As the Minnesota Vikings continue their late search for a new general manager, the circumstances of the calendar (league meetings this week, followed by the Memorial Day holiday next Monday) led to the idea that second interviews may be delayed. And, thus, a hire may not be made for a bit.
On Tuesday at the league meetings, per the Minnesota Star Tribune's Emily Leiker, Vikings owner Mark Wilf said the hiring process would move to its second phase in what sounded like pretty short order.
"Now we’re gonna go more in-depth in the coming days, more in-person versus virtual, and I’m sure we’ll have some great conversations.”
According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports on Wednesday, from a list that was once as many as 10 reported candidates, the Vikings have narrowed it to five they want to have in-person second interviews with.
- Vikings interim GM Rob Brzezinski
- Denver Broncos assistant GM Reed Burckhardt
- Buffalo Bills assistant GM Terrance Gray
- Los Angeles Rams assistant GM John McKay
- Seattle Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasley
Minnesota Vikings move forward to next round of general manager search
Formally requesting an interview with Brzezinski, who was named interim general manager after Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was fired in late January, feels odd.
He essentially just had an on-the-job interview for the permanent position via free agency and the draft. His overall vision for the roster going forward, should he be made the permanent GM, was presumably made clear to the powers that be.
There doesn't seem to be much more, if anything, that Minnesota can learn about Brzezinski from an in-person interview.
Terrance Gray and Reed Burckhardt spent a lot of time with the Vikings earlier in their careers, and John McKay is, of course, familiar to head coach Kevin O'Connell via their shared time with the Los Angeles Rams. Those ties seem to have made them easy finalists for the job.
Before the formal requests for in-person interviews were made, Gray, McKay, and Teasley were in Orlando at the league meetings this week as part of the coaching and front office accelerator program the league brought back this year.
In theory, the schedule for in-person interviews in Minnesota with those three candidates could already be set.
It still feels inevitable that Brzezinski will have his interim tag removed. Until shown otherwise, the requirement to carry out a search process seems to far exceed any desire to hire someone else as the general manager.
All in all, even if the end result seems to be a formality, it's nice to see a hiring process one Vikings beat writer expected to be a "methodical path to reach resolution" move to its next (and final?) phase rather quickly.
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