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Here’s Why the Vikings Fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

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Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on the field before Vikings game at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah stands on the field before kickoff at U.S. Bank Stadium, with the December 24, 2023 matchup against the Detroit Lions capturing a quiet pregame moment as Minnesota prepared for a pivotal late-season divisional contest in front of a packed home crowd. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.

The Minnesota Vikings will embark on free agency in five weeks and the NFL draft in April without Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was shockingly fired on Friday after four years with the club. For the time being — perhaps as the full-time option — vice president of operations Rob Brzezinski will take on the interim title of general manager, with Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores expected to take over personnel decision-making, at least to an extent.

Minnesota’s choice to move on from Adofo-Mensah has sparked competing reasons: here’s the list.

So, why did Adofo-Mensah get the axe? Here’s what we know from the grapevine so far.

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Want to Know Why the Vikings Fired the GM? We Have Answers.

It’s a significant and sudden change for the Vikings.

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speaking to media at TCO Performance Center. Why Vikings Fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speaks with reporters at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, with March 26, 2025 marking an offseason briefing that focused on free agency decisions and early draft positioning as Minnesota prepared for the upcoming NFL Draft following roster-shaping moves during a pivotal spring reset for the franchise and its leadership group. Mandatory Credit: YouTube.

An Aloof Persona

Adofo-Mensah reportedly didn’t work the traditional hours of an NFL general manager, balancing a home life and young children. Some have whispered that he took a two-month-long paternity leave, which is fantastic, but uncommon and perhaps frowned upon in NFL circles.

The guy hired as the “Moneyball GM” four years ago indeed effectuated his version of Moneyball in the Twin Cities, leading him to work behind the scenes when brokering in-person relationships might’ve been the wiser priority. Think of it as a manager at your job who largely stays in his or her office when he or she could be out boosting morale and showing a team-player attitude.

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In short, the “spreadsheet guy” appears to have preferred the solace of spreadsheets to that of human contact.

A String of Terrible Trades

In one year alone, Adofo-Mensah confusingly traded strong roster pieces like Harrison Phillips (DT) to the New York Jets and Mekhi Blackmon (CB) to the Indianapolis Colts for somewhat worthless 6th-Round picks. Sixth-rounders are akin to purchasing $2 scratch-off tickets and expecting to win $100,000. It usually doesn’t work that way.

In fact, glancing at the current depth chart in 2026, Minnesota could use Phillips and Blackmon on the depth chart right now. Both men played meaningful roles with their respective teams in 2025.

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Moreover, Adofo-Mensah onboarded Adam Thielen, a 35-year-old, for a deal involving a 4th-Round pick to Carolina late last summer. That transaction would’ve been great if a) Thielen was used as a WR3 b) he hadn’t reached an age-related decline. Minnesota never used Thielen as a WR3, and within a few weeks, he seemed “washed.”

Thielen requested his roster release three months later and retired after that. The Vikings won’t have a 4th-Rounder in 2027 because of the weird gaffe. The Carolina Panthers fleeced Adofo-Mensah. Thielen barely played, didn’t have a retirement ceremony in the Twin Cities, and is now gone forever.

Robert Kraft

You will read on the internet this week that Adofo-Mensah had a deal lined up with the New England Patriots to trade for the third overall pick in 2024, netting the Vikings Super Bowl-bound quarterback Drake Maye. That part is true.

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The false part? Some are insinuating that Adofo-Mensah backed out of the deal at the last second. That is false. Robert Kraft, the Patriots’ owner, vetoed the trade in the 11th hour.

Robert Kraft watching warmups at Gillette Stadium.
New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft watches warmups at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on November 8, 2023, as the longtime executive observes preparations from the sidelines before a matchup against the Philadelphia Union. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports.

Had Kraft not intervened — for the Patriots’ sake, thank God he did — Minnesota would’ve drafted Maye, and the rest would be history. However, Kraft acted wisely, getting the best version of cold feet for his organization.

Kraft singlehandedly might’ve sealed Adofo-Mensah’s fate with the reversal.

