Vikings Hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah As Next General Manager
The Vikings are hiring Browns vice president of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their next general manager, in a move first reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter and later confirmed by the team.
Adofo-Mensah will replace Rick Spielman, who had been Minnesota's GM for the past 16 seasons but was fired following the conclusion of the 2021 campaign.
Per ESPN, Adofo-Mensah's contract will be a four-year deal.
The Vikings' new general manager holds undergraduate and master's degrees in economics from Princeton and Stanford, respectively, and he had several Wall Street ventures before entering the NFL. Adofo-Mensah spent seven seasons as the 49ers' director of football research and development before spending the 2020 and '21 seasons with the Browns working under general manager Andrew Berry.
Adofo-Mensah will be tasked with helping the Vikings hire a coach to replace Mike Zimmer, who was fired on the same day as Spielman.
Earlier this week, Minnesota said it has interviewed eight coach candidates.
"Like I said when we started the process, we want strong communicators, teachers, collaborators," Vikings owner and president Mark Wilf said. "People that will set a good culture, good football minds, good people. Those are the kind of characteristics we kind of tick through as we walk through the interviews."
San Francisco defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who was a quality control and inside linebackers coach for Adofo-Mensah's last three seasons with the 49ers, was Minnesota’s last interview Sunday.
Adofo-Mensah was also a finalist for the Bears' general manager job, which went to former Chiefs executive Ryan Poles.
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For more coverage of the Vikings, visit Inside the Vikings.
