Vikings put in first three requests for interviews in GM search

UPDATE: This story has been edited to correct Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s age, which I had reported incorrectly originally. I stated that he was 32 but it appears that he is 40 years old. My apologies for the error. -Chris

We’ve seen a couple of names emerge over the past couple of days in the Minnesota Vikings’ coaching search, despite the fact that Mark Wilf said in his press conference on Monday that the team would look to hire their new General Manager first. On Wednesday, we finally saw a few names emerge in that search.

According to Close, Personal Friend of The Daily Norseman Tom Pelissero™, the Vikings have submitted requests to interview three people for their GM spot. They are as follows:

• Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Cleveland Browns President of Football Operations
• Glenn Cook, Vice President of Player Personnel for the Cleveland Browns
• Eliot Wolf, currently a player personnel consultant for the New England Patriots

Wolf is the son of former long-time Green Bay Packers’ GM Ron Wolf, who served in that capacity in Green Bay from 1991 to 2000 and eventually ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the career he had. Eliot Wolf spent 14 years working with the Packers in various roles, ascending as high as the Director of Football Operations in 2016 and 2017. Once he was passed over for the Packers’ GM position, he moved on to be the Browns’ assistant GM for two seasons, and has spent the past two years as a consultant with the Patriots.

Cook has been with the Browns for the past five seasons, serving as an assistant director of pro scouting from 2016 to 2019 and then becoming the Vice President of Player Personnel for the past two seasons. Prior to that, Cook was a scouting assistant with the Indianapolis Colts and pro scout for the Packers.

Adofo-Mensah took a much different path to the National Football League, as he has only been part of NFL front offices since 2013, when he was hired by the San Francisco 49ers as their Director of Football Research and Development. Prior to that, he was working as a commodities broker. He left to take his position with the Browns in 2020 and is regarded as the #2 football man in the organization behind GM Andrew Berry.

There’s a definite youth movement to be seen with these three choices. Wolf turns 40 in March, while Cook is 37 and Adofo-Mensah is 40 as well. All of them are considered to be up-and-coming young executives around the league, particularly Adofo-Mensah, who has a strong background in analytics and could bring a radically different perspective to the Vikings’ franchise.

No indication has been given yet as to when any interviews will take place or who the team will interview first, but as soon as we hear anything we will pass the information along to you.