Why Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is the fall guy

The Vikings fired their general manager on Friday

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

As the Minnesota Vikings approached the 2025 season, they found themselves in an unfortunate situation with their wide receivers.

Jordan Addison was set to face a three-game suspension relating to a DUI charge in the summer of 2024 and No. 3 receiver Jalen Nailor was suffering from a hand injury that put his Week 1 in question.

Rather than push third-round draft pick Tai Felton into a role that he wasn’t ready to handle, they sought other options. They looked at the players around the NFL who could potentially be cut along with a handful of guys who were on their couch. One player seemed to make a lot of sense: Former Viking Adam Thielen.

In Carolina Panthers camp, it was evident that Thielen was on his last legs. While Thielen had helped quarterback Bryce Young through some tough times in 2024, there did not appear to be much room on the depth chart for a past-his-prime receiver anymore.

Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was fired on Friday by the team, called Carolina and gave them his price for Thielen. The Panthers asked for more. Adofo-Mensah held out. The cutdown deadline passed with Thielen still on Carolina’s roster (they cut Hunter Renfrow instead). Adofo-Mensah kept calling.

Carolina’s front office held strong. Why give up Thielen for almost nothing? He caught 48 passes in 2024 and might serve as depth if their young guys weren’t ready or got injured.

As the season opener grew nearer and starting QB JJ McCarthy was getting ready for his first career start, the Vikings got desperate. Coaches needed another receiver because the front office hadn’t provided them with enough depth despite being aware of Addison’s suspension. Multiple sources told Purple Insider that executive vice president Rob Brzezinski called Carolina GM Dan Morgan to get the deal over the finish line because they felt Adofo-Mensah hadn’t been aggressive enough. Thus, Thielen became a Viking at the cost of what equated to a fourth-round pick.

When you wonder why Adofo-Mensah was the one axed by the Vikings following their disappointing season rather than everyone falling on the sword, this particular story tells a tale.

Adofo-Mensah’s position within the organization’s power structure and trust and belief from the coaching staff and other higher-up parts of the franchise eroded over the years and the 2025 season, highlighted by the botched quarterback decision, appears to have been the breaking point.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted: “Throughout the season, there was talk about an underlying “tension” in the Vikings’ building in league circles. One league source said it had been “ugly” in Minnesota. Then today, the Vikings fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.”

How did it happen?

For that, we go back to 2022.

The 2022 draft was Adofo-Mensah’s first opportunity to show that he was bringing a new flavor to the Vikings as the new GM hire with a unique, data-driven background. He decided to make an unorthodox trade down in the draft by moving from the 12th overall pick to the 32nd selection without getting a future first in return. That bucked tradition but some of the more analytically-slanted draft value charts thought it was worthwhile. The Vikings passed on receiver Jameson Williams and safety Kyle Hamilton and ended up with busts Lewis Cine, Andrew Booth Jr. and Ed Ingram.

By the end of the first training camp, the coaching staff knew Cine wasn’t going to make it. Booth Jr. showed very few signs of promise as well and got hurt. Meanwhile, Hamilton became an instant superstar. Williams eventually turned into a 1,000-yard receiver.

The draft went so catastrophically bad that it was impossible to ignore. Over the years, any time Adofo-Mensah’s name was brought up within the team and around the NFL, the struggles in the NFL Draft would be a major part of the discussion. Even as they hit on some other picks through the last three drafts, the volume of success was far from ideal for creating depth and a long-term strong roster. The shortcomings pushed them to spend oodles of money in free agency and make trades to patch over holes that could have been filled by younger players.

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini wrote on Twitter/X on Friday:

“The search for a new GM will go down after the draft. Like most teams in this position, expect a pivot, likely the opposite of what they just had. I’d expect an older school type with a strong scouting background, someone rooted in traditional evaluation and personnel building.”

Adofo-Mensah’s background seemed to play a role in how he was viewed internally and externally as well. Unlike scouts who work their way up from the bottom, he came from a Wall Street background and started as a football researcher. His knowledge and understanding of the most granular details of the game were questioned.

Was that fair? Some around the NFL thought that it was more of a product of perception and that if he’d gotten lucky in his first draft that it wouldn’t have been as much of an issue. Alas, the results were the results and first impressions are hard to shake.

While they went 13-4 in his first season, a feeling emerged inside the organization that Adofo-Mensah wasn’t taking hold of the leadership role like they would have wanted. Some within other management positions felt that he didn’t connect with people in the same way that former GM Rick Spielman had in the past. Spielman was known for being incredibly personal and thoughtful toward his staff. Some felt that KAM’s door was not always open.

During 2023 camp, there were issues with communication between the coaches, other front office members and Adofo-Mensah. Multiple sources have told Purple Insider that the problems related to his availability directly after the birth of his first child. In the real world that would be normal but not so much in the NFL stratosphere.

That season had W’s and L’s for Adofo-Mensah.

