The Cleveland Browns will lose their vice president of football operations as Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been hired as the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings.
Adofo-Mensah was brought to Cleveland by Andrew Berry in May of 2020 after spending seven years with the San Francisco 49ers front office. Prior to joining the Browns, he focused primarily on research and development for the Niners.
Last year, Adofo-Mensah interviewed with the Carolina Panthers for their GM job and also interviewed for the Chicago Bears position this year.
Once thought of as a dark horse candidate during this front office cycle, Adofo-Mensah was one of two finalist for the Vikings job along with Kansas City’s Ryan Poles. Poles accepted the Bears position on Tuesday.
Cleveland’s VP was considered the favorite in Minnesota even prior to Poles taking the Bears job.
With the Vikings, Adofo-Mensah takes over for Rick Speilman and will help the team hire their next head coach, to replace Mike Zimmer. The team could be at a crossroads as their current core has been competitive but has failed to make the playoffs in the last two years and was last in the NFC Championship game in 2017.
The Browns are expected to receive two compensatory picks as a part of the NFL’s new diversity policy implemented last season.