J.J. McCarthy Not Game-Ready

With Adofo-Mensah gone, many have now suggested everything that has gone right for the Vikings is attributable to Kevin O’Connell, with all the nasty malarkey to the fault of Adofo-Mensah. Pretty convenient, eh?

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No matter what, the buck stopped with Adofo-Mensah on the J.J. McCarthy draft pick. The Vikings can preach a “culture of collaboration,” and that’s peachy, but at the end of the day, the general manager makes the draft picks.

Adofo-Mensah picked McCarthy as the face of his competitive rebuild. Three and a half months later, McCarthy succumbed to a torn meniscus in August 2024, and when he healed, he very vividly wasn’t ready for the bright lights of the QB1 job in 2025. McCarthy flashed at times and in clutch moments, but it wasn’t enough to propel Minnesota to the 2025 postseason. He also suffered more injuries.

Like the would-be Maye trade, had McCarthy stayed healthy, Adofo-Mensah might still be employed. But let’s face it: the guy drafted by Adofo-Mensah to define his legacy has not panned out over two seasons, missing 70% of games due to injury.

The Sam Darnold Decision

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Why was Adofo-Mensah canned three and a half weeks after the Week 18? Probably because Sam Darnold’s visit to the Super Bowl served as a smoking gun and the straw that broke the camel’s back. Think about it: the two guys in the Vikings’ orbit to possibly lead the purple team in 2024 and 2025 — Darnold and Maye — will play in the Super Bowl next weekend, while Vikings fans wonder if McCarthy is even durable enough to develop into a long-time starter.

The Vikings’ owners, Mark and Zygi Wilf, probably watched Darnold advance to the Super Bowl and thought, “Oh my dear God.”

Adofo-Mensah again is the victim of after-the-fact theories that claim “O’Connell wanted Darnold and Adofo-Mensah did not,” but the fact remains that the Vikings general manager did not re-sign Darnold or franchise tag him. That guy is now in line to win Super Bowl MVP.

Poor Drafts

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Every NFL team starts with seven picks in a draft. For Adofo-Mensah, that means he had 28 swings at the plate since taking over in 2022.

His 28 picks have resulted in these success stories: Jordan Addison (WR), Jalen Nailor (WR), Will Reichard (K), Levi Drake Rodriguez (DT), and Dallas Turner (OLB). Five dudes.

Lewis Cine gets ready by warming up on the field at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine prepares on the field at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, on August 20, 2022, showing pregame warmups before a preseason meeting with the San Francisco 49ers, as the rookie gained early experience adjusting to the NFL environment during his first professional season. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports.

That’s five good players in four years. Some teams have quadruple that.

One can deduce that Adofo-Mensah connected on 17%-20% of draft picks. That’s not sustainable — at all — and will murder any franchise if no remedy is sought. Minnesota’s fix will be finding somebody who can draft.

It is not normal to have just five contributors from the draft in four years. It’s downright cancerous for team-building. The draft is the only place in sports to get “free” players. In the last few years, Vikings fans have basically conceded, “Well, we won’t hit on hardly any picks, so let’s hope free agency goes well.”

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That mantra stops now.


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Rutherford says Canucks ‘should be OK’ as GM job opens, duties shift

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VANCOUVER – Authority, like water, flows downward.

In the history of the National Hockey League, a general manager has never fired a president. 

Sometimes an owner may fire both. But since Luigi Aquilini’s family, which owns the Vancouver Canucks, still trusts Jim Rutherford to preside over the entirety of hockey operations, there was an inevitability to Thursday’s dismissal of general manager Patrik Allvin after one of the worst National Hockey League seasons in franchise history.

Widely varying insider reports in recent weeks had the Canucks poised to fire everybody — or nobody. But as the team burned to the ground in mid-winter, the most likely scenario was always that Rutherford, the Hockey Hall-of-Famer, would stay, and Allvin, his hand-picked, first-time GM, would go.

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Head coach Adam Foote? Well, Rutherford said during his enthralling press conference Friday that the next general manager will eventually decide on the coaching staff — and almost everything else in hockey-ops.

