Pelissero Refutes More Rumors Surrounding Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's Firing

After calling some of the reporting on alleged behind-the-scenes dysfunction between Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah "complete nonsense" on Tuesday, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero doubled down on his criticism early Thursday.

"I will say this, there is a habit for certain people, if they get beat on a scoop, to immediately lend additional details to the story that may or may not be 100 percent grounded in fact," Pelissero said on KFAN's Power Trip Morning Show. "So, you ended up with a bunch of tweets thrown out there into the universe, that suggested things, that based upon all my knowledge of the situation are not entirely accurate. The idea that this was a toxic environment, there was tension between — Kwesi and Kevin are friends, personally. They have always been good. There was not a fight. There was not a blow up. It was not, quite frankly, like it was at the end of the Mike Zimmer-Rick Spielman era, two guys that I like a lot but they weren't talking. It was never like that."

News of Adofo-Mensah's firing certainly caught many by surprise. Considering it came weeks after the Vikings' season had ended and there was no rumbling of anything happening, many were left shocked by the decision. The ensuing weekend saw numerous reports and speculation about what allegedly happened behind the scenes to lead to the firing. In an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Tuesday, Pelissero attempted to correct the record and push back against some of the narratives that had caught hold. On Thursday, he repeated a lot of what he had said previously.

"They had disagreements," continued Pelissero on O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah. "They didn't see eye-to-eye on certain aspects of roster building. In the end, you have a quarterback situation that needs to be sorted out. You have a salary cap situation that needs to be sorted out. As the Wilfs heard all the information, and they always do this every year, they have people come to New Jersey and they have a series of meetings. They asked a lot of pointed questions. They got some honest answers and they came to the conclusion that this was just not the right partnership moving forward. Not just between Kevin and Kwesi, but the entire organization. And I don't think you need to come up with some wild story about why it didn't work."

Feb 25, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

"To pin it on 'He took paternity leave three years ago,' even if you're bringing it up to say, 'But that wasn't it,' you're introducing a topic that had not been a topic," said Pelissero. "Sure, is there a level of frustration that comes when you feel like you're having to do more because your co-worker is out? ... You don't fire a guy three years after he took paternity leave. Like, what are we even talking about? It's just wild. Like, we all knew that. Yeah he wasn't around in the summer of 2023. He missed chunks of the spring and missed part of training camp. But I never got any sense that it was some long-standing thing. It was well known that that happened and that there was some frustration from the people in the building about it but it never changed the relationship. So, this idea that it was this toxic environment is, frankly, complete and utter nonsense."

Going forward, Rob Brzezinski will handle leading the front office on an interim basis through the draft. In their announcement last Friday, the Wilfs stated they would undergo a search for a new long-term general manager following the draft. On whether he could see Brzezinski getting the gig full-time after the draft, Pelissero noted, "It's possible."

"The fact that the Wilfs are giving him, essentially, a three-month trial run at this would suggest to you that that is a possibility," continued Pelissero. "Now, the fact that Rob gets this opportunity and not the assistant GMs, Ryan Grigson or Demitrius Washington, probably plays into the fact that Rob's been there forever. He's a trusted advisor. He's been there longer than the Wilfs. He was there with Red McCombs. He's been in the organization a long time. He's an administrator. His background is in the salary cap. I know there are naturally going to be questions about, 'How are they handling free agency, the draft? He's not a scout.' The scouting part of it is like a part of what the GM does. But really, the most successful GMs in the league, they bring people together, build consensus, they listen to people who are experts in the areas in which they are going to make decisions."

Even if Brzezinski doesn't eventually land the job, Pelissero noted that the Vikings opening is a "really good job" that plenty of GM candidates across the league will be tripping over themselves to land.

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