The Minnesota Vikings’ search for a new general manager is underway. Rob Brzezinski, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, has held the position on an interim basis since the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in January 2026.
Nonetheless, the team made it clear that they would find a permanent general manager once the 2026 draft was over. With the draft now behind them, the Vikings are conducting their search.
Amid the ongoing process to find a replacement for Adofo-Mensah, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer shared an update on what he knows and even revealed a candidate from the Buffalo Bills‘ front office who’s near or at the top of Minnesota’s list of candidates.
“As a sort of head-of-everything-but-personnel role alongside a scouting-focused general manager, which could be someone such as Bills assistant GM Terrance Gray,” Breer wrote in his May 6 mailbag article.
“If they take the latter path, Gray, who cut his scouting teeth with the Vikings before Buffalo GM Brandon Beane poached him in 2017, would be at or near the top of the list. And I do think the Vikings and the search firm they’re working with have a short list they’re plucking from at this point, with perhaps a second list backing that one up.”
Could the Vikings Give Rob Brzezinski the Job Permanently
Moreover, Breer mentioned two directions the Vikings could go as they look to find a general manager who can work well with head coach Kevin O’Connell, including giving the position to Brzezinski permanently.
“They can go one of two ways, in my opinion,” Breer noted. “One path would be to permanently elevate longtime football-operations chief Rob Brzezinski to GM after he spent the past three months serving as interim GM. The other would be to keep Brzezinski in a role like the one Mike Disner serves with the Lions or the one Tony Pastoors has (and Kevin Demoff used to fill) with the Rams.”
Star Tribune Columnist Makes Case for Rob Brzezinski
Depending on how those on the inside have felt about Brzezinski’s handling of the general manager duties during free agency and the draft, he might have the inside track to getting the job.
Brzezinski showed he can make tough trades, pulling the trigger on the Jonathan Greenard trade even though it wouldn’t make the team better but would give them breathing room with their salary cap situation.
As a result, Minnesota Star Tribune’s Chip Scoggins recently shared his thoughts on the situation, which will pick up steam in a few days, and even floated the idea of Brzezinski keeping the job permanently.
“I do think harmony is a big quality for the Wilfs,” Scoggins said on the April 21 edition of “Purple Daily.“ “I think they value that. They talk about it a lot: Collaboration, different departments getting along and not having dysfunction, and I want to address this thought that Rob’s not a football guy.
“You’ve got to have a football guy in there. He’s worked for that organization for however many years. You think he hasn’t sat in a lot of personnel meetings? He has. He’s in there all the time.
“To say he’s not a football guy, maybe he didn’t play in the NFL, maybe he doesn’t come from a coaching or scouting background, but it’s not like he hasn’t been around football for the last two decades and knows what works.
“I think he does a good job of bringing the personnel and coaching sides together because Rob has a good personality, and everybody likes and respects him in that building. I absolutely think it could work.”
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