Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell stands beside basic supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah throughout a spring 2025 staff look, with O’Connell carrying a mustache in a lighthearted nod to the Vikings government. The second mirrored the relaxed chemistry between Minnesota’s management group because the franchise ready for one more pivotal offseason beneath its present regime. Necessary Credit score: YouTube
With the Minnesota Vikings turning the calendar to the summer season, the offseason is mainly over, and the final 4 months have featured no scarcity of stunning moments. It’s the character of the beast within the NFL; the Vikings simply had greater than most individuals anticipated.
Minnesota’s quiet calendar nonetheless produced a handful of unusual developments value revisiting.
So … what had been they? Let’s rank them (No. 1 = prime curveball).
5 Strikes Modified the Structure of Minnesota’s Spring
All of the shockers from January by way of Could.
Vikings government Rob Brzezinski speaks with Gabe Henderson throughout a Vikings.com interview on Feb. 17, 2022, discussing Minnesota’s organizational philosophy, management construction, and the hiring of head coach Kevin O’Connell. Brzezinski outlined the franchise’s long-term soccer operations imaginative and prescient whereas addressing roster-building technique and collaboration contained in the Vikings’ entrance workplace in the course of the prolonged digital function phase. Necessary Credit score: YouTube.
5. Conducting Free Company and Draft with No GM
While you get to No. 1 on the listing, you’ll discover the almighty curveball. Within the meantime, Minnesota has carried out a full offseason, together with free company, the draft, and a seismic commerce, with out an official basic supervisor. It’s interim boss Rob Brzezinski, working with head coach Kevin O’Connell, to steer the ship.
Most NFL groups hearth their basic managers round January tenth and have a alternative inside two or three weeks. The Vikings mentioned, “Nope, we don’t have time to do that” — although they’d time to try this.
Why Minnesota didn’t hearth up a basic supervisor search between January thirty first and February thirteenth stays unclear. It may’ve had a brand new boss within the large chair 4 weeks earlier than free company.
4. Jauan Jennings Enters the Chat
On April twenty eighth, only a few days after the draft, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted, “49ers free-agent wide receiver Jauan Jennings is visiting tonight and Wednesday with the Minnesota Vikings, per source.”
Quickly after, the Vikings signed Jennings, and now, on paper, Minnesota has its greatest WR1-WR-2-WR3 trio since Randy Moss, Cris Carter, and Jake Reed. It’s Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Jauan Jennings in 2026.
3. Jonathan Greenard Traded
The Greenard commerce rumor kicked up mud in early March, because the Vikings had been evidently prepared to tear off the Band-Help and let Dallas Turner begin in 2026. Then, nothing occurred on the Greenard entrance till late April.
Minnesota traded Greenard to the Philadelphia Eagles, together with a Seventh-Spherical choose, for 2 Third-Spherical picks. One’s identify is Jakobe Thomas, a security from Miami. The following choice will probably be made in 2027.
The Vikings misplaced their greatest defensive participant, who signed a $100 millioon contract over the following 4 years in Philadelphia. When a staff offloads its greatest defensive gamers, that’s an enormous deal. It occurred in Minnesota.
2. Vikings Draft Caleb Banks in Spherical 1
Nearly each March mock draft predicted the Vikings would draft Oregon security Dillon Thieneman, who appeared like a direct alternative for Harrison Smith. In April, the sphere opened only a bit among the many mock draft crowd, however Thieneman remained the heavy frontrunner for Minnesota’s Spherical 1 liking.
Florida Gators defensive lineman Caleb Banks (88) walks onto the sphere earlier than the Orange and Blue spring sport on April 13, 2024, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. Banks participated in pregame festivities throughout Gator Stroll as Florida ready for its annual intrasquad showcase in entrance of followers evaluating this system’s offseason growth and roster outlook. Necessary Credit score: Doug Engle-Gainesville Solar.
So, the draft arrived, and certainly, Thieneman was there for the taking at choose No. 18. As an alternative, Minnesota chosen Banks, a DT from Florida. The choose shocked everybody as a result of Banks was alleged to be a 2nd-Rounder. He suffered two foot accidents in 5 months.
Minnesota is banking on Banks’s upside, which will be All-Professional caliber if his foot absolutely heals.
Our Steve Hoikkala on Banks: “When healthy, Banks looks like he has incredible NFL potential. He can move with the explosiveness of a much smaller lineman while carrying the size to wreak havoc. Before the injury-plagued 2025 season, Banks flashed dominant ability at the University of Florida in 2024, recording 4.5 sacks and consistently disrupting opposing backfields with his first-step quickness and length.”
“It may not be eye-popping stats, but it is what is on film that catches the eyes of scouts, and that is why he was mocked as a top-20 pick prior to the combine foot injury.”
Our Josh Frey was the one individual in your entire Vikings media neighborhood to foretell Banks as Minnesota’s Spherical 1 choose. Right here’s the proof.
1. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Fired 3.5 Weeks “Late”
Followers started to acknowledge in 2023 and 2024 that Adofo-Mensah’s drafting patterns and habits felt problematic. In truth, when Minnesota’s season hit a low level in 2025 at a 4-8 report, some puzzled if he could be fired.
Then, Black Monday rolled round, and the Vikings’ brass fired no person. O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah saved their jobs, evidently protected to see the mission by way of.
Minnesota Vikings basic supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah stands on the sideline earlier than an Worldwide Sequence matchup towards the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sep. 28, 2025, at Croke Park in Dublin. Adofo-Mensah noticed pregame exercise as gamers and coaches accomplished closing preparations, with Minnesota taking part in one of many NFL’s marquee abroad showcases in the course of the common season. Necessary Credit score: Kirby Lee-Imagn Photographs.
Till a staff led by Sam Darnold received the NFC Championship.
The Vikings’ house owners fired Adofo-Mensah 5 days later, saved O’Connell, and established a clear slate within the entrance workplace. The transfer was gorgeous due to the timing. Firing Adofo-Mensah on Black Monday would’ve made sense, enabling the Vikings to start out contemporary and rent a brand new basic supervisor. As an alternative, they waited, making the termination really feel like a bombshell.
4 months later, Minnesota continues to be looking for Adofo-Mensah’s alternative. NFL groups nearly by no means wait weeks into the offseason to drag the plug on a basic supervisor.
Dustin Baker is a novelist and political scientist. His second novel, The Invaders , is out now. So is … Extra about Dustin Baker
