While Rob Brzezinski runs the Vikings’ front office through the NFL draft in April, the team tapped one of Brzezinski’s longtime counterparts to help fill his usual role overseeing the salary cap.
The Vikings hired Matt Thomas, the Seahawks’ longtime vice president of football operations, in a consulting role through the NFL draft. Thomas will work with senior manager of football administration Emily Badis to help manage the Vikings’ cap while Brzezinski takes on a larger role after Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s firing on Jan. 30.
Thomas retired from Seattle after 11 seasons overseeing the team’s salary cap. He’d worked with Brzezinski in his first NFL job with the Dolphins, spending the 1998 season in Miami with Brzezinski before the Vikings hired him the following year. Thomas was in Miami from 1998-2009, serving as the team’s general counsel in his final year before spending two years with the Browns and joining the Seahawks for their Super Bowl championship season in 2013.
Brzezinski and Thomas had respected each other from afar and stayed in touch after working together in Miami, and their relationship made Thomas an obvious candidate for Vikings ownership as they sought additional help for the team’s impromptu front office arrangement. Thomas, who holds law degrees from South Dakota and New York University, will work with Badis in an important role almost immediately.
The Vikings need to clear roughly $40 million in salary cap space before free agency starts on March 11; they’ll likely free up some of the space by cutting or restructuring contracts for several veterans, but they’ll also need to see how much space they want to devote to a veteran quarterback who could compete with or supplant J.J. McCarthy.
The Vikings are projected to have nine picks in the upcoming draft, including four in the top 100; Brzezinski will work with scouts and coaches in a larger role through free agency and the draft while the Vikings look for a permanent replacement for Adofo-Mensah. Thomas will provide some surge support for Brzezinski through the spring.
