From the second he was hired to be the new general manager of the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was put in an unfavorable position.
Before Kevin O'Connell was the eventual choice, Adofo-Mensah wanted to hire Jim Harbaugh to be the Vikings' new head coach. But Minnesota's leadership was against hiring Harbaugh, so the team ultimately gave O'Connell the job instead.
That was just the first instance of many in which Adofo-Mensah was prevented from running the Vikings how he wanted, and now he's out of a job because the team needed someone to blame.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was forced to run the Minnesota Vikings with bumpers on
A "competitive rebuild" is how Adofo-Mensah described Minnesota's approach when he first took over as the team's general manager in 2022. The Vikings weren't going to tear everything down and start from the beginning; they were going to attempt to do the impossible and rebuild parts of the team while still trying to compete for a playoff spot every season.
Guess what? The impossible turned out to be impossible.
Instead of moving on from Kirk Cousins and his way-too-expensive contract in 2022, Minnesota forced Adofo-Mensah to keep the veteran quarterback around, and although the team won 13 games in the 2022 season, they were upset in the first round of the playoffs.
Then in 2023, after Cousins tore his Achilles, the Vikings were handed the perfect opportunity to finish with a terrible record and earn a top pick in what was viewed as one of the most quarterback-rich NFL Drafts in league history.
Instead, since Minnesota's owners and other members of its leadership group always want the team to remain competitive, Adofo-Mensah traded for quarterback Josh Dobbs, who didn't lead them to the postseason, but did just enough to help the team win too many games to land a top selection in the 2024 draft.
Finishing with a 7-10 record in 2023 ultimately led to the Vikings missing out on three potential franchise-altering quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft: Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels.
Despite not ending up with any of those three in 2024, Adofo-Mensah still wanted to attempt to build a roster around a quarterback on a rookie contract, so they selected J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in 2024.
It was the right idea, but it just seems like Minnesota selected the wrong quarterback, especially given the success that Bo Nix has had with the Denver Broncos despite being drafted after McCarthy.
Wanting to build a team around a quarterback on a rookie contract also led to Adofo-Mensah's decision to let Sam Darnold walk in free agency last year, despite putting together a very good performance in 2024 that resulted in the Vikings winning 14 games.
Since that decision was made, things really couldn't have gone much worse for Minnesota.
McCarthy put together one of the worst seasons by a first-year starter in NFL history in 2025, and all Darnold did was lead the Seattle Seahawks to an appearance in the Super Bowl in his first season with the franchise.
Adofo-Mensah deserves blame for moving on from Darnold and drafting McCarthy, but it all goes back to the team wanting to conduct a "competitive rebuild" when he first arrived.
It seemed like an illogical approach at the time, and Adofo-Mensah's firing on Friday only added more evidence that it was the wrong method to follow.