It’s incredibly hard to shake first impressions.
Just ask former Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
A few months after the Vikings hired him to lead their front office, Adofo-Mensah had a chance to make his mark. He entered the 2022 NFL Draft with the No. 12 pick in his possession. There was going to be a talented player on the board.
Ultimately, the Vikings traded the No. 12 pick and the No. 46 pick to the Detroit Lions in exchange for the No. 32 pick, the No. 34 pick, and the No. 66 pick.
It was a bold decision by Adofo-Mensah that would come to define his time with the Vikings.
In some ways, Adofo-Mensah being willing to roll the dice in such a manner was was exactly what he was brought in to do. He was an unconventional hire that wouldn’t be afraid to push the boundaries when it came to roster construction.
In other ways, Adofo-Mensah being willing to part with such a valuable asset was anecdotal evidence of his lack of experience. He was a commodities trader on Wall Street in a past life without a strong institutional knowledge of the NFL as a whole.
It couldn’t have gone much worse for the Vikings and they selected safety Lewis Cine with the No. 32 pick, cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. with the No. 34 pick, and linebacker Brian Asamoah with the No. 66 pick. None of those players are still on the roster.
It proved to be impossible for Adofo-Mensah to shake such a monumental misstep. It followed him around like a ghost. He never seemed to escape the perception that he was in over his head.
Though the Vikings experienced some success along the way, they continued to alternate between making the playoffs and missing the playoffs. It finally reached a breaking point last week when ownership decided enough was enough.
In the wake of a disappointing 9-8 campaign that saw the Vikings once again miss the playoffs, the Wilfs shockingly fired Adofo-Mensah, handing the keys over to vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski in the interim.
A number of reports have surfaced since last week shedding light on what Adofo-Mensah was like as a leader. There was a pretty clear a disconnect with how he chose to balance his professional life and his personal life.
That’s not why the Vikings decided to move on from Adofo-Mensah, however, which feels important to note given some of the discourse.
The main reason he’s no longer with the Vikings is because the inexperience that raised some concerns in the very early stages of his tenure resulted in swings and misses from which he couldn’t recover.
Here’s a retrospective on how everything unraveled.
The good
Let’s start off by saying it wasn’t a complete disaster with Adofo-Mensah running the show.
It’s not like the Vikings were the laughing stock of the NFL. They boasted a 43-25 record with Adofo-Mensah at the helm. Only the Philadelphia Eagles, the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Detroit Lions have more wins in that span.
There was a lot that Adofo-Mensah got right. He should get credit for not locking the Vikings into a lengthy contract extension with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins prior to him rupturing his Achilles tendon, for example, as well as signing superstar receiver Justin Jefferson to a contract extension that keeps him with the Vikings through his prime.
It also shouldn’t be overlooked that Adofo-Mensah was in salary cap hell after taking over for former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman.
After skillfully digging out of the deficit, Adofo-Mensah nailed the initial free agency during which he could actually spend. He hit on edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, an ascending star who has been outstanding since his arrival, edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, a versatile talent who has developed into a secret weapon on defense, and linebacker Blake Cashman, a native Minnesotan who has become an irreplaceable player on and off the field.
Not long after agreeing to terms with Greenard, Van Ginkel, and Cashman, Adofo-Mensah went out of his way to give a shoutout to Brzezinski.
“I watch him basically be the Vikings frontline member in free agency,” Adofo-Mensah said at the time. “It’s humbling to watch as somebody who can’t necessarily pick up a phone and do those things that he can do.”
That quote hits much differently knowing Adofo-Mensah has ceded his role to Brzezinski.
The bad
Asked after the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft about moving down 20 spots via trade, Adofo-Mensah wholeheartedly defended the decision, explaining that the Vikings stuck to the plan they had in place.
“You have to take it on faith that our calculations are right,” Adofo-Mensah said st the time. “We were comfortable with what we were doing.”
The amount of miscalculations that followed can’t be ignored.
