Odd Timing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Firing Points to Behind-The-Scenes Drama

The shocking firing of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Friday has raised a significant number of questions, and chief among them is what was going on behind the scenes to lead to his dismissal at such a peculiar time.

Adofo-Mensah was literally in Mobile, Alabama, this week, where he was representing the Minnesota Vikings at the Senior Bowl. If Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf simply couldn't stomach the thought of Sam Darnold playing in the Super Bowl, they probably would've dumped Adofo-Mensah earlier this week and not sent him to scout players in Alabama.

"Adofo-Mensah getting fired this offseason isn’t shocking, considering his track record in the draft and the botching of the Vikings’ quarterback situation last year. What’s bizarre is the timing of the move," says Will Ragatz, of Bring Me The News and Vikings On SI.

"When the Vikings fired Rick Spielman (and Mike Zimmer) four years ago, it happened the day after the 2021 regular season ended. This one happened 26 days after the season ended. Adofo-Mensah was at the Senior Bowl evaluating draft prospects this week, as if everything was normal. The Falcons, to use another example, just went through an entire search and hired a new GM on Thursday. It’s extremely odd timing from the Vikings that makes you wonder about what might’ve happened behind the scenes to lead to this decision."

According to Adam Schefter, "there was talk about an underlying 'tension' in the Vikings' building." Schefter, according to a league source, says it got "ugly" in Minnesota.

Purple Insider's Matthew Coller thinks the relationship between Adofo-Mensah and the rest of the organization began to fracture in 2023, and it became known in NFL circles to the point that other potential general managers were preparing for the Vikings job to open.

"There were other executives around the league, in 2023 into 2024, who were preparing their applications, who were preparing their resumes, who were getting their agents ready to go to the Minnesota Vikings to present their clients as potential general manager fits," Coller said on his podcast. "It's not some scandal or anything; it's more of just a communication connection between him, the rest of the front office, the belief from the coaching staff, and the rest of the front office."

Making the dismissal even more shocking is that Adofo-Mensah signed a multiyear contract extension with the Vikings on May 30, 2025. That was less than a year ago.

"There was for sure a communication gap during 2023, during that offseason, as the Vikings were trying to get some things together, to bring in some people during training camp, that led to... I don't even want to call it a clash. You know what I'm talking about," Coller told former Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles.

"I just don't really want to go down this road because it gets very muddy. But that offseason, and then into when Kirk (Cousins) got hurt and they brought in (Josh) Dobbs, (Joe) Flacco ends up taking a team to the playoffs, it felt like throughout that year that the connection corroded in terms of, are you really the person in charge? Is it really Kevin O'Connell who is in charge, or who wants to be more in charge of what goes on with this roster and has more control? The rumors at that point started to come out that, hey, maybe they might just move on from this because that connection is not what it needs to be."

The Vikings have already said that they won't hire a new general manager until after the NFL Draft, which means Executive VP of Football Operations Rob Brzezinski, who is best known for managing the salary cap, will "lead our operations through the 2026 NFL Draft."

Adofo-Mensah's name has already been scrubbed from the Vikings' official website, which lists Ryan Grigson and Demitrius Washington, both assistant general managers, as the top members of the player personnel department.

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