Assistant general manager Ryan Johnson, a holdover from previous GM Jim Benning’s regime who impressed Rutherford long before Johnson built the Canucks’ minor-league team into a Calder Cup champion, is the frontrunner to replace Allvin. 

As with the probable dismissal of Allvin, the potential promotion of Johnson has been whispered about for months.

Rutherford told reporters the Canucks did not refuse the Nashville Predators’ permission to interview Johnson for their own vacant GM job. Because they never asked.

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“Somebody made that story up,” he said.

And no, the Canucks won’t grant permission for Johnson to talk to other teams until Rutherford concludes his own GM search.

In the meantime, Rutherford told Allvin, highly respected around the NHL for his scouting and player-development chops, that he is welcome to stay with the Canucks in a lesser capacity.

“I’ll give him a little time to make that decision,” Rutherford said. “It’s very emotional now.”

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Other than the marketing impossibility of bringing back everyone after a 58-point season in which the Canucks won nine of 41 home games for their season-ticket holders, there wasn’t any one reason to fire Allvin.

Even if you aggregated the reasons, listing all of management’s biggest errors over the last four years, it would still be difficult to separate Allvin from Rutherford for blame.

This reality was not lost on Rutherford Friday.

“I think that’s a fair comment,” Rutherford said. “In my position, I do have to make some decisions, but he was in charge of most of the things in hockey, making the trades and deciding who’s getting called up and down, and working with the coach and all those things. (But) I take full responsibility for the season. I head up the hockey department, but I don’t make decisions for other people. And Patrik had the opportunity to make his own decisions.”

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Asked near the end of his 33-minute press conference to grade himself, Rutherford said: “I’m not going to put a letter on it. I’m telling you that I’m disappointed. And, you know, I’m disappointed that I couldn’t have done a better job in some areas and made this work a little bit quicker. But I will say we’ve dealt with some situations over the last couple of years that I did not expect to deal with when I came here, and we’ve worked our way through it. They’re behind us now, and I don’t foresee any of those big issues to deal with going forward. So the team should be OK.”

Interestingly, the 77-year-old president also made it clear he will be less involved in hockey decisions with the next GM. Rutherford mentored and promoted Allvin, 51, when he was managing the Pittsburgh Penguins to a pair of Stanley Cups a decade ago.

And four years ago, shortly after Canucks managing owner Francesco Aquilini showed up on Rutherford’s doorstep in Raleigh, N.C., and convinced him to come out of “retirement,” Rutherford poached Allvin from the Penguins and made him the first Swedish general manager in the NHL.

“He’s a friend of mine,” Rutherford said. “I think Patrik’s a great hockey guy, but we felt it was time to make a change and give somebody else the opportunity to sit in that chair.

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“Quite frankly, I had a lot of sleepless nights, and I thought a lot about this in many different ways. It wasn’t easy, and it took me a long time to get to this point.”

As for the working dynamics Rutherford envisions with his next GM, he said: “I’m available for somebody, to anybody, in the organization to ask me questions, ask me for help. But I want the new GM to make all hockey decisions. Now, he may not make decisions about the practice rink because nobody wants to make that decision… or where training camp is or some of the things that a president would do. But as for hockey… he will make those decisions.”

Candid and unvarnished as always, Rutherford dropped a bunch of news grenades during his press conference.

• On $92.8-million centre Elias Pettersson, who just had his second straight 15-goal season: “It’s the same as anything people do in life; preparation is the key to success. And I don’t believe he’s put enough preparation in at this point to be the player he needs to be. But he’s young enough, he’s capable of doing it, and if he does the things he’s told to do, he has a chance to succeed here. But if he doesn’t, you know, the GM is going to have to make a decision.”

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• Discussing the urgency to trade Quinn Hughes in December, which turned the organization sharply towards a rebuild, Rutherford effectively fed the former captain into a wood-chipper: “Some people think Quinn left here because the team wasn’t any good; he was leaving anyways, OK? The best example I can give you is Matthew Tkachuk. He was in Calgary. They had a good team. He wanted to go back to the U.S. and he went. And this is not going to be the last guy, Quinn Hughes, that decides he’s going to leave. And I think I’m close to him; I really like him. I respect what he did in Vancouver. He put on a good show for a lot of years. But guys work towards free agency, and we should respect the fact that he had that option.”