There’s no way to spin how poorly Adofo-Mensah handled arguably the most important part of his job. You don’t even need a full set of fingers to count the number of starters he selected when the Vikings were on the clock. That probably led to his downfall more than anything else.
The failure that was 2022 NFL Draft went much deeper than Cine, Booth, and Asamoah proving to be busts. It also included failed projects like right guard Ed Ingram, cornerback Akayleb Evans, defensive tackle Esezi Otomewo, left tackle Vederian Lowe, and tight end Nick Muse. The only selections still on the roster are receiver Jalen Nailor and running back Ty Chandler.
Never mind that the 2023 NFL Draft went a little better because receiver Jordan Addison made an immediate impact. There were a fair share of misses in the bunch, including cornerback Mekhi Blackmon, defensive tackle Jaquelin Roy, quarterback Jaren Hall, and running back DeWayne McBride. The only selections still on the roster are Addison and safety Jay Ward.
The lack of success in that realm put Adofo-Mensah in a position where he basically had to be perfect in free agency to build a roster that had enough depth to compete. He managed to do that for the most part until his luck eventually ran out. He spent more than $300 million in free agency last year with many of those additions failing to live up to expectations.
As some of his shortcomings started to become too much to deny, Adofo-Mensah was often made out to be a scapegoat in the court of public opinion. If a player ever overperformed, head coach Kevin O’Connell or defense coordinator Brian Flores would garner the praise. If a player ever underperformed, Adofo-Mensah would shoulder the blame.
That double standard was rooted in the fact that Adofo-Mensah struggled mightily in the 2022 NFL Draft and the 2023 NFL Draft. Though the jury is technically still out on the 2024 NFL Draft and 2025 NFL Draft, Adofo-Mensah didn’t earn himself enough good will to see it through.
The ugly
The best decision Adofo-Mensah ever made was signing journeyman quarterback Sam Darnold in free agency. The worst decision Adofo-Mensah ever made was letting Darnold walk out the door.
After trading up to select young quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Vikings collectively decided last year that they were ready to usher in a new era with him leading the charge. As a result, the Vikings opted against committing to Darnold long term, and he ended up signing a 3-year, $100.5 million with the Seattle Seahawks.
“I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time,” Adofo-Mensah said last month. “I still understand why we did what we did.”
The funniest part in hindsight is that Darnold signing with the Seahawks was more or less an afterthought when it actually happened. The topic of conversation for the Vikings in the aftermath of free agency was whether they had legitimate interest in future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
As he navigated some of those questions about Rodgers at the time, Adofo-Mensah tried to steer the conversation more toward the abstract as far as making sure he surrounded McCarthy with a group that was going to help him succeed.
“That’s our job as a personnel department,” Adofo-Mensah said at the time. “To look at all of the options out there and make sure we’re setting ourselves up for the best case we can.”
That was another area in which Adofo-Mensah fell short as he essentially tied the Vikings to McCarthy without any sort of safety net beneath them.
The only competition for McCarthy in training camp last year was was journeyman quarterback Sam Howell and rookie quarterback Max Brosmer. As it slowly started to become clear that Howell wasn’t a viable backup, Adofo-Mensah hastily signed veteran quarterback Carson Wentz.
“The results maybe didn’t play out the way we wanted them to,” Adofo-Mensah said last month. “We could’ve executed better in certain places.”
The mishandling of that situation proved to be the kiss of death for Adofo-Mensah in the end.
Not only did the Vikings miss the playoffs with McCarthy under center, the the Seahawks are currently preparing to play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl with Darnold under center.
It might actually be fitting when zooming out and looking at the big picture that Adofo-Mensah was fired last week shortly after returning from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. He had gone down on behalf of the Vikings to scout prospects.
His track record to this point suggested Adofo-Mensah couldn’t be trusted to do make all the important decisions that needed to be made leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft.
Not during such a pivotal stretch for the Vikings as they look to clean up the mess Adofo-Mensah helped create.
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