Vikings GM Mark Wilf confirms the obvious regarding new general manager Nolan Teasley
It was one of the biggest question marks coming out of the Minnesota Vikings general manager search, and Mark Wilf cleared it up.
When the Minnesota Vikings hired general manager Nolan Teasley, it was widely praised as a great hire across the board. He had gained a lot of respect over the years across the league, working his way up from being an intern to assistant general manager with the Seattle Seahawks.
What we didn’t know exactly was how the power structure would look like. Mark Wilf clarified that quickly during Teasley’s introductory press conference.
Nolan Teasley will have 53-man roster control
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Teasley has 53-man roster control, but with the history the Vikings have, it’s a question worth asking.
The fear was there would be another “Triangle of Authority” situation, something the Vikings had variations of from when the Wilfs took over the franchise til the gave full control to Rick Spielman ahead of the 2012 NFL Draft. That structure did lead to an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2009, but it also led to the selection of Christian Ponder at 12th overall in 2011.
Mark Wilf was pressed about the structure of the organization, and he gave a very clear answer.
“Nolan, the general manager reports to ownership, as well as the head coach [Kevin O’Connell], Rob is part of the football operations of football organization that’s under Nolan, so again, in the end, that’s the structure, that’s the way it is. If it comes to structure, we’ve got a problem. Okay, the end result is making sure leaders collaborate, work together, and kudos to Rob and the effort he led this past few months, getting our draft process and collaboration working well in the building. Right now we have Nolan, and I think that’s that’s that’s an incredible piece to our puzzle. Like I said, Nolan’s leading our football operations at GM reports ownership, and obviously Coach O’Connell reports to ownership as well.”
Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf
It doesn’t get much clearer than that, but there is intrigue about how much power Teasley has over O’Connell. If they both report to ownership, would Teasley have the power to fire him? As much clarity as we got, we still don’t know for sure.