The hiring of Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley as the Vikings’ new G.M. will carry a specific benefit for his former team.
Per the league, Teasley qualifies as a diverse candidate under the NFL provision that gives the former team of a newly-hired G.M. or head coach a pair of third-round compensatory draft picks.
The only question is whether Teasley will be Minnesota’s “primary football executive.” That requirement prevented the Bears from receiving the compensatory draft picks when assistant General Manager Ian Cunningham was hired to be the Falcons G.M. The league decided that president of football Matt Ryan is the “primary football executive” in Atlanta.
The Bears appealed the decision to the league, and Bears fans continue to be mystified by the outcome — especially since Ryan has made it clear that Cunningham is a General Manager “in every facet of the word.”
Minnesota has no similar position to Ryan’s job with the Falcons. The only alternative to Teasley would be coach Kevin O’Connell. But there has been no indication that, moving forward, O’Connell will emerge as the top football executive for the Vikings, with full control over the roster and the draft.
The NFL’s full collection of diversity of initiatives have recently come under attack by Florida’s attorney general. The Seahawks getting two extra third-round draft picks undoubtedly will spark a reaction from those who, in the current climate, attack efforts aimed at enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
For any NFL team, the most important relationship happens between the head coach and the G.M. (Except where the coach is the G.M., in title or far more often in power.)
In Minnesota, the biggest question emerging from the hiring of Nolan Teasley as the successor to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is whether Teasley and Kevin O’Connell will operate as a partnership that strengthens, not fractures, during the inevitability of adversity.
When the coach and G.M. are truly in it together, struggles don’t become an occasion to point fingers. When the coach and G.M. don’t have a strong connection, human nature takes over when the going gets tough. One blames the other, subtly or overtly, in the hopes of surviving the purge.
Earlier this month, O’Connell said he’d be as involved in the G.M. search as ownership wanted him to be. As characterized by Kevin Seifert of ESPN, O’Connell was heavily involved.
Seifert reports that ownership “lean[ed] mostly” on O’Connell and Vikings chief operating officer Andrew Miller in the search that landed on Teasley.
Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that Teasley and O’Connell “have known each other for years,” and that they built a relationship through O’Connell’s connection to Seahawks G.M. John Schneider.
Via Goessling, that relationship made Teasley “attractive” to the Vikings as they “looked for a partner for the head coach.”
Teasley’s side of the relationship becomes critical, too. Most aspiring General Managers have a personal list of the coaches they’d want to work with if/when they get the top job in a team’s front office.
Remember when Jim Caldwell coached the Lions? He went 11-5, 7-9, 9-7, and 9-7 with a team that had struggled through many bad seasons. It wasn’t enough to keep Bob Quinn from fulfilling his desire to work with Matt Patricia — who generated a record of 13-29-1 before the Lions moved on.
O’Connell, through four years, has proven that he should be at or near the top of anyone’s list. And if Teasley and O’Connell already know each other, that’s a major plus.
Regardless, they’re now partners. They need to be joined at the hip in order to give the Vikings a chance at something more than every-other-year one-and-done playoff appearances.
The Vikings have their new General Manager.
Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasley has agreed to terms with the Vikings to become their new GM, according to Tom Pelissero.
Teasley has spent the last 14 years with the Seahawks. Before becoming their assistant GM he hwas director of pro personnel, and before that he was assistant director of pro personnel for a year and a pro personnel scout for three years. He started in Seattle as a scouting intern.
Teasley was a running back at Central Washington who graduated in 2007.
The Vikings fired their former GM, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, in January. Vikings executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski had been handling the GM job on an interim basis since then.
The recent amendment to the Brian Flores civil complaint adds new allegations regarding a “culture of retaliation,” based on his decision to assert his legal rights in court. In reviewing the document, something stood out.
In paragraph 235 of the third amended complaint, Flores alleges that the Dolphins failed to make contractually-required severance payments. In paragraph 236, Flores claims that the Dolphins also have tried to recover money already paid to Flores.
“To make matters worse, after this lawsuit was filed, the Dolphins filed a letter with Commissioner Goodell seeking an arbitration over claims that Mr. Flores should be required to return hundreds of thousands of dollars of earned income,” Flores alleges. “The only reason that the Dolphins filed this request is because Mr. Flores filed this suit and opposed the team’s discriminatory conduct.”
For now, there are no details about the alleged effort to recover from Flores money he had already been paid. (Most notably, what did Flores supposedly do that justifies seeking “hundreds of thousands of dollars of earned income”?) Those facts undoubtedly will emerge as the case proceeds.
The recent decision of the Supreme Court to not accept the NFL’s appeal on the issue of arbitration confirms that the case will proceed in court. Barring a settlement (and this could be a good time for the league to start making offers to Flores in an effort to keep all sorts of potentially unflattering facts from coming to light) much will be learned about all aspects of Flores’s claims against the NFL, the Dolphins, and multiple other teams.
The Vikings are having a true competition at the quarterback. It’s not shaping up to be much of a competition.
Based on this week’s OTA session that was open to the media, newcomer Kyler Murray is well ahead of incumbent starter J.J. McCarthy.
Here’s the key quote from Kevin Seifert of ESPN: “Overall, the afternoon was a reminder that McCarthy could continue along the upward trajectory he established at the end of last season -- and still fall well short of matching Murray’s experience, arm talent and potential to make big plays in the passing game.”
Pro football is the ultimate meritocracy. The Vikings lucked into Murray, the first overall pick in 2019. Cut by the Cardinals with more than $30 million in guaranteed money for 2026, the Vikings were able to get Murray — who grew up a Vikings fan — for the league minimum of $1.3 million.
McCarthy has had a fair shake. He has missed too much time due to injury, and availability is absolutely a skill. Also, McCarthy has had issues with accuracy and a fastball-heavy arsenal that keeps the Vikings from using layered passes to fuel the intermediate passing game.
If McCarthy had done well enough in 2025, the Vikings wouldn’t have been looking for another viable starter in 2026. Now, the best player will play.
So far, Murray is on track to be the better of the two. Which will help the Vikings achieve a better outcome than they experienced in McCarthy’s first year as the unquestioned starter.
