The Minnesota Vikings fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in January, ending a four-year tenure that began with a 14-win season and ended with a 9-8 campaign, in which the team missed the playoffs entirely. The franchise still hasn’t hired a permanent replacement, but executive vice president Rob Brzezinski ran operations through the 2026 NFL Draft.
The decision was driven by a series of bad decisions at the quarterback position. Adofo-Mensah let Sam Darnold walk in free agency, declined to sign Aaron Rodgers, and handed the keys to J.J. McCarthy with Carson Wentz and undrafted rookie Max Brosmer as the backup options.
Chris Simms Points to J.J. McCarthy as the Catalyst for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s Exit
Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms didn’t mince words when assessing the root cause of Adofo-Mensah’s dismissal. He discussed it during a segment on “Chris Simms Unbuttoned.”
“I think the end of Kwesi’s time in Minnesota is related to the quarterback stuff, 100%,” Simms said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. That’s the jump-off. I don’t know what other stuff was going on, too, but I would say that’s the jump-off. And what it makes me also question was, ‘Was this just Kwesi’s pick, altogether?’ Is that why they’re not, you know, tied to J.J. the same way?”
McCarthy played 10 games in 2025 and completed just 57.6% of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. According to PFSN’s QB Impact Metric, he posted an impact score of 64.5 and ranked 37th at his position.
Moreover, injuries compounded McCarthy’s struggles. A high-ankle sprain in Week 2 cost him five games, a concussion sidelined him in Week 12, and a hand injury forced him out of the Week 16 contest against the New York Giants.
Simms also raised an interesting secondary question about head coach Kevin O’Connell’s level of investment in the decision to draft McCarthy.
“Maybe Kevin O’Connell is a little bit like, ‘You know, I liked him, but I wasn’t like I got to have J.J. McCarthy, it was the GM.’ I don’t know. I’m just throwing stuff out there, right?” Simms added. “I’m just throwing it out there. I’m just talking here, talking ball. It just feels a little different that way. And it’s rare that you feel like the number 10 pick in the draft doesn’t have the inside track automatically.”
That potential disconnect between O’Connell and McCarthy has real implications for the 2026 depth chart. The Vikings signed former No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray to a one-year, $1.3 million deal in March, with the Arizona Cardinals still covering $36.8 million of his original contract.
Although there will be a highly contested quarterback battle in Minnesota, Murray is widely expected to win the starting job over McCarthy.
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For Murray, Minnesota represents the kind of offensive system he never had in Arizona. O’Connell transformed Darnold from a reclamation project into a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and got the best out of Kirk Cousins before that. The supporting cast around Murray is arguably the best he’s ever had: Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, newly signed Jauan Jennings, and tight end T.J. Hockenson.
If Murray plays at the level his talent suggests, the arrangement benefits everyone. O’Connell, entering his fifth season without a playoff victory, desperately needs a stabilizing presence at quarterback to protect his own job security. Murray gets a chance to prove he’s still a franchise-caliber starter and set up a lucrative deal in 2027 free agency.
As for McCarthy, rather than being thrown back into a situation he clearly wasn’t ready for, he gets time to develop his game and processing speed without the weight of a franchise’s expectations on his shoulders. If someone gets hurt or McCarthy shows real growth, the opportunity will be there.
