Source - Minnesota Vikings hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to be GM

EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings are hiring Cleveland Browns vice president of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their new general manager, a source tells ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

He replaces Rick Spielman, who was fired at the conclusion of the 2021 season after a 16-year stint as the Vikings' general manager that produced a 132-123-2 record.

Adofo-Mensah is the 10th person in franchise history to hold a general manager title and/or carry out the duties of the team's GM (current executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski was the top football executive from 2002-05 without an official GM title). He comes to Minnesota after spending the 2020-21 seasons in Cleveland working under general manager Andrew Berry.

Berry hired Adofo-Mensah from San Francisco in 2020 after he spent seven seasons as the 49ers' manager — then director — of football research and development. The 40-year-old holds undergraduate and master's degrees in economics from Princeton and Stanford, respectively, and had several Wall Street ventures as a portfolio manager and commodities trader before he entered the NFL.

Adofo-Mensah's first order of business will be to drive the Vikings' search for a new head coach after Minnesota fired Mike Zimmer after eight seasons. At the same time the Vikings conducted interviews for their next general manager, starting with eight candidates before narrowing down their search to two finalists — Adofo-Mensah and Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles — the team also spoke with eight candidates for their head coach opening, a candidate pool that contains five defensive coordinators and three offensive coordinators.

49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who was a