The Kwesi Konundrum: Why Did It Play Out Like This?

On Friday, January 30, the Vikings announced that they had let go of their general manager, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Notably, Friday is an “off-day” in the all-star schedule. Media and general managers often travel from Mobile, Alabama, to their homes after watching practice all week at the Senior Bowl.

Adofo-Mensah was among them, meeting with players, scouts, members of the media and friends on other teams.

The timing was bizarre; the Vikings decided to let go of their general manager weeks after the season had ended and missed out on the traditional hiring cycle. The Falcons announced their front office hires — Matt Ryan and Ian Cunningham — on January 10 and January 26, and the Dolphins announced their new general manager, Jon-Eric Sullivan, on January 9.

There aren’t as many openings this year for a general manager as there have been for coaches, so this scheduling may not inhibit their search as much as letting go of a head coach would, but it’s still strange that the Vikings waited three weeks to let go of their GM, having him work the entire time.

As the Athletic’s Dianna Russini and Alec Lewis reported, one team source told them that the timing was more shocking than the fact of his firing. Their piece outlines a level of confusion in the organization; Mark and Zygi Wilf, the team owners, conducted a thorough review of the team following the season and, after hearing scathing reviews from various personnel inside the building, seemingly decided to wait for several weeks before letting go of their former general manager.

People in the organization thought that, without changes, Adofo-Mensah was safe for one more year. Surely, he thought the same.

It was strangely cruel to have him take a work trip to Alabama.

Perhaps the less interesting of the two questions is why the Wilfs decided to let Adofo-Mensah go at all. Journalism on the subject paints a broad picture, with a dizzying variety of factors contributing to the decision.

There is good reason to let go of Adofo-Mensah, but leaks from the organization suggest a lack of focus on identifying the reasons for his departure. Russini and Lewis’ report renders a short-term picture; one disappointed by the decisions Adofo-Mensah made in securing higher-quality quarterback play for the 2025 season.

The failure to re-sign Sam Darnold, who is about to make his Super Bowl debut with the Seattle Seahawks, appears in much of the reporting we see about the Vikings’ GM decision. More prominent, however, is the inability to re-sign Daniel Jones, who left for the Colts and produced an outstanding season before his injury.

While Matthew Coller’s piece on Adofo-Mensah’s firing mentions Darnold, as does Kevin Seifert’s piece at ESPN, they and other reports focus a bit more on the Jones misstep. Though, as Coller points out, it’s kind of a difficult “misstep” to focus on. It’s been well-reported that the Vikings offered more total money and more guaranteed money than the Colts. It had been reported at the time and more recently in wake of the Adofo-Mensah news that both Kevin O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah expected to be able to retain Jones and were surprised when he informed them he was taking the Colts offer.

The reasoning is obvious; Jones was guaranteed a path to genuinely compete for the starting job in Indianapolis after Anthony Richardson fell out of favor, while there was no such guarantee for Jones in Minnesota.

Pinning Adofo-Mensah for this failure, as team sources seem all too willing to do in light of his departure, seems baffling. Jones’ issue didn’t have anything to do with contract items in the general manager’s control; only a coach like O’Connell could effectively reassure Jones that he would earn a genuine competition for the starting role. If anything, losing Jones would be O’Connell’s fault, not Adofo-Mensah’s.

On top of that, the decision not to pursue Aaron Rodgers — more a focus for Russini in her reporting than for many other journalists — doesn’t seem like one worth getting twisted into knots for. It is the case that Rodgers was a much more efficient quarterback in Pittsburgh than J.J. McCarthy was in Minnesota and it seems to be settled fact that he’d have signed a below-market deal with the Vikings.

But getting bent out of shape that the Vikings didn’t get the 23rd-ranked quarterback in EPA per play seems like poor process. Surely, the Vikings would have won more games with Rodgers at the helm rather than Wentz or McCarthy (though, notably, Wentz and Rodgers rank right next to each other in EPA per play), but likely not that many more — enough to get bounced out in the first round of the playoffs, again.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Vikings were never close to offering Rodgers, with colleague Jeremy Fowler backing up that reporting with his own report that Rodgers wanted the Vikings, but people in the building weren’t seriously considering it.

All of these reports circle around the idea that there wasn’t reason to be sold on McCarthy heading into the season. Obviously, after the fact, the Vikings shouldn’t have been. But these reports pair with rumors swirling around that O’Connell wasn’t sold on McCarthy as the unquestioned starter.

Only one report — Russini and Lewis’ — seems to suggest that the feeling inside the building was that McCarthy was unready. Strangely, Russini herself reported at various times that the Vikings, including O’Connell, were incredibly confident in McCarthy. That matches what Wide Left had heard about the coaching staff’s enthusiasm for McCarthy back in March of 2025.

When it comes to quarterback decisions, it very much feels like O’Connell played a significant role in how the Vikings mishandled the process, and that Adofo-Mensah is being set up as the scapegoat.

These short-term reasons, which include a disappointing 2025 free-agent class and poor handling of the quarterback situation, hopefully played only a small role in the decision to let go of Adofo-Mensah.

Should that have been the case, then Adofo-Mensah should also have been praised for the decision to let Kirk Cousins walk and the decision to sign Sam Darnold. It might even be worth arguing he was right to trade for both Nick Mullens and Joshua Dobbs. Instead, he gets blame for when the quarterback decisions go sideways, even when he’s arguably not at fault, and doesn’t get credit when those decisions go well.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t more systemic reasons, good or bad, to let go of Adofo-Mensah.