EAGAN (Minn.) — The Minnesota VikingsAre you looking to hire? Cleveland BrownsAccording to a source, Kwesi Adofo–Mensah is the vice president of football operations and their new general manager.
Schefter reports Adofo-Mensah has been offered a four-year contract to replace Rick Spielman. He was fired after 16 years as general manager of the Vikings. His record was 132-123-2.
Adofo-Mensah, the 10th franchise owner, holds the title of general manager and/or performs the duties of the team’s GM. (The current executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski is the highest ranking football executive between 2002 and 2005 without an official title of GM). After spending the 2020-21 season in Cleveland, Adofo-Mensah comes to Minnesota. He worked under Andrew Berry as general manager.
After seven seasons as the 49ers’ manager, then director of football research and developmental, Adofo-Mensah was hired by Berry from San Francisco in 2020. The 40-year old Adofo-Mensah holds master’s and undergraduate economics degrees from Stanford and Princeton, respectively. Before entering the NFL, he worked in several Wall Street ventures, including as a portfolio manager or commodities trader.
Adofo-Mensah will begin by leading the search for a Vikings head coach. Minnesota fired Mike Zimmer in August after eight seasons. The Vikings also conducted interviews for their next general manger. They interviewed eight candidates, before narrowing their search down to Adofo-Mensah, Chiefs executive director for player personnel Ryan Poles. Eight candidates were interviewed by the team for the opening at head coach. This candidate pool includes five offensive and defensive coordinators.
DeMeco Ryans, 49ers defensive coordinator, was Minnesota’s last head coaching interview. Ryans was both a quality control and linebackers coach in the last three seasons Adofo-Mensah was with the 49ers.
Adofo-Mensah interviewed again in Minnesota Tuesday, the same day as the interview with Adofo. Chicago BearsAccording to sources, the deal was finalized to hire Poles as the next general manager. Poles was the second finalist for the Vikings general manager opening. He was scheduled for an interview at TCO Performance Center, Wednesday.
Adofo-Mensah in Cleveland assisted Berry with the daily operations of the front desk while also overseeing the talent evaluators, and the analytics team. He inherits Minnesota’s structure without an assistant general manger, but it does have several high-ranking personnel executives. These include Brzezinski, who manages its salary cap, as well as Jamaal and Ryan Stephenson, the co-directors for player personnel. The committee that interviewed the general managers of the team included all three.
Adofo-Mensah was interviewed for Carolina’s general manger opening in 2021. He also interviewed for the Bears’ GM vacancy.
NFL owners have approved a resolution that says that a team that loses an executive or coach of a minority to a general or head coach position at another NFL franchise will be awarded a third-round compensatory choice for two consecutive years.
This rule requires that minor GM and head coach candidates have to have been with their club for at least two seasons. Adofo Mensah’s two year 2020-21 tenure with Cleveland meets this requirement.