Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell have created a new culture in the Twin Cities since they arrived in tandem in 2022. After O’Connell signed a multi-year extension in January, the Vikings have now locked up the other half of their brain trust. They announced a new multi-year extension for Adofo-Mensah this week. The GM was going into the fourth and final year of his deal.
Advertisement
It’s been a long and winding road to this moment for Adofo-Mensah. He wasn’t even supposed to be here. He was supposed to be on Wall Street somewhere. Adofo-Mensah was an Ivy Leaguer who attended Princeton, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and also walked onto the basketball team.
He then earned a master’s degree in economics from another extremely prestigious school, Stanford. That experience did actually land him a job on Wall Street. But he could feel he wasn’t quite done with sports.
“But there was a little bit of competitor still left in me. I still wanted to apply and practice my knowledge of the industry, was really interested in sports, and wanted to seek out an opportunity.”
Adofo-Mensah had been living in the heart of downtown Manhattan on Water Street in a loft alongside five other young professionals. He was an associate portfolio manager for Taylor Woods Capital as well as Vice President/Executive Director at Credit Suisse, where he worked as a commodities trader. However, the call of the wild continued, and he had a chance encounter with San Francisco 49ers execs.
“Obviously the 49ers, I was fortunate, they happened to be looking for somebody to advance their efforts. Bryan Hampton and Paraag Marathe, I got connected with them at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Paraag Marathe was San Fran’s executive vice president of football operations and NFL cap and contract manager, viewed around the league as a salary cap wiz. Adofo-Mensah got to work under him and GM Trent Baalke for several years. Even when Baalke and company were let go and John Lynch became the new head honcho, Adofo-Mensah stayed on.
Eventually, his time as manager of football research & development from 2013-2016 and director of football research and development from 2017-2019 paid dividends.
Adofo-Mensah continued to make connections, and eventually, one of those resulted in a promotion for the Princeton grad. Andrew Berry, whom Adofo-Mensah had met at the Combine in 2019, got the Cleveland Browns GM job at just 32 years old, making him the youngest GM ever. Berry promptly brought in Adofo-Mensah, who was just one year younger, in 2020 as vice president of football operations.
In their first year there, the Browns won their first playoff game since 1994. After the 2021 season, Adofo-Mensah became a hot commodity once again and was scooped up by the Minnesota Vikings to be their general manager.
In three years there, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has helped guide the Vikings to a 34-17 record. That includes an NFC North division title and two playoff appearances. He has left a bit to be desired when it comes to his draft choices, apart from Jordan Addison. But he’s been a mover and shaker in free agency. That’s encouraging, because it means he’s not afraid to be aggressive and take the risk that could bring the Vikings their first ever Super Bowl.
