The Minnesota Vikings are in the process of finding a new general manager. Despite being one of the league’s most consistently competitive teams for nearly 60 years, the Vikings have had a somewhat problematic general manager history. The exception to that problematic history is Jim Finks. He has a bust in Canton for being one of the best to ever do the job. Finks built the Vikings teams that went to four Super Bowls from 1969-76. It’s a damn shame that he left the team in 1974. It’s an even greater shame that he went to the Chicago Bears. For whatever reason, the Vikings turned the team’s football decision-making over to career businessmen after Finks. Here’s a look at the somewhat puzzling and often troubling general manager history of the Minnesota Vikings.
Bert Rose (1961-63)
Bert Rose got things rolling for the expansion Minnesota Vikings. He came up with the name and the color scheme for the team. Rose saw the “Vikings” moniker having a dual purpose. It represented a strong and aggressive entity as well as the numerous Scandinavians in the Minnesota region. Inspired by the colors of his alma mater, the University of Washington, Rose chose purple and gold as the color scheme for the Vikings. He selected Los Angeles cartoonist Karl Hubenthal to design the team’s helmet, uniform, and logo. After attending to those important matters, Rose hired former Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Norm Van Brocklin as the Vikings first head coach.
Jim Finks (1964-73)
There’s a reason Jim Finks was the second general manager, after Tex Schramm, to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He built teams into annual contenders. The Vikings were his first. One of his first great decisions was hiring Bud Grant as the franchise’s second head coach in 1967. Two years later, the Vikings were in Super Bowl IV. The teams that went to four Super Bowls, and should’ve gone to at least a couple more, were built by Finks.
1974 was a transition-year when it comes to the Vikings general manager position. Jim Finks resigned in May 1974. The 1974 NFL Draft was held in late January so Finks was around for that as well as the bulk of the offseason. Without free agency, NFL offseasons weren’t the “events” they are today. When Finks departed in May much of the year’s team construction was already done. On August 15, 1974, Mike Lynn was hired as assistant to the president (Max Winter) of the Vikings. Lynn quickly burrowed his way into Winter’s embrace and was named general manager less than a year later.
Mike Lynn (1975-90)
Mike Lynn really had no business being a general manager. He was a businessman. Maybe he was a good one. I know that he was a terrible general manager. At the start of his (too long) run as the Vikings general manager, Lynn admittedly let the actual football people make the football decisions. At some point, he decided to take a crack at those decisions. It was a mistake. When Bud Grant decided to retire after the 1983 season, he recommended offensive coordinator Jerry Burns as his replacement. Instead of doing the right thing, Lynn opted for receivers coach Les Steckel. It was a mistake. 1984 was the most painful season in all my years as a Vikings fan. The year was so bad that Grant returned as coach in 1985 to get the team back above water. As he should’ve been in 1984, Burns was named the head coach in 1986. Lynn was a terrible general manager. His football idiocy is probably best defined by the “Herschel Walker Trade.” That travesty of a trade helped turn the Dallas Cowboys into three-time champions and set the Vikings back years. I really don’t understand how this weasel became a favorite within the team and around the league. By the late 1980s, he had one of the most influential voices in league circles.
Jeff Diamond (1991-98)
After the failure of Mike Lynn, Vikings ownership decided to make the same mistake in promoting Jeff Diamond to general manager in 1991. Lynn wasn’t a football person. Diamond wasn’t a football person. As a result, both “learned” the job as they held the job. Diamond joined the Vikings in 1976 as a public relations gofer. 15 years later, he was doing a job he had no business doing. For most of the league’s history, the head coach made, or oversaw, all football decisions. As late as the 1990s, an NFL general manager was nothing like the critical franchise fixture it is today. Coaches and a handful of scouts ran the draft and built the team. Everything started to change in 1993 with the introduction of free agency. Even though Diamond held the top personnel job in Minnesota, I think it’s safe to say that head coach Dennis Green and the scouts ran the drafts and made the bulk of the roster-building decisions. Diamond did handle the contacts and for that he was named NFL Executive of the Year in 1998. He received that award for jamming a handful of big contracts under that year’s salary cap. Instead of facing the pain of those big deals in the years beyond 1998, Diamond bolted for the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
Tim Connolly (1999)
Another businessman running the Vikings personnel department. Tim Connolly inherited the role when Jeff Diamond bolted for Tennessee. Fortunately, Connolly’s run in Minnesota was short.
