‘Competitive rebuild’ and QB questions: Decisions that defined Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Vikings tenure

The Vikings fired General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Friday, Jan. 30, after end-of-season meetings between ownership. Here are some key decisions that shaped Adofo-Mensah’s four seasons in Minnesota.

The Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to replace Rick Spielman, who had been with the organization since 2006 and was fired alongside head coach Mike Zimmer following an 8-9 finish in 2021.

Adofo-Mensah’s background was a unique one for an NFL GM: economics degrees from Princeton and Stanford and a start on Wall Street before nine years in pro football.

“When you think about this job, the job is about making decisions, building consensus in the building, combining different sources of information into one answer and having everybody behind it,” Adofo-Mensah said at his introductory news conference. “Along those lines, I don’t think there’s many people more qualified than I am.”

Adofo-Mensah was part of the head coaching search that brought Kevin O’Connell to Minnesota from Sean McVay’s staff with the Los Angeles Rams.

“It was like I was talking with one of my close football friends who I’ve spent hours and hours upon hours with,” Adofo-Mensah said at O’Connell’s introduction. “It was just so natural.”

The phrase “competitive rebuild” has become a catchphrase of this era of Vikings football.

“We’re trying to live in today and tomorrow, or the competitive rebuild,” Adofo-Mensah said.

The Vikings made 10 picks in Adofo-Mensah’s first NFL draft at the helm as GM. Four were in the Top 100.

Though the Vikings initially had the No. 12 overall pick, Adofo-Mensah traded down 20 spots with the division rival Detroit Lions in an exchange that got Minnesota picks Nos. 32, 34 and 66.

Detroit took wide receiver Jameson Williams at No. 12, while the Vikings selected safety Lewis Cine, who had just won a championship with Georgia, at No. 32.

Two years later, he would compare that draft to what it must have felt like when the Vikings were down 33-0 against the Indianapolis Colts before staging the largest comeback victory in NFL history in 2022.

One of the biggest moves of Adofo-Mensah’s tenure was the acquisition of tight end T.J. Hockenson in another deal with the Lions at the NFL trade deadline. The Vikings were 6-1 at the time.

Adofo-Mensah sent Detroit the Vikings’ 2023 second-round pick and their 2024 third-rounder; in addition to Hockenson, Minnesota received a 2023 fourth-round pick and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024.

“You’re always trying to project, project, project,” Adofo-Mensah said at the time. “Where are you, where are your opponents? If you look at the league, I think it was the most trades at the trade deadline. This is an aggressive mind-set.”

The Vikings finished 13-4 and won the NFC North but lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Kirk Cousins chose to not re-sign with the Vikings as their intent to draft a quarterback became clear. He had led the team to a playoff appearance in Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell’s first season in their respective posts but missed much of the 2023 season with an Achilles injury. The Vikings went 7-10.

Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons on a deal worth $100 million in guaranteed money.

The Vikings’ free-agent class that March included Sam Darnold, Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman and Aaron Jones Sr. and helped lead the team to a 14-3 record.

The Vikings drafted quarterback J.J. McCarthy at No. 10 overall fresh off his national championship win at Michigan with a vision of him becoming the quarterback of the franchise’s future.

They traded up one spot with the New York Jets to get McCarthy after four quarterbacks had gone off the board in the first eight picks.

At his introductory news conference, McCarthy said that at the NFL combine, Adofo-Mensah had told the young quarterback he was “just a bit of an unknown,” when asked whether there was any reason they wouldn’t draft him.

Before the beginning of what would be his third season as a Viking, Cine was released by the team. He had missed most of his rookie season with a broken leg and played only eight defensive snaps in 2023.

By the end of the 2025 season, only fifth-round running back Ty Chandler and sixth-round wide receiver Jalen Nailor remained with the team from the 2022 draft.

The Vikings chose not to franchise tag Darnold at a cost of $40.24 million.

Darnold, who was on a one-year deal, led the team to a 14-3 regular-season finish but struggled in a Week 18 loss to the Lions that cost the Vikings the NFC North title and the loss to the Rams in the wild-card round.

Darnold went on to sign a three-year, $100-million deal with the Seahawks in free agency. He led Seattle to a 14-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and he will play in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, Feb. 8.

The Vikings attempted to re-sign Jones, who had signed to the team’s practice squad in December 2024, but he ultimately took a shot with the Indianapolis Colts, signing a one-year, $14-million deal.

Reflecting on the situation Jan. 13, Adofo-Mensah said he didn’t feel the Vikings were overconfident in their belief they could re-sign Jones, but he did think him having firsthand familiarity with the franchise would have impacted his decision.

“No matter what the conversation is or relationships are, free agents are free for a reason, and they’re allowed to vet all their options,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And ultimately, we could have executed better around that.”

Adofo-Mensah inked a multiyear contract extension just more than a month after his third NFL draft, in which the Vikings picked Ohio State left guard Donovan Jackson at No. 24 overall.

His extension took four months longer to finalize than O’Connell’s, which was signed in January 2025.

The Vikings were eliminated from postseason contention on Dec. 14, 2025, forcing them to wait at least another year for a playoff win under current leadership. The Vikings went on to finish 9-8 in an injury-marred season.

Adofo-Mensah addressed numerous questions about the decisions made around the quarterback position in spring 2025 during his end-of-year news conference.

“Sometimes you have to go on incomplete information,” he said about whether McCarthy’s readiness to be the 2025 starter was misevaluated. “And the information we had was all good, but it was admittedly incomplete and small sampled. So ultimately, we trusted in the information we had, we trusted our coaches, we trusted in the team around him to do that. ... Maybe the timing didn’t work out with other aspects of our team, whether that be injuries or different things like that.”