{"id":441103,"date":"2026-01-31T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441103\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:46:08","slug":"kevin-oconnell-gets-major-news-after-vikings-fire-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441103\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin O&#8217;Connell Gets Major News After Vikings Fire GM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kevin-oconnell-minnesota-vikings.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Kevin O'Connell, Minnesota Vikings\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>(Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 30, the <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a> surprised many by parting ways with general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah following their failure to reach the playoffs in the 2025 NFL season.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/47779886\/vikings-fire-gm-kwesi-adofo-mensah-4-seasons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported<\/a>, citing sources, that tensions had been simmering within the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/\" title=\"Vikings\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"156725\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vikings<\/a> organization throughout the year. Schefter added that the situation inside Minnesota had reportedly become \u201cugly,\u201d according to a league source.<\/p>\n<p>After the firing was announced on Jan. 30, Vikings owner and president Mark Wilf spoke to the media and shared what the future holds for head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoach O\u2019Connell, we have all the confidence in the world in Coach O\u2019Connell,\u201d Wilf told reporters (h\/t <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alec_lewis\/status\/2017326994677997827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Alec Lewis of The Athletic<\/a>). \u201cHe\u2019s done an excellent job as our head coach. But we need to have the entire organization \u2014\u00a0he included, everyone is accountable here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vikings Decision to Fire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Revealed<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Wilf explained his decision to fire Adofo-Mensah, especially after extending him last offseason. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe held our\u00a0end-of-the-season\u00a0organizational meetings over a couple of weeks and then spent this past week as an ownership group reviewing, discussing, and how best to move forward,\u201c\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Vikings\/status\/2017321298414690505\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Wilf told reporters at his press conference<\/a>. \u201cThis is a critical offseason. Ultimately, we felt the change was necessary in football operations, and did not feel comfortable going forward into this offseason with the current leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not about any one decision or move. We looked at the situation cumulatively; we just didn\u2019t feel confident going through the the offseason, an additional draft, and free agency with this structure. We have an urgency to create a winning football team and establish sustainable success for our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>J.J. McCarthy Gets Blame for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Firing<\/p>\n<p>Amid the reaction from several sports media outlets, sports media host Jim Rome didn\u2019t hold back on the reasons Adofo-Mensah was fired, but he put most of the blame on starting QB J.J. McCarthy, whom the former Vikings general manager selected as the team\u2019s franchise signal-caller.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, that move didn\u2019t pay off in 2025, and it didn\u2019t help that Sam Darnold continued his success with the\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a>\u00a0and is now in Super Bowl LX.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is, [McCarthy] in and of himself did not get his GM fired,\u201c\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jimrome\/status\/2017339672234430733\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Rome said on the Jan. 30 edition of \u201cThe Jim Rome Show.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cHe didn\u2019t do it alone. Now, he had help, and he had something to do with it, but he had help. Sam Darnold helped. Daniel Jones\u2019 amazing start to the season helped. Aaron Rodgers leading the\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Steelers<\/a>\u00a0to the playoffs helped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s not all on J.J., but it\u2019s mostly on J.J. because the biggest problem facing the Vikings right now is that they still have an uncertain future at quarterback. They had all these quarterbacks go through there, and they still have no quarterback. And the rumors this week about bringing in Mac Jones clearly did not set ownership\u2019s hair on fire or help J.J. They\u2019re not even positive what they have in \u2018Nine \u2018\u00a0because \u2018Nine \u2018\u00a0can\u2019t even stay on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his first season as the Vikings starter, McCarthy had a passer rating of 72.6 with 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in 10 games, <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nfl\/ask\/j.j.-mccarthy-2025-stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">per StatMuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/eddierazo91\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area &amp; California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/eddierazo91\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Vikings\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images) On Jan. 30, the Minnesota Vikings surprised many by parting ways with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-441103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}