Zygi and Mark Wilf will celebrate 21 years as owners of the Vikings this spring. Accomplishments in that time include construction of a $1.1 billion stadium in downtown Minneapolis, a $120 million facility in Eagan and five NFC North titles.
But what can’t be celebrated is what’s troublesome. No Super Bowl berths, back-to-back playoff appearances only once, no playoff victories since 2019 and a failure to develop a franchise quarterback.
The Vikings are usually competitive, and the Wilfs are frequently willing to spend on the roster, but we were reminded of perhaps their greatest faults again this week: A desire for collaboration instead of decisive action, and a real question about how much they are aware of what’s going on with their team on a day-to-day basis.
The latest example came Friday when the Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in a move that seemingly came out of the blue.
“Ultimately, we felt the change was necessary in football operations and did not feel comfortable going forward into this offseason with the current leadership,” Mark Wilf said. “It’s not about any one decision or move. We looked at the situation cumulatively. We just didn’t feel confident going through the entirety of the off season, an additional draft, free agency. With this structure, we have an urgency to create a winning football team and establish sustainable success for our fans.”
It was bewildering that the decision came after Adofo-Mensah spent the week scouting players at the Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Ala. If the Wilfs had little confidence in Adofo-Mensah’s ability to continue in his role following a disappointing 9-8 finish, this announcement should have come a day or two after the season ended.
Adofo-Mensah certainly shouldn’t have received a multiyear contract extension last May — unless the Wilfs had lost track of what was going on in their own building. That’s possible considering Zygi and Mark remain based in New Jersey. The Wilfs are almost certainly in contact with Vikings employees on a daily basis via video conferencing and other means of communication, but how often are they in the building to see what’s going on?
Culture was a word that came up frequently in 2022 after Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer were fired as general manager and coach, respectively, and replaced by Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell. The culture has turned sour under Spielman and Zimmer and ownership wanted that changed.
But you don’t just wave a magic wand, announce the culture changed and walk away. The culture is great when a team is winning, but what about when the Vikings won only four of their first 12 games? How many employees on the football side went into self-preservation mode when asked what had gone wrong and what responsibility was on them?
This isn’t a defense of Adofo-Mensah — I agreed with the decision to fire him — but more a concern the Wilfs weren’t exactly getting the full or real story of what had happened with their team.
The quarterback situation is the best example. Does anyone really believe that O’Connell shouldn’t shoulder much of the responsibility for what went wrong at that position? If he really wanted Sam Darnold back and acquiesced to someone telling him that wasn’t possible, that’s on O’Connell. Or did O’Connell sign off on the plan to pivot to J.J. McCarthy so the Vikings could strengthen other areas?
If O’Connell did go along with a plan he didn’t agree with, that’s not collaboration, it’s foolishness.
It appears a major part of the reason it took ownership nearly a month to dismiss Adofo-Mensah was because, as ESPN reported, the Wilfs had been conducting end-of-the-season meetings with key personnel. They then made the decision this week. That’s a ridiculous amount of time to be meeting on such key issues in a league where teams move at a very quick pace.
When the Wilfs fired Spielman after the 2021 season, they took a big gamble by turning to Adofo-Mensah, who had worked on Wall Street before breaking into the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers as an analytics outside-the-box guy. Adofo-Mensah was an outside the box hire who was going to bring a new approach to one of the Vikings’ most important jobs.
This was the type of hire that no matter how much you liked or trusted the person, it was imperative to make sure everything was running smoothly and that Adofo-Mensah was the right choice. But as ESPN’s Kevin Seifert and Matthew Coller of Purple Insider both wrote about in well-reported pieces on Adofo-Mensah’s firing, some very important things were allowed to fall through the cracks.
Turns out, Adofo-Mensah’s lack of drafting success wasn’t the only issue. Guess what? That’s on the owners.
The Wilfs could point to the fact the Vikings are 43-25 (.632 winning percentage) in the regular season since hiring Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell in 2022. But they also are 0-2 in the playoffs and will now watch Darnold play in the Super Bowl next Sunday with the Seattle Seahawks.
After firing Spielman and coach Zimmer a day after the 2021 season ended, Mark Wilf spoke of the need to hire “strong leaders, communicators and collaborators.”
Those attributes sound great, but it’s up to ownership to make sure those things are being delivered by the GM and coach on a daily basis.
The Wilfs have appeared to be hands-off owners since buying the Vikings for $600 million in May 2005. They arrived as ardent football fans — having spent their lives rooting for the New York Giants — and appeared to be in awe of the fact they owned an NFL franchise.
Nearly 21 years later, they are in charge of a franchise that is valued at $6.3 billion and will be entering a season that will mark 50 years since their last Super Bowl appearance. Before the Wilfs make another move, what they really need to do is look internally at how they operate the Vikings and whether they need to become more hands-on.
That might not be their first choice, but if it’s going to help get this franchise its first Super Bowl championship, it would be a small price to pay.
