The Minnesota Vikings are now up to nine external general manager candidates after adding three more to their list Tuesday night. That brings the total number of potential hires to 10, including interim GM Rob Brzezinski. It’s an intriguing group to say the least, which is exactly why the Vikings will hire two of them.
Yes, two.
Let’s start with what we know. It’s abundantly clear that Minnesota is looking to hire the polar opposite of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. After that failed attempt at blending analytics and old-school methods, the Vikings are looking to get back to basics. All of the external candidates come from playing and/or scouting backgrounds, some even with the Vikings, and represent a more traditional approach at GM. Rob Brzezinski is the odd duck in this bunch, who didn’t play in the league and didn’t scout it either.
Brzezinski has been around forever, is widely respected inside TCO, and has performed admirably in his interim role over the last few months. But the Vikings can’t make him general manager. They can’t afford – maybe literally – to lose him, though, either, so they might be forced to do something that was never in the plans and get creative.
Vikings owner Mark Wilf has previously shut down the idea of a president-style structure. Still, there really isn’t a better path in 2026 with how things are shaking out. On the one hand, Brzezinski is too valuable to lose, but on the other, he may not be perfectly suited to handle the full-time GM duties. The best route forward is to promote him to the president of football operations role and pair him with one of the nine external general manager candidates.
In this scenario, Minnesota gets to keep its cap guru and well-respected voice in the organization, and also can bring in one of the best personnel minds in football. There seems to be a growing sentiment across the league that general managers have too many responsibilities and that it might be best to split the role into multiple roles. Some of the most productive front offices in the league, like the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions – two teams that Minnesota has requested interviews from – have already learned this.
Letting the cap guy handle the cap and the personnel guy handle the personnel seems ideal in theory. However, it requires buy-in from many people. The Wilfs, who are the final decision makers in all this, seem opposed — or at least they were a few months ago. Brzezinski may have developed an unquenchable thirst for power this spring and may himself oppose giving up personnel decisions. And of course, Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores, who seemingly enjoyed pulling the strings during the draft, may also have other thoughts.
It’s interesting to note that, according to Albert Breer, the initial interviews have been led by Mark Wilf and…O’Connell. He’s surely a big supporter of Brzezinski, and maybe an even bigger supporter of himself getting to handle more personnel decisions. While external candidates can flaunt draft success here and free-agent deals there, O’Connell may prefer to continue his partnership with Brzezinski, which allows him to be directly involved.
Selfish? Maybe. It depends on his skills as a talent evaluator. Ultimately, Wilf has the final say. Still, it’s clear that O’Connell has a significant role in the hiring process.
In the seemingly small chance that Minnesota simply hires a new GM and tells Brzezinski to take his red stapler back down to the basement and start tabulating cap numbers, it may create a bit of an awkward dynamic – at least at first. If Brzezinski even agrees to the setup, the new GM will likely want to implement his processes, his scouts, and his way of doing things. That could meet with some resistance. As we all know, that’s essentially what happened with Adofo-Mensah.
The Vikings face a unique challenge where the most respected voice in the building is unable to make the final call on the general manager hire. It feels improbable, and even irresponsible, that the Vikings don’t retain Brzezinski in some way. But it either involves promoting him to a position ownership is reluctant to create, or removing the interim tag from a job for which he may not be the best fit.
It seems as though O’Connell may hold the keys to the Vikings’ future, but all roads lead back to Brzezinski. Making him general manager, though, feels like a waste of … something. With names like Rams’ assistant general manager John McKay in the running, it’s tough to shut those options down simply because the Vikings are against a new alignment. At the risk of putting too many cooks in the kitchen, Minnesota will hopefully agree in the end that pairing two of those 10 candidates is the best path forward.
