The Vikings officially introduced former Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley as the new General Manager in Minnesota on Wednesday.
During the press conference, it became clear that Teasley is running the show.
“He’s the General Manager of the organization,” owner Mark Wilf told reporters. “He has final say on the roster, of the 53[-man roster], but in the end, he’s going to lean heavily — and he’ll say it himself — on our head coach [Kevin O’Connell], obviously, and people like [executive V.P. of football operations] Rob Brzezinski in the building that have deep experience and skillsets that are complementary. So I think we have it all put together in a great way. And I’m confident that this is a great move for the organization, a great move for the Minnesota Vikings.”
Wilf added that Teasley and O’Connell will both report directly to ownership, with Brzezinski reporting to Teasley.
“Nolan, the General Manager, reports to ownership as well as the head coach,” Wilf said. “Rob [Brzezinski] is part of the football operations and football organization that’s under Nolan. So again, in the end, that’s the structure. That’s the way it is. If it comes to structure, we’ve got a problem.”
Wilf is right. It’s not about pulling rank. It’s about collaboration. The various parties need to get along. To build consensus. To always remember that it’s about finding the best solution for the organization.
Teasley becomes the leader of the football operation. O’Connell is the leader of the locker room. The more they work together, the better off the Vikings will be.
Vikings Clips
Larry Fitzgerald Sr., a long-time Minnesota sports reporter and the father of soon-to-be Hall of Fame receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr., has died. He was 71.
Marcus Fitzgerald, the brother of Larry Jr., announced their father’s passing on social media, via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr.,” Marcus wrote. “A devoted father, husband, grandfather, and a true pioneer in the Minnesota broadcasting community, he spent his life pouring into the people and the city he loved so much.
“He left us peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by his family and the people who loved him most.”
Larry Fitzgerald Sr. was a fixture in the Minnesota sports scene since 1978.
“The Vikings organization is saddened by the passing of Larry Fitzgerald Sr., a distinguished journalist and trusted voice in Minnesota sports for nearly 50 years,” the Vikings said in a statement. “Larry built relationships with players, coaches and staff members for each of the local teams and was recognized across the NFL, covering dozens of Super Bowls and other major events.
“Beyond his reputation in the media, Larry was a dedicated father and a community leader who cared deeply about the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Our hearts are with Larry Jr., Marcus and the entire Fitzgerald family, as well as Larry’s friends and colleagues as they mourn his loss.”
We extend our condolences to Larry Fitzgerald Sr.'s family, friends, and colleagues.
Nolan Teasley officially became the new General Manager of the Vikings on Monday.
Word that the Vikings settled on Teasley came over the weekend and the Vikings announced the move on Monday afternoon. Teasley succeeds Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was fired earlier in the offseason, after spending the last 13 seasons with the Seahawks.
Teasley will work with executive vice president Rob Brzezinski, who did the GM job on an interim basis after the firing, and head coach Kevin O’Connell as the top pieces on the football side of the building.
“He carries himself with humility but can confidently articulate the impressive depth of his football knowledge. We share a belief in the importance of culture, consensus-building, and putting people in positions to become the best versions of themselves,” O’Connell said in a statement. “I look forward to working alongside Nolan and Rob as we continue building on the foundation we’ve established and strive to achieve our goal of bringing a Super Bowl to Vikings fans.”
Teasley was part of two Super Bowl winners while with the Seahawks and the Vikings will be hoping that he makes it three before his time with the club is up.
Now that the Supreme Court has declined to accept the NFL’s last-ditch effort to force all or part of the Brian Flores case into arbitration, the litigation will finally get going.
And the going could get nasty.
By way of background, I have handled many employment cases. From both sides. After working for years at a firm that focused on representing corporate clients that had been sued (no matter how strong or weak a given case may have been), I decided that I was more interested in representing individuals who had cases I believed to be strong.
So I’ve been there, done that. Many times.
