Vikings Still Plan GM Interviews; Brzezinski Dubbed 'Strong Candidate'

After sorting out which veteran quarterback they would bring in this offseason, the next biggest question the Vikings have to answer is who will be the full-time general manager going forward. Vikings owner Mark Wilf reiterated at this week's owners' meetings in Arizona that the organization will sort the GM situation, but not until after the conclusion of the NFL Draft in April.

"Well, we're already laying the groundwork," Wilf said on the Vikings' in-house entertainment channel. "Again, this is an ownership decision. Very important for the club. Right now, we're really focused on the NFL Draft. We've got nine picks, we're really excited about it, and our fans should be as well. So, we're excited about that and focused on that."

That tracks with the initial timeline given in the wake of the decision to fire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in January. Following Adofo-Mensah's departure, Rob Brzezinski was named the interim general manager through the draft. Wilf noted that following the draft, a decision to find a full-time general manager will come in quick order.

"Right after the draft, we'll get going in terms of interviews, getting the best candidates, talking through it, and making sure we have the right leader for our organization," Wilf said.

Talking to local media in Phoenix on Monday, Wilf said the Vikings are looking for "someone who is a great leader."

"We want to be competitive every single year and have long-term success," Wilf explained. "So someone’s got to fit within that. It’s got to fit within what we have in our building right now, as well."

Since he took over as the acting GM, it's been widely reported that Brzezinski has a good chance at landing the full-time role. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport told the Vikings Entertainment Network that he believes the long-time Vikings executive will have a good shot at landing the gig.

"I mean, he's always had a strong voice in the organization," Rapoport said. "He's always been someone where you say, if a team was smart and they wanted to hire a GM who doesn't just scout, doesn't just grind tape, but really understands how an organization works, really operates at a very high level, does great contracts, makes really good trades, just runs the business of football, he'd be someone teams should hire and for whatever reason, partially because he's very loyal, Rob Brzezinski has stayed in Minnesota."

"To me, this is someone who probably should have been a GM already," Rapoport added. "I wasn't surprised to see him get the interim title. I would expect him to be a pretty strong candidate for the full-time job as well. As he should be."