After firing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late-January, the Minnesota Vikings postponed a full-on search for a new general manager to after the draft. That opened up a later than normal potential opportunity for Detroit Lions assistant general manager Ray Agnew, and as the search expanded beyond an initial list of candidates the Vikings requested an interview.
This week, the Vikings narrowed their search to five general manager candidates they want to second, in-person interviews with. According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports and others, here are those candidates.
Vikings interim general manager Rob Brzezinski
Broncos assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt
Bills assistant general manager Terrance Gray
Rams assistant general manager John McKay
Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley
What Vikings want in a general manager does not align with Ray Agnew's resume'
The Vikings' GM search seems lined up to end with the removal of Brzezinski's interim tag. With that possibly in mind, one candidate on the initial list of interview requests, Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander, declined the opportunity to interview.
Agnew also could have turned down the opportunity to interview, but there have been no reports saying he didn't do a first interview. He simply didn't make it to the second round of interviews.
Agnew's front office background is on the talent evaluation side. Before following Brad Holmes to Detroit in his current role in 2021, he was the director of pro personnel for the Los Angeles Rams from 2017-2020.
Jori Epstein of Yahoo! talked to Vikings owner Mark Wilf at the recent league meetings. The sentiment Epstein picked up, with a telling quote from Wilf, may very well have eliminated Agnew as a potential finalist for the GM job.
Vikings care less about evaluator vs. cap than they do about GM who leads. Doesn't sound like they'll split who leads business vs. evaluation.
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) May 19, 2026
"We still ultimately need to have a leader who represents ownership who can bring the building together," team owner Mark Wilf told me.
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If nothing else, Agnew has been a key talent evaluator alongside Holmes as the Lions have risen to being a contender. Apparently Vikings' ownership doesn't care about that key aspect of being a general manager, they want someone who "represents ownership and can bring the building together" above all else.
Not that Agnew can't do those latter things, but the core of his background is the No. 1 thing a general manager has to be able to do. That representative of ownership the Vikings want, as has been said elsewhere, is clearly Brzezinski, who has worked in the organization since 1999.
Agnew, even factoring in being 58 years old, will be a general manager some day if he wants it. The Vikings just weren't the right opportunity in a lot of ways, including timing of their search and more prominently, what they are looking for,
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