The Minnesota Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after former quarterback Sam Darnold led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl win.
The team is currently without a permanent general manager and is more than $40 million over the estimated 2026 salary cap.
Second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggled in 2025, prompting the team to seek competition for the starting role.
All 32 NFL teams enter the same offseason with the same schedule of events. But the intrigue for each team differs wildly, and the Minnesota Vikings are entering this offseason with some important questions to answer.
On Jan. 30, the Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah less than one year removed from signing him to a multiyear extension. The firing came more than four weeks after the conclusion of the regular season, far removed from the ‘Black Monday’ period when multiple other teams moved on from their head coaches and one other team – the Atlanta Falcons – fired its general manager.
Adofo-Mensah’s firing coincided instead with the Seattle Seahawks’ – and former Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold’s – victory in the NFC championship game. Darnold, for a second straight season, had thrown for more than 4,000 yards and won 14 games as a starter in the regular season before leading the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, which he and his new team eventually won.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggled to follow in Darnold’s footsteps and put together a middling de facto rookie season after losing his first year to a knee injury. The Vikings went 9-8 (6-4 in McCarthy starts as he missed seven more games with various injuries) and missed the playoffs.
The timing of Adofo-Mensah’s firing appeared reactionary, at least in part, to Darnold’s success and will impact the Vikings’ offseason by leaving them without a general manager in charge of making personnel decisions.
Minnesota has said it will start its process to hire a new GM after the 2026 NFL Draft in April. In the meantime, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, Rob Brzezinski, will lead the team’s efforts in free agency and the draft.
Here are the five biggest questions looming over Brzezinski, head coach Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings as the offseason gets underway in earnest at the NFL combine this week:
How are the Vikings handling free agency and the draft?
In other words, which members of the Vikings’ personnel are making the big decisions on which players to target this offseason? How is Brzezinski handling his duties as something of an interim general manager?
The implicit question here is how much of a role O’Connell will have in making player personnel decisions. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reported in late January that the Vikings’ head coach was against the former GM’s plan of riding with McCarthy and ‘journeyman backups.’
With Adofo-Mensah gone and the Vikings still without a permanent general manager, O’Connell will, in theory, play an even more significant role in offseason decision-making.
The Athletic has reported that while Brzezinski will lead the organization’s communication with agents and players, ‘O’Connell’s priorities will also factor prominently, and his coaching staff’s influence on free-agent signings and draft picks will be judged accordingly.’
First, the Vikings need to get to a point where they can sign free agents. As Minnesota enters a critical offseason without a permanent general manager, it will face some difficult decisions on how to get cap-compliant before the new league year (and free agency) begins.
How will the Vikings get under the salary cap?
The Vikings are 32nd in the NFL in cap room, with OverTheCap estimating that the NFC North team is $43 million over the estimated salary cap in 2026 as of Feb. 23. The next-closest team is the Cowboys, who are a projected $24.6 million over the cap.
How Brzezinski and O’Connell handle the cap situation in the coming weeks will be critical in determining where the Vikings stand at the start in free agency. Minnesota will likely need to part ways with several key players – tight end T.J. Hockenson and Aaron Jones are among cut candidates – just to get cap-compliant, and then the front office will need to get to work on replacing those players in the offseason.
That the Vikings are in such a dire salary cap situation in 2026 is a symptom of a lingering problem from the Adofo-Mensah era: Minnesota has struggled to build up its roster through the draft. Even with a quarterback on a rookie contract, the Vikings are more than $40 million over the projected salary cap because they’ve needed to lean on free agency to strengthen the roster.
Minnesota’s necessity to find cap space – whether it be via trades, releases or contract restructures – adds even more intrigue for a team that’s operating without a true general manager for the next couple of months. It’s the biggest test and question facing Brzezinski, O’Connell and the rest of the front office early on and will set early expectations for the Vikings’ 2026 outlook.
It doesn’t stop there though. Once the salary cap questions have been answered, there’s still a massive roster decision that will linger up until Week 1 of the 2026 season – and likely beyond.
Who will quarterback the 2026 Vikings?
J.J. McCarthy has one of the hottest seats of returning starting quarterbacks in 2026. One year after the Vikings traded up to draft the former Michigan quarterback with a top-10 pick, McCarthy struggled through the 2025 season.
