and the overall talent and depth of the team. As the Vikings lead contract negotiator, Brzezinski has negotiated contracts totaling more than $1 billion including high-profile contracts for players such as Randy Moss, Steve Hutchinson, Jared Allen, Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and Kirk Cousins.
“Prior to the 2024 season, Brzezinski helped negotiate and finalize a historic contract extension with All-Pro WR Justin Jefferson, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. In addition to Jefferson’s contract, he recently helped signed cornerstone pieces T Christian Darrisaw and TE T.J. Hockenson to long-term extensions.”
As the Vikings now don’t have an entrenched GM, the coaching staff will have a lot of say in the draft, especially the two top coaches, Kevin O’Connell on offense and Brian Flores on defense.
Shortly after the news broke, Vikings president Mark Wilf talked to the media and explained the next steps.
Wilf mentioned that there won’t be any additional moves in the front office, which means assistant GMs Ryan Grigson and Demitrius Washington will remain with the franchise and surely play a role in the offseason.
He explained the firing, “The most important thing was getting this decision right. Like I said, we like to be methodical about all this, and we had our season-long, season-ending meetings and really took a deep-dive look at not just any one thing, but over the past few years. So we wanted to make sure we got the decision right. We talked to all the stakeholders, all the people involved in our football operations, and we really came to this decision in a methodical way, and that’s the way we went about it. Because this was about our long-term success.”
Adofo-Mensah was hired in 2022. The executive with an analytics background delivered a first draft class that has drawn heavy criticism and has never fully moved past that in the eyes of many fans. In 2023, he found Jordan Addison, and his 2024 class is headlined by the improving Dallas Turner and quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The passer might have been a major part of the decision. The QB play certainly hindered the Vikings from competing for the postseason in the 2025 campaign.
The other problem is his draft resume. After four drafts with very few contributions from the picks, the roster is aging and is bereft of young difference-makers and franchise cornerstones to build around.
Wilf emphasised that he won’t close any doors and that Brzezinski could be in the mix for the permanent general manager position after the draft. Wilf said he will “lean toward” a classic GM arrangement that would give the next general manager personnel decision-making power with “extremely heavy input” from O’Connell.
There are very few quiet days on the NFL calendar, even in the offseason, and Friday underscored that reality. The Vikings made a rare, late-stage front office change — one that now shapes every major decision they make in the months ahead.