• Rutherford reiterated how poor the Canucks’ dressing-room culture had been, and praised the new one forming since the team came together after the March 6 trade deadline: “It was really bad. The chemistry and the culture in the Canucks dressing room over the last five weeks is the best it’s been since I’ve been here. This team has a chance to move forward, and let every player enjoy coming to the rink and not have to worry about somebody barking at them in practice or picking on them in the room or whatnot. This group is tightly knit. (There are) good veterans left here, good mentors, very good young character players, we’ve got a number of good young players coming. So this team is going in the right direction.”

Rutherford expressed gratitude to Canucks fans, who seem to have embraced the early stages of the rebuild and kept Rogers Arena full most nights despite the 25-win season.

He said there will be “no shortcuts” on the rebuild.

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Someone else will have to take over the transition Allvin began, and Rutherford may not be around when it is finished.

“Despite the way things look right now… I believe this organization’s in a very good place to move forward,” Rutherford said. “I feel that I haven’t done as good a job as I would have liked to, and I would have wished we were in a stronger place by now. But look, where I’m at in my life now, I can do whatever I want and be very comfortable. And I like this franchise a lot, and I want to do what’s right for them. So if I feel comfortable that when we have a good, strong person in place and maybe even potentially two people over time, I would feel comfortable making a decision to leave.”

It is the Canucks first rebuild this century, coming 15 years after the team’s last run to a Stanley Cup Final.

Even before news of Allvin’s firing came overnight from a report in Sweden, Friday was scheduled for player exits. There were six formal press conferences involving waves of Canuck players, many thousands of words spoken.

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“I think it’s really important to learn from this year,” veteran goalie Kevin Lankinen said. “We can’t just wrap this thing and move on. We have to sit down and learn — older guys, younger guys, doesn’t matter — because these are the kind of experiences that if you turn them the right way, you can bring fuel for not just next year but for your whole career. Because this is obviously something that we don’t want to go through again. 

“You know, the best time to start a change was probably 15 years ago. But the next best time is right now.”

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WWE SmackDown main event revealed

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The main event for tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown has been revealed. This week’s edition of the blue brand will air live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is the final show before WrestleMania 42.

According to a new report from Ringside News, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will headline tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown. Carmelo Hayes won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal last year. Hayes held the United States Championship for several months but recently dropped it and is not scheduled to compete at WrestleMania 42.

Who will be the last one standing when The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal returns TONIGHT on #SmackDown?! 📍: Las Vegas 🎟️: 📺: 8 ET/7 CT on @USANetwork

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Sami Zayn captured the United States Championship from Carmelo Hayes on the March 27 edition of SmackDown and successfully defended the title against the veteran two weeks ago on the blue brand in their rematch. Zayn will be putting the title on the line against Trick Williams at The Show of Shows this weekend.

Cody Rhodes is set to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42. The American Nightmare will be delivering a message later tonight on SmackDown ahead of their title match.

Tiffany Stratton and Jordynne Grace are also scheduled to compete tonight to determine the number one contender for Giulia’s Women’s United States Championship. Stratton was originally supposed to battle Giulia for the title on SmackDown, but the match was changed ahead of tonight’s show.

WWE legend praises Pat McAfee and claims he has real heat

Wrestling veteran JBL recently suggested that Pat McAfee had real heat with WWE fans after he was inserted into the storyline with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton.

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Speaking on the Something to Wrestle With podcast, JBL complimented the former NFL punter and stated that fans were talking about him, which meant he had real heat.

“It just blows me away when a guy gets heat like this, people go, ‘Oh, no, no, no. It’s go away heat.’ No, it’s not. You’re talking about it. If it was go away heat, you would not be talking about it because you would not like it. You would not even mention it. It’s real heat. And people look out there, they want to have heels to my fans. They want to have heels, but they want to be in on it,” he said.

You can check out JBL’s comments in the video below:

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It will be interesting to see which WWE star wins the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal tonight on SmackDown.