Mark Wilf, Minnesota Vikings
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(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The Minnesota Vikings hold the No. 18 pick, and could the team decide to move up for a player who slides outside of the Top 10? Every draft teams move up for players who they didn’t think would be near where they’d be drafting.
Nonetheless, if the Vikings do decide they want to move up for a player who falls outside the Top 10, or even move into the Top 10, the team’s former linebacker Ben Leber sent a clear warning.
“Even if one of these teams has called the Vikings and said, ‘Hey, [Vikings executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski], you looking to move up here?’ the answer is no,”Leber said on the April 2 edition of KFAN’s “Draft Talk.“
“We just need to gather as much talent as possible. There’s no reason for us to be sacrificing draft picks this year or next year or any of that. I’m all for keeping as many picks as possible and not moving up.”
Minnesota Will Need to Begin GM Search After the Draft
Once the 2026 NFL Draft is in the books, the offseason will still be a busy one for Minnesota as it will need to begin its search for a new general manager to replace Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who the team fired in January.
In an article published on April 2, Kevin Seifertof ESPN provided an update on the team’s search and whether the Vikings have a clear candidate for the job.
“But Wilf also laid out a process that would cast a wide net, including hiring a third party to help cull the list of candidates,“ Seifert wrote. “A small group of existing staffers will assist in the process. Thatis expected to include O’Connell, who has a strong relationship with Brzezinski, as well as chief operating officer Andrew Miller, who led the committee that hired Adofo-Mensah.
“Wilf said the process would be ‘ownership-driven,‘ but the degree to which O’Connell or Miller play a leading role could well tip the scales in the Wilfs’ final decision. Regardless, many NFL teams enter a GM or coach search with a preferred candidate in mind. In this case, the Vikings clearly do not have one.”
Vikings Might Not Be Considering Two Candidates for GM Job
Moreover, Seifert cast doubt on two names for the job: Brzezinski andDenver Broncos general manager George Paton, who spent time with the Vikings from 2007 to 2021.
“Some thought that Zygi and Mark Wilf were clearing a path for the return of former assistant general manager George Paton, who has spent the past five seasons as general manager of the Denver Broncos and is entering the final year of his contract,“ Seifert wrote.
“Others assumed Brzezinski would eventuallybe promoted to the permanent role and that the Wilfs’ public neutrality on the question was mostly a function of the NFL mandate to conduct diverse search processes for every open GM job.
“Based on conversations in Phoenix, it’s clear that neither scenario has begun materializing — raising the real possibility that the organization will go through a second change of direction in a matter of months.”