Dennis Green (2000)
Red McCombs owned the Vikings from 1998 until he sold the team to the Wilf family in 2005. It’s safe to say that McCombs didn’t want to spend much more than the $250 million it took to buy the team. He didn’t provide much money for assistant coaches. There didn’t appear to be any money for a general manager. As a result, Dennis Green had the dual role of head coach and general manager in 2000. He was really already doing both even without the title. McCombs was probably thrilled when he could fire both his head coach and his general manager in one move.
Rob Brzezinski (2001-05)
Rob Brzezinski came to Minnesota from the Miami Dolphins in 1999. He’s been a franchise fixture ever since. As VP of Football Operations, he’s given the Vikings de facto general manager role from 2001-05 by Pro Football Reference. In reality, the closest he’s come to being the general manger was this past offseason. From 2001-05, the coaches (led by Mike Tice) and scouts (led by Scott Studwell on the college side) probably made the football decisions.
Fran Foley (2006)
A year after buying the Vikings, the Wilfs hired Brad Childress as head coach and Fran Foley as VP of Player Personnel. The owners decided to go with the ill-conceived and poorly named “Triangle of Authority.” Childress, Foley and Rob Brzezinski made up the triangle and collectively made football decisions. Hiring Foley was a mistake. It was soon revealed that he had lied about portions of his career in football. He was also reportedly problematic in the building. A few days after the 2006 draft, Foley was fired.
Rick Spielman (2006-21)
Rick Spielman was hired to replace Fran Foley. The “Triangle of Authority” might not have continued by name but it continued in practice. Spielman simply replaced Foley in the triangle. He was promoted to general manager in 2012. This is significant as Spielman was the first football guy to be named Vikings general manager since Jim Finks departed in 1974. Spielman has his critics. All general managers do. I believe that he did a fine job as general manager. When he and head coach Mike Zimmer were getting along, I felt the Vikings were heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, the relationship fell apart at the end.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (2022-25)
The Wilfs decided to try their luck with an analytics-centric decision-maker when they hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in 2022. While I liked that he stressed the importance of getting on the grass and actually scouting players, he was a spreadsheet-guy at heart. Perhaps I’m being overly nostalgic, I’m convinced that a team’s top decision-maker must be a career football guy. Even if I’m skeptical about the choice, I always hope that any person the Vikings hire, sign, or draft works out beautifully. I hoped until the very end that Adofo-Mensah would get a handle on football team-building. It’s safe to say that none of his four drafts were great. The first was simply terrible. Four years on and none of the ten players selected in 2022 are on the roster. That’s bad. Fortunately for the team, he did hit on several players in free agency.
Rob Brzezinski (2026)
While Rob Brzezinski didn’t come up through the scouting side of football, he’s had an active role in team-building for decades. His primary role has been the management of the salary cap. With that he’s arguably the league’s best. According to those inside and outside the building, his people skills are universally considered a strength. He knows his lane. He relies on those that do the scouting and evaluating. He builds a consensus. From a distance, it looks like his offseason as the interim general manager was successful. I have no doubt that he’ll do fine if he gets the full-time job but I’m not so sure I want him to get it. The general manager is always one, or two, bad drafts away from being fired. Brzezinski is too important to the Vikings to be on the annual chopping block.
Because of the Mike Lynn years and the front office confusion of the early 2000s, I’ve known that the Vikings have had a troublesome general manager history. I didn’t realize the extent of the troubles until putting this timeline together. It really is amazing that the team managed to stay competitive through most of the troubling years. I was too young to truly appreciate it at the time but I sure miss the sound decision-making of Jim Finks. Lynn, Jeff Diamond, and Tim Connolly should never have risen to general manager. I suppose the Vikings remained competitive over the years because it was the coaches and scouts that ran the drafts. Those business bozos wouldn’t know a flanker from a nose tackle. People talk about this year’s draft being a coach’s draft. Nearly every draft since Finks left has been a coach’s draft in Minnesota. 2026 will be the Vikings 66th season. In all that time, the team was in solid general manager hands with Jim Finks and Rick Spielman. That’s about 26 of those years. Bert Rose was great in getting the team up and running. When it came to actual football decisions, head coach Norm Van Brocklin and Director of Player Personnel Joe Thomas called the shots in the early years of the franchise. To be fair, it really wasn’t until well into the free agency era that the general manager became the all-important team-building position it is today. Before the explosion of free agency, college and pro scouts did the work and the coaches made the decisions. Each offseason was just the draft, a trade or two, and a handful of waiver claims. Free agency added a whole new level to team-building and the demands became too great for most head coaches. For the past couple decades, the general manager has perhaps rivaled the head coach in importance. Especially since it’s often the general manager that hires the head coach. With the Vikings days away from hiring their next general manager, it’s easy to dream and hope for a return to the solid days of Jim Finks.
