The Minnesota Vikings are still working on hiring their next general manager, with five known finalists.

• Vikings interim general manager Rob Brzezinski
• Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Terrance Gray
• Denver Broncos assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt
• Los Angeles Rams assistant general manager John McKay
• Seattle Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley

It’s been a long process for the Vikings, which officially got underway right after the NFL Draft. The process has been extensive and raises a lot of questions about how they will move forward.

Albert Breer mentions unique personnel structure

One of the trends in the NFL right now is having a high-ranking executive (President of Player Personnel) overseeing the general manager. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons have done just that, and having multiple top executives in the building can be viewed as a positive.

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated

One thing that’s been ruminated on is the potential that the Vikings could go to a Lions and Rams type of model, essentially splitting the job, with Brzezinski running the operations side (like Mike Disner in Detroit or Tony Pastoors in Los Angeles), and one of the external candidates running the scouting side (like Brad Holmes in Detroit or Les Snead in Los Angeles). But there is a complication with that.

Somewhere along the line, the Vikings would have to declare who ultimately is in charge of the primary football operation. So, say Minnesota wants to promote Brzezinski to president of football ops and tab a GM from that pool of four candidates. If that made Brzezinski the primary football exec, then those candidates could, theoretically, be blocked by their current teams from going to Minnesota. I don’t think those teams would do that, but they could.

The idea is an interesting one. Brzezinski has been great for the Vikings in a multitude of ways, especially in navigating the salary cap. However, the Wilfs have already rebuffed that idea multiple times, with the latest coming from Mark Wilf talking to Yahoo! Sports’ Jori Epstein at the NFL Owners Meetings.

“I think we still ultimately need to have a leader who represents ownership who can kind of bring the building together,” Wilf said. “It’s not just the [scouts and executives], it’s coaches, it’s even on the business side.”

What will the Vikings end up doing with Brzezinski? That will be the biggest aspect of the discussion, because he has been with the organization since 1999. Making sure he’s taken care of in whatever way they need to is likely a priority for the Wilfs. Will it launch Brzezinski to being the general manager? Only time will tell.