Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s firing sends a strong signal to Kevin O’Connell after the Senior Bowl

There are no excuses left for Kevin O’Connell’s Minnesota Vikings.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Dec 25, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell reacts after a play against the Detroit Lions in the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Vikings shocked the football world on Friday afternoon when they fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

It came the day after Senior Bowl practices ended in Mobile, Alabama, and it’s significant because Adofo-Mensah was on the sidelines watching prospects representing the Vikings.

Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf held a press conference hours after the move was announced, explaining that they did their due diligence.

“It’s not about any one decision or move,” Wilf said on Friday afternoon. “We looked at the situation cumulatively. We just didn’t feel confident going through the entirety of the off season an additional draft and free agency. With this structure, we have an urgency to create a winning football team and establish sustainable success for our fans. At the same time, we balance that urgency with all decisions thoroughly and methodically winning football. That’s what drives all our decision making and is the core of all our efforts.”

Kevin O’Connell is out of excuses

Wilf also claimed during his press conference that there won’t be any more personnel changes during the next few months leading up to the NFL Draft.

“Yeah, no, there’ll be no further moves on that front,” said Wilf. “And like I said, we have tremendous confidence in coach O’Connell, our coaching staff and our entire football operations and scouting and evaluation team. So from all that perspective, none at all.”

The vibes of this entire process certainly gives the feeling that Adofo-Mensah is a scapegoat here. Yes, his drafting wasn’t great and this past free agency class wasn’t up to par, but those were far from the only issues for the Vikings.

The Vikings went 9-8 this season not because of Kevin O’Connell’s offense, but the defense ran by defensive coordinator Brian Flores. His unit was second in the NFL, while the offense had the worst EPA/dropback in team history this century, per Locked On Vikings via TruMedia. Considering that O’Connell is a quarterback guru, that doesn’t compute.

Adofo-Mensah’s firing sends a potentially dangerous signal to any general manager candidate: O’Connell has immense power inside TCO Performance Center. This move essentially scapegoats Adofo-Mensah, while O’Connell gets off scot free.

That’s not to say that Adofo-Mensah didn’t earn his fate, but the only coach that is currently being replaced on an offensive unit that was often putrid was offensive line coach Chris Kuper, and they didn’t fire him, but let his contract expire.

The noise surrounding both O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah is significantly different since the news broke, emphasizing the point even more of who is to blame here. That PR is good for O’Connell right now, but let’s make one thing crystal clear:

There are zero excuses for O’Connell moving forward.

Essentially, moving on from just Adofo-Mensah places all the blame in his camp. Whether that is fair or not, it’s the reality. From here on out, it’s all on O’Connell. It also gives the Vikings the ability to move on from starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy if they want, because there is now a built in scapegoat.

If things don’t go well in 2026, the only one to blame is O’Connell.

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