As part of his master plan to “competitive rebuild,” Adofo-Mensah moved on from a bunch of popular, established players who had become old and expensive. Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, Patrick Peterson and Dalvin Tomlinson all were either released or let walk. They also did not give a contract extension to quarterback Kirk Cousins.

It was virtually unprecedented to let that much talent walk. It almost instantly looked smart. None of the players performed at the same level as they had in the past and Cousins tore his Achilles in Week 8 against the Green Bay Packers.

Still, things fell apart after Cousins’ injury and they finished 7-10. It may have set them up for a better draft pick and cap situation in the 2024 draft but dropping from 13 to seven wins did not sit well with ownership, who elected not to negotiate an extension for Kevin O’Connell in the subsequent offseason, rather forcing him into more of a “prove it” 2024 season.

While there was tension surrounding the GM heading into 2024, the team scored some major victories. The Vikings were able to give long-term contract extensions to Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw. They moved on from Cousins, who signed a ridiculous four-year deal with Atlanta with $100 million guaranteed.

The free agency process seemed to work out exactly how it was supposed to go when the Wilfs declared it a “culture of collaboration.” Flores wanted his former player Andrew Van Ginkel and linebacker Blake Cashman and Adofo-Mensah liked the idea, based on research about pass rushers, of getting an ascending Greenard. All of them crushed immediately.

Meanwhile O’Connell led the way on the JJ McCarthy pick, going with Adofo-Mensah and other coaches and leaders of the team to meet with all of the potential first-round QBs. It seemed the process was good, even if Adofo-Mensah struggled with some of McCarthy’s numbers. But even then, when the team focused on “NFL throws,” they saw a lot of good stuff on McCarthy’s tape.

O’Connell pounded the table for Sam Darnold as the bridge QB. They landed him for $10 million and that worked out magically for 16 games as he led the Vikings to a 14-2 record.

After the victory over Green Bay, the team was considering finding a way possible to keep Darnold.

But the final two weeks broke everyone and changed everything.

Darnold melted down against Detroit, costing the Vikings home-field advantage and then the entire offense was outclassed by the Rams.

In the loss to Los Angeles, several issues shined through: They were not good enough on the interior of the O-line or D-line and they had no counter punch when the Rams were winning the line of scrimmage and they couldn’t use four rushers to chase Matthew Stafford, who ate their blitzes alive.

They decided that they needed to stick with the plan that had been hatched from Day 1: Let Darnold go, spend the money that would have been put into a franchise tag on the rest of the roster and roll with McCarthy.

At the NFL Combine, a source told Purple Insider that they were asking about trade opportunities for Darnold but nobody would bite, knowing that the Vikings would have to let him go for nothing. He signed with the Seattle Seahawks on the first day of free agency.

This is where things get fuzzy. For many years to come, the blame for allowing Darnold to leave and putting the entire franchise on the shoulders of JJ McCarthy will be debated, retold and certainly twisted through media sources to make it seem that it was one person’s fault more than another.

There are rumors that some coaches, possibly O’Connell, tried to warn the front office that McCarthy might not be ready and that they needed a rock-solid backup plan if they weren’t going to keep Darnold. There are rumors that there were more concerns about McCarthy’s recovery from his meniscus than were made public.

Some will say O’Connell wanted to keep Darnold.

Some will say that it was O’Connell who wanted Aaron Rodgers.

One guy online is saying he heard that O’Connell wanted to trade McCarthy.

No matter what you read, only the folks in those rooms really know what happened. Everything else is hearsay. Maybe the results tell us some of that story, but they probably don’t tell us all of that story.

We can’t forget, however, that O’Connell declared McCarthy as the “franchise quarterback” after his meniscus surgery.

What we do know is that the Vikings had expected to be able to sign Daniel Jones, who had joined the team after being released by the New York Giants in 2024. But Jones is a savvy fella. He knew that Anthony Richardson was in poor standing with the Colts and that he had a better chance to beat him out rather than compete with McCarthy.

Aaron Rodgers called O’Connell about joining the Vikings and KOC looped in the rest of the staff. Someone leaked out the conversation to the media, which turned into an unexpected wild fire. One source wondered if the negative reaction from fans and media kept ownership from wanting Rodgers.

But it may have also been the fact that Adofo-Mensah’s goal was always to shoot for the moon. He wasn’t aiming to win 10 games with Rodgers and get bounced from the playoffs like Pittsburgh did. He wanted to be San Francisco with Brock Purdy on his rookie deal in 2023. The 2021 Bengals went to the Super Bowl after Joe Burrow got hurt in Year 1. The 2018 Rams went to the Super Bowl in the third year of Jared Goff. The 2022 Eagles went to the Super Bowl with a talented, yet flawed QB in Jalen Hurts.

Adofo-Mensah believed that they could do enough via the roster and coaching to pump up McCarthy to the point where he could compete with the best due to his supporting cast. You will not find any public comment from anyone saying that they didn’t believe the same.

