Kevin O’Connell Not Involved in Vikings GM Search?

The Minnesota Vikings held a shortened one-day rookie minicamp on Friday, workouts that included most of the team’s new draft picks, undrafted rookie free agents, along with a few veterans sprinkled in.

It also included a Kevin O’Connell press conference with local media members, who peppered him with mostly softball-style questions, standard practice during spring/summer workouts. It is NFL’s season of perpetual hope, after all.

However, there was one interesting moment during Friday’s presser — when KOC was asked about the MN Vikings’ general manager search, which heated up this week with six executives from around the league surfacing as candidates.

Kevin O’Connell in dark on MN Vikings GM hiring process…?

O’Connell wouldn’t know anything about that, though, since he seemingly hasn’t been involved in the search. At least that’s what he told reporters on Friday, directing any GM hiring process questions to Vikings COO Andrew Miller, or others in-charge, because he says he’s not privy to that info.

In fact, KOC made it clear that he’d love to help with the search for a new general manager, in whatever capacity Miller and the Wilfs would have him. Unfortunately for him, they do not seem interested in his assistance… at least not yet.

Kevin O'Connell repeatedly deferred to Vikings ownership and COO Andrew Miller on the GM search. Asked if he expects to talk to the candidates, O'Connell said: "Whatever capacity that ownership and Andrew have me playing, that's what I'm going to do."

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) May 8, 2026

I guess it’s not completely surprising that O’Connell hasn’t been very involved in finding the Minnesota Vikings next general manager. They are still weeding out candidates and suddenly don’t seem in THAT big of a hurry to finish this process.

Locking O’Connell out of GM search is weird… right?

At the same time, Kevin O’Connell seems to have his hands in everything the Vikings do, at least from a player personnel standpoint. And that goes back to when Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was general manager.

Thus, it’d make sense they’d lean on him during this GM search. Hell, during the 2025 draft combine, Kwesi left early because he didn’t feel well, and it was O’Connell who reportedly took his place and wowed everyone he worked with down in Indy.

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The same could be said, when it comes to involvement with player personnel, about defensive coordinator Brian Flores, whose scouting background has him mostly hand-picking the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive talent.

However, it appears the Wilfs and right-hand man, Andrew Miller (who was the main decision-maker in hiring Kwesi back in 2022), are not interested in either coach’s two-cents… at least not yet.

I’ll say this: The longer this general manager search goes on, the weirder it seems to get.

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