In his first year as an NFL starter, the second-year quarterback completed 57.6% of his 243 pass attempts, threw interceptions on nearly 5% of those attempts and took 27 sacks for 149 cumulative yards lost. McCarthy also missed seven games while dealing with various injuries: a high ankle sprain, a concussion and a hand injury.
Another one of McCarthy’s biggest issues was failing to get and stay on the same page as star receiver Justin Jefferson, who finished the year with career lows in receiving yards (1,048) and touchdowns (2) despite playing in every game. Jefferson missed the Pro Bowl for the second time in his career in 2025, two years after he missed seven games with a hamstring injury and failed to earn an all-star nod.
Making matters worse for McCarthy was the success of his predecessor, Darnold, who had another strong season in his first year away from Minnesota. As Darnold and the Seahawks won 14 games en route to the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a Super Bowl title, McCarthy and the Vikings missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record.
O’Connell has been clear so far this offseason in his intention for the Vikings to add another quarterback to compete with McCarthy for the starting job. Provided the team clear up cap space, veteran free agent options include Malik Willis, Aaron Rodgers and Daniel Jones – the latter two of whom Minnesota reportedly courted last offseason. There are also a few names that could be available in trades: Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, 49ers backup Mac Jones and Falcons backup – and former Viking – Kirk Cousins.
Minnesota could also turn to the draft to address its quarterback concerns, although this year’s quarterback class is not without its own level of uncertainty. Outside of presumed No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy and national championship winner from Indiana, there aren’t any other clear-cut NFL starters among college prospects.
McCarthy could still wind up with the starting job in Minnesota by Week 1 of the 2026 season, but the Vikings are going to make sure he earns it with more significant competition than Sam Howell and Max Brosmer.
Is Kevin O’Connell’s seat warming up?
One year ago, this question might have sounded preposterous. O’Connell had just led the Vikings to their first 14-win season since the turn of the century.
From the outside, O’Connell appeared to adapt his offensive scheme to fit around Darnold, who entered 2024 as a presumed backup following McCarthy’s selection as a top-10 draft pick. Darnold had the best season of his career to that point, throwing for more than 4,000 yards and winning 14 times while starting all 17 games – something he had never done in his six prior years as a pro. The Vikings’ head coach won the AP Coach of the Year award for his efforts.
But as O’Connell enters his fifth season as Minnesota’s head coach, he does so still without a playoff win. The Vikings have made the postseason twice during his tenure and lost in the wild-card round both times, including at home to a nine-win Giants team after the 2022 season.
The Vikings’ decision to fire Adofo-Mensah while retaining O’Connell suggested both that the head coach is safe for now, but that patience may be running out. Since O’Connell enters this offseason with (presumably) more power in personnel decisions, how the Vikings rebuild their roster, figure out their quarterback situation and ultimately perform on the field in 2026 will all be crucial in determining his future.
Who will be the Vikings’ next general manager?
Brzezinski has the chance to take Minnesota’s general manager job and run with it. As the Vikings face an offseason full of potential challenges, the job Brzezinski does as interim GM could be enough to convince ownership that he deserves the full-time role.
If the earlier four questions on this list were any indication, that won’t be an easy task. Negotiating the salary cap situation and improving Minnesota’s draft acumen after years of poor draft classes are two huge tests early on. Throwing in a shaky quarterback situation with no certain solutions while coming off of a disappointing season does not make things any easier on Brzezinski. If he hits a home run with a strong offseason, the full-time job should be his.
Otherwise, the Vikings will need to look elsewhere. They’ve stuck themselves with a bit of a front office mess by delaying Adofo-Mensah’s firing, leaving Minnesota a step behind the Dolphins and Falcons, the two other teams that already replaced their general manager this offseason.
Among the remaining outside candidates is 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams, whom the Falcons and Dolphins both interviewed before going in a different direction. The Jaguars also interviewed Williams last offseason before hiring James Gladstone for their open GM spot. Williams has risen up the ranks in San Francisco’s front office since joining its scouting department in 2011 and would be a first-time GM.
Another possible candidate is John McKay, the Rams’ assistant general manager, who interviewed for the Dolphins job. McKay has been in Los Angeles since 2016 and would have been a member of the front office while O’Connell was still on the Rams’ coaching staff. He would also be a first-time GM.
More veteran GM options could include Joe Douglas, the former Jets GM who interviewed with the Falcons this offseason, or Champ Kelly, who has served as an interim general manager with both the Raiders and Dolphins.