The scent of something not being right lingered throughout the 2025 offseason as Adofo-Mensah’s negotiations with ownership dragged out throughout the summer to the point where another prospective future GM was doing background on the Vikings just in case, a source told Purple Insider. Another sign that things were not totally fine.

When the QB drama was over, however, it looked like everyone was on the same page. Mark Wilf spoke at the owner’s meetings in Florida, endorsing the McCarthy decision. The Vikings ultimately ended up with Carson Wentz as the backup QB, who wasn’t that different from most other backup options that were not Rodgers or Jones and they spent like crazy in the offseason, as was the plan.

A few weeks into the season, it became clear that the plan had gone bust. McCarthy struggled mightily in Week 2 and Wentz wasn’t able to keep the train on the tracks, especially after suffering a shoulder injury against the Cleveland Browns.

When McCarthy returned, there was a glimmer of hope. He played well against the Detroit Lions, leading to a victory that got the Vikings back to .500 and presented a path for them to catch fire and reach the playoffs. Instead McCarthy’s inexperience showed. He struggled with accuracy, timing and overall command of O’Connell’s offense and they dropped four games in a row.

The frustration mounted, especially with Darnold, Jones and Rodgers all playing at a high level.

By the end of the year, McCarthy showed progress but they also needed to “dumb down” the offense and he suffered a hand injury that took him out for the second half of the win over the Giants, the Christmas Day win over Detroit and the second half of the victory over the Packers in Week 18.

In the final press conference, O’Connell would not commit to McCarthy. O’Connell declared that he wanted a “highly-competitive” quarterback room. If a head coach wants to stick with his quarterback, he usually just says so.

That brings us to the present.

The timing of Adofo-Mensah’s exit took everyone by surprise. Normally general managers are fired in the middle of the season, at the end of the season or after the draft. January 30th? That’s a new one.

While owner Mark Wilf said that end-of-year meetings with the rest of the front office and coaching staff revealed issues that pushed the decision over the top to fire Adofo-Mensah, it’s very difficult to ignore that Sam Darnold just threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the NFC Championship game and the entire world was tossing eggs at Vikings leadership.

“It wasn’t about any one decision,” Wilf said on Friday afternoon. “It was looking at the entirety of the last few years and not being comfortable moving forward. I think this is a long-term organizational decision, and we as ownership felt for our best path going forward that this was the move to make, and this is a critical offseason, as I’ve said. And we felt a move was necessary at this time.”

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert cited sources that said one factor in the delay of Brian Flores’ return to Minnesota was uncertainty with the front office.

The other wrinkle to the timing is that Wilf announced that executive VP of football operations Rob Brzezinski will be heading up the operation through the draft and then they will be naming a new GM.

“Rob is someone with a tremendous amount of experience. He’s been over a quarter century in this league and we have a lot of confidence in him but we also have a lot of confidence in our entire football operation,” Wilf said.

That means that for all intents and purposes O’Connell is now completely in charge of what happens at quarterback next. We’re really going to find out how the head coach feels about the 2024 10th overall draft pick.

Wilf alluded to the significance of the offseason in his comments and referred to the draft.

“There’s a lot of things going on, but certainly, we’re positioned to have a significant number of draft picks,” Wilf said. “We do have a nucleus of players that is extremely solid here.”

That’s the thing about the entire decision.

The way Adofo-Mensah’s tenure is being talked about is like the Vikings were 3-14. They went 9-8 with a top-five defense in points and yards per drive allowed. They had a strong offensive line when healthy. They had a strong run game when healthy. They had the best kicking unit in the league. They won 14 games with many of the same players that were acquired in the roster overhaul by Adofo-Mensah the year before.

Ultimately if the rest of the leadership did not trust him to command the ship, they had to go another direction. You could argue that nothing else really matters.

But how much blame exactly went on Adofo-Mensah’s shoulders does tell a story in itself.

If the Vikings’ ownership is looking for a new general manager from the outside who can be their eyes and ears when it comes to evaluating O’Connell in 2026, then the head coach is under the white hot light next season to get back to the postseason.

If they stay in house with Brezinski, it will be quite clear that they are buying fully into O’Connell and his direction moving forward — and that he will quite likely get another shot at picking a quarterback.

That’s assuming they are done with Nine. You have to wonder how the “organizations fail quarterbacks” head coach is feeling about his most notable quote. With internal debate over his status and butting heads over whether he should be the guy and then KOC talking openly about his technical issues and Sam Darnold making the Super Bowl, it has already been a rocky ride. Will they completely turn their backs on their high draft pick, who just turned 23 a few weeks ago?

No matter how we chop this thing up and treat it like an episode of Succession, one thing is very clear: If the quarterback position had performed well this year, everything would look differently. And if it performs in 2026 like it did this year, it won’t matter who made the Darnold decision or who wanted Rodgers or who drafted Lewis Cine, Andrew Booth Jr., Mekhi Blackmon, Kobe King or any of the other busts. You can bet they will be holding another press conference just like Friday’s to announce more changes.

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