MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings have hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their general manager, according to a person with knowledge of the process, taking an innovative turn by bringing in an analytics expert from Cleveland’s front office who once worked at Wall Street.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the Vikings had not yet announced the decision.
Adofo-Mensah, the Browns’ vice president of football operations for the past two years, was one of two finalists the Vikings identified from an initial pool of eight candidates.
The other was Kansas City executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles, who was hired as general manager of the Chicago Bears on Tuesday before arriving in Minnesota for his scheduled visit. Adofo-Mensah was at Vikings headquarters Tuesday for his second formal interview. With the Poles and Adofo-Mensah, both black, filling vacancies this cycle, there are now seven minority GMs in the NFL.
Adofo-Mensah, 40, has an economics degree from Princeton, where he was a basketball player, and from Stanford. He is a New Jersey native, as are Vikings owners Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf. Adofo-Mensah was a commodity trader and portfolio manager early in his career before entering the NFL in 2013 with San Francisco in research and development. After seven seasons with the 49ers, Adofo-Mensah was signed by the Browns in 2020.
Adofo-Mensah assisted general manager Andrew Berry with all aspects of team operations as the Browns transformed their front office and brought much-needed stability to the franchise.
The Vikings, who fired Rick Spielman on Jan. 10 after 16 seasons with the organization and 10 years with full roster authority as general manager, went 8-9 in 2021. They missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
Adofo-Mensah’s background couldn’t be more different from Spielman’s, the son of a high school coach who played in college and saw his younger brother become a four-time Pro Bowl linebacker in the NFL. Spielman, 59, worked his way up as a scout for Detroit before landing management jobs in Chicago and Miami. He was a meticulous evaluator who often stood alone while the Vikings practiced, carefully watching every drill and play.
The other six who had video interviews this month with the Vikings were Philadelphia director of player personnel Brandon Brown, Cleveland vice president of player personnel Glenn Cook, Tennessee director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort, vice president of Philadelphia football operations Catherine Raîche, Tampa Bay vice president of player personnel John Spytek and New England scouting consultant Eliot Wolf.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism