MINNEAPOLIS — The Vikings have their next general manager: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
After bringing the Browns vice president of football operations to the Twin Cities for a second interview on Tuesday, the Vikings finalized a deal with him on Wednesday morning, a league source confirmed. The 40-year-old Adofo-Mensah had been with the Browns since 2020, after working in a football research and development role for the 49ers for seven seasons.
He graduated from Princeton with a degree in economics, and worked on Wall Street trading energy derivatives and commodities before obtaining a master's degree in economics from Stanford in 2013, the same year he started working for the 49ers.
The Vikings made Adofo-Mensah and Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles their two finalists for the job on Friday, scheduling second interviews with both this week. But the Bears hired Poles (who was due in the Twin Cities for a second interview on Wednesday) as their GM on Tuesday, making it obvious that Adofo-Mensah would likely be the Vikings' choice.
With Adofo-Mensah in place, the Vikings will quickly turn their attention to finding Mike Zimmer's replacement as head coach. They've conducted initial interviews with eight coaches — the Packers' Nathaniel Hackett, the Cowboys' Kellen Moore and Dan Quinn, the Rams' Raheem Morris and Kevin O'Connell, the Eagles' Jonathan Gannon, the Buccaneers' Todd Bowles and the 49ers' DeMeco Ryans — but had planned to hire a GM first, so that person could have a say in picking the next head coach. Coaches still in the NFL playoffs like Morris, O'Connell and Ryans can't be interviewed again until next week.