Here’s the reality. No company that has been sued for wrongful termination will admit it. The witnesses will have locked into their stories months before it’s time to take the oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Proving that the party line is essentially a lie requires a relentless pursuit of circumstantial evidence to contradict the predictable denial of discrimination, retaliation, etc. (For example, if the plaintiff was fired for violating a specific workplace rule, it’s useful to show that others violated the same rule, without being fired or even disciplined.)
This means that, in the Flores case, his lawyers will aggressively pursue deposition testimony from a wide range of witnesses from the league office and the various teams that have been sued (so far, the Dolphins, Broncos, Giants, Texans, Cardinals, and Titans). Plenty of the witnesses (starting with the Commissioner and any owners) will not react well to being verbally poked, prodded, and pressed for anything beyond the predictable default position: “we didn’t do anything wrong.” These witnesses will emerge from the deposition process feeling anywhere from frustrated to flat-out pissed off.
Flores (along with the other plaintiffs, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton) will deal with the same kind of thing. The lawyers representing the NFL and its teams will look for anything they can find to make them look bad. They’ll dig and dig and dig some more to make the process as uncomfortable as it can be. They’ll throw mud at the wall. They’ll throw mud directly at the plaintiffs. They’ll try to catch them in any potential misstatement, big or small, that could then be characterized at trial as a lie.
In the deposition process, there’s a wide range of latitude when questioning a witness. With no jury present, the lawyers don’t have to worry about being so aggressive (to the point of being openly hostile) that it may alienate the people who will decide the case.
This is what I’d typically say to anyone who was interested in suing a current or former employer: “Think of the worst thing about yourself that you wouldn’t want other people to know. You don’t have to tell me what it is. Just think of what it is. Then, think of what would happen if that thing became public. And then assume that, at some point during this litigation, it will.”
The unofficial playbook for lawyers defending corporate clients against claims of illegal employment practices includes turning the tables on the plaintiff in the hopes of making the plaintiff look as bad as possible when it’s time to present the case to a jury. It gets messy. It gets ugly. And, like the Commissioner and owners who are questioned by Flores’s lawyers, Flores will emerge from his deposition feeling anywhere from frustrated to flat-out pissed off.
That’s how it goes. The discovery process becomes the legal equivalent of a street fight. Which could be bad for the league, the teams, and/or Flores, Wilks, and Horton.
As the snippets of deposition testimony come to light, it will be very good for my current business.
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.
The 49ers ended up with not one but two international games in 2026 — one in Australia and one in Mexico. Even though the trip to Melbourne will be much longer than the trip to Mexico City, the Mexico trip will likely keep them away from home even longer than the season-opener down under.
“We haven’t finalized it yet, but we’d love to stay here and go there,” Shanahan said of the travel plans for the Week 11 game against the Vikings in Mexico City. “It’s a shorter flight, but that’s not really the issue. The main thing with Mexico City is it’s 2,000 [feet] higher than Denver. And so, we like to get adjusted to that altitude. So, we’ll probably go to Colorado Springs again like we did last time to get ready for that altitude and then probably go to Mexico City the night before.”
The 49ers play their Week 10 game at Dallas. Shanahan was asked whether the team would go straight to Colorado from Texas.
“We haven’t decided that yet, but most likely,” Shanahan said. “We’ll probably end up, the Mexico City trip will probably be a longer one than the Australia one, just because of that.”
The two international trips impose a significant burden on the 49ers. And it potentially creates a competitive disadvantage. Those issues, however, have taken a back seat to the league’s efforts to globalize the game.
The NFL wants to secure the ability to play 16 international games per year, with the idea of having every team make one international trip per season. That would be the fairest way to handle it. If every team has to leave the country once, the disadvantage levels out.
For now, with a maximum of 10 international games, it would be far more fair for no team to be expected to travel to another country for a game more than once per year. In the ultra-difficult NFC West, having the 49ers make two separate trips to play in another country won’t make it an easier to successfully compete with the Seahawks and the Rams.
