The Minnesota Vikings have fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, a surprising move that follows the organization’s failure to reach the playoffs this season.
Owners Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf appointed longtime executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski to oversee the front office through the 2026 draft.
Adofo-Mensah, a Ghanaian-American hired in 2022 as the NFL’s first general manager with a primarily analytics-based background, declined to comment. Wilf also did not specify the exact reasons behind the dismissal, including whether it stemmed from a string of 2025 offseason decisions that saw quarterback Sam Darnold sign with the Seattle Seahawks and 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy pressed into action before he was ready.
“It’s not necessarily fair to talk about any one decision,” Wilf said. “It’s a body of work; it’s a cumulative set of decisions. It’s four years of where we’ve been. We as ownership — and our fans and organization — feel we need to get to a better place. This is strictly an ownership decision about what’s best going forward.”
The timing was notable. Adofo-Mensah had addressed reporters in a postseason news conference on Jan. 13 and spent this week scouting Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Alabama. He was also just seven months into a multiyear contract extension.
Despite posting three winning seasons in four years and compiling a .632 winning percentage — tied for fifth-best in the NFL during that span — Minnesota went 0-2 in the postseason under his watch. The team’s drafts from 2022 to 2025 yielded only 172 combined starts, the second fewest in the league, and none of those selections developed into a Pro Bowl player.
Adofo-Mensah was hired in January 2022 to replace Rick Spielman, becoming just the second general manager of the Wilfs’ 20-year ownership tenure. Tasked with modernizing the organization’s culture and decision-making process, he brought a nontraditional résumé: a former basketball player at Princeton and commodities trader who entered the league as an analytics staffer with the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. After seven seasons in San Francisco, he joined the Cleveland Browns as vice president of football operations in 2020 before landing the Vikings’ top job.
Ultimately, ownership determined the franchise needed a different direction as it looks to rebound in 2026.