Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf addressed the media after the team surprisingly fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Friday. Adofo-Mensah was at Senior Bowl practices in Alabama nearly a month after the regular season ended, which led many to believe his job was secure.

Wilf spoke to reporters in a virtual press conference to address the decision. He explained that it wasn’t just one factor that led to the call.

“We understand there’ll be questions on the timing, and why now?” Wilf said. “I think you know how we want to operate as owners, we want to avoid knee-jerk reactions, be pragmatic, thoughtful, methodical in making these decisions. And as we do each year, we held our end-of-the-season organizational meetings over a couple weeks and spent this past week as an ownership group reviewing, discussing on how best to move forward.”

Wilf insisted the team is focused on a single goal and believed it was not heading in the right direction. While he thanked Adofo-Mensah for his work, Wilf expressed confidence that ownership made the right decision.

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“I’ll just say it again, it’s not necessarily a fair thing to talk about any one decision,” Wilf said. “That’s the way we approach it. It’s a body of work. It’s a cumulative set of decisions. It’s four years of where we’ve been. We as ownership feel — and I know our fans feel it and our entire organization feels it — we need to get to a better place. This is strictly an ownership and organizational decision. We feel this is the best path going forward. It’s not about one player, one decision, one draft pick.”

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Who will take over from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as Vikings GM?

The Vikings will not begin the process of hiring a new general manager until after the 2026 NFL draft. Mark Wilf explained that executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski will oversee the front office through April’s draft.

NFL insider Jeremy Fowler noted that how the quarterback room was handled during and before the 2025 season played a role in Adofo-Mensah’s firing.

The Vikings could have had Daniel Jones or Sam Darnold alongside J.J. McCarthy, but instead signed Carson Wentz.