Vikings getting Coach/GM interview process underway

It’s been a week since the news came down that the Minnesota Vikings had fired head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman, and the team is now getting the search for replacements at both positions going in earnest.

The team conducted their first two interviews on Sunday, speaking with Tennessee Titans’ Vice President of Football Operations Monti Ossenfort about the GM job and Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett about the head coaching position.

Sunday was the last day that teams could interview Hackett and Ossenfort because the Titans and Packers were on byes during the postseason. If teams want to speak to them now, they’ll have to wait until those teams are eliminated from the playoffs.

The team also has three more interviews lined up for the GM job over the next few days.

• Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that the Vikings will be speaking to Philadelphia Eagles’ Vice President of Football Operations Catherine Raiche on Monday.
• Kimberley Martin of ESPN is reporting that Monday will also be the day that the Vikings interview Cleveland Browns’ Vice President of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
• Martin is also reporting that Adofo-Mensah’s co-worker with the Browns, Glenn Cook, will interview with the team on Thursday. Cook is the Browns’ Vice President of Player Personnel.
• Rapoport is also reporting that the team will speak with Eagles’ Director of Player Personnel Brandon Brown on Tuesday regarding their GM position and will also be speaking with Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Vice President of Player Personnel John Spytek “this week.”
• Darren Wolfson of KSTP is reporting that the Vikings will be speaking with Kansas City Chiefs’ Executive Director of Player Personnel Ryan Poles on Tuesday.
• Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Vikings will interview New England Patriots’ front office consultant Eliot Wolf for the GM job on Thursday.

Those are all eight of the candidates that we’ve mentioned the Vikings requesting interviews with over the past few days, so the initial round of interviews will be completed this week.

You can find mini-bios of all the people that the Vikings have requested to interview for both the head coach and general manager jobs on our tracker, which we’ve been updating with the latest news when it has come available.

The Vikings, obviously, have not established a timetable for when these processes are going to be completed. All we know for sure at this point is that the team has repeatedly said that they would be hiring a GM before they hired a coach, presumably to give the new GM some say in that process. The team likely spoke with Hackett about the head coaching position based on the timetable mentioned.

We’ll continue to bring you updates on the Vikings’ search for new leadership, including watching for the proverbial “white smoke” to come from Eagan to signify that a decision has been made.