As the Detroit Lions have risen from perennial bottom-feeder to perennial contender, assistant general manager Ray Agnew has garnered mention as a potential general manager candidate when other teams have made changes. But he had not had any known interviews.
As was easy to see as possible with their later than usual process to fill the position, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported the Minnesota Vikings have requested to interview Agnew for their general manager job.
The Vikings fired their previous general manager, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, in late-January after he had just represented them during the week at the Senior Bowl. Long-time executive Rob Brzezinski was promoted to interim general manager to lead the front office through free agency and the draft, and post-draft search ramped up in-kind when the calendar flipped to May.
Agnew is now one of nine known external candidates for the GM job in Minnesota.
When Agnew was the director of pro personnel for the Los Angeles Rams from 2017-2020, before he followed Brad Holmes to Detroit in 2021, he overlapped for one year there with Vikings' head coach Kevin O'Connell.
Despite his recent comments about being somewhat on the periphery of the general manager search, subsequent reports have said O'Connell is heavily involved in the process.
Will Ray Agnew leave for the Vikings' GM job if it's offered to him?
The Vikings started a first round of virtual interviews with general manager candidates this week, with multiple reports suggesting it will be a methodical process to find the right man for the job. With league meetings scheduled for next week and Memorial Day the following week, a round of formal, in-person interviews is in line to happen in the last week of May.
Since it's an interview for a promotion, the Lions cannot block Agnew from talking to the Vikings.
However, Agnew could decline the interview request if he wishes to. To be frank, the Vikings' search for a new general manager feels preordained to culminate in the removal of Brzezinski's interim tag. The effort to pin all the blame for past mistakes on Adofo-Mensah has been clear, and proven by changing literally nothing else in the front office since firing him.
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Agnew is absolutely deserving of an opportunity to be a general manager. But it's also safe to assume he won't leave the Lions for just any opportunity.
From afar, it's easy to question the general authenticity, and the genuine openness, of the Vikings' general manager search. And with that the case, those closer to it, like the outside candidates themselves and/or their agents, can certainly question it too.
Agnew could leave the Lions and take the Vikings' general manager job, if it's offered to him. But, taking into everything into account, the odds of it happening feel slim.
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