CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Andrew Berry knew Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was a star on the rise within the NFL.
That’s why he hired the former commodities trader and portfolio manager turned football executive away from San Francisco in 2020 as his vice president of football operations.
Two years later, Adofo-Mensah has ascended from Berry’s right hand man to having his own team to run and roster to manage with the Minnesota Vikings, who hired him Wednesday as their new general manager.
“We are beyond excited that Kwesi has been named general manager of the Minnesota Vikings,” Berry said. “Kwesi’s infectious energy, critical thinking skills, collaborative spirit and expertise across the football operations/player personnel spectrum made a lasting footprint here in a short period of time. These same characteristics will make him an exceptional leader, problem-solver and roster architect for the Vikings.”
Adofo-Mensah is the first member of a Browns front office to be hired away by another NFL team as their top football executive in the expansion era, a credit to the staff Berry has assembled the last two years since returning to Cleveland as executive vice president of football operations and general manager in January 2020.
The Browns will receive a pair of compensatory third-round draft picks – one in 2022 and another in 2023 – as part of the NFL’s policy implemented in November 2020 to encourage the development of minority coaches and executives.
With the Browns, Adofo-Mensah oversaw the organization’s talent evaluators and the analytics team. Berry utilized Adofo-Mensah’s research and consulted with him on contracts and roster decisions and transactions which helped the Browns win a combined 19 games over the last two seasons, the best two year stretch for the franchise since 1988-1989.
“He’s worked extremely hard for this opportunity, and the Vikings are getting an outstanding person that will be driven to build a winning culture,” head coach Kevin Stefanski, who spent 14 years as an assistant coach with the Vikings prior to being hired by the Browns, said. “Kwesi has been a great resource for me and our coaching staff and he will do everything in his power to install a process within the Vikings organization that will lead to success.”
After taking a leap of faith to pursue his dream, Adofo-Mensah spent seven years in the 49ers front office where he began his NFL career working in the football research and development department. He was quickly promoted to manager, a position he held for five years prior to being named the director of the department.
During his tenure with the 49ers, Adofo-Mensah led San Francisco’s efforts to develop and implement advanced quantitative methods for game strategy and personnel evaluation, which appealed to Berry.
In 2019, the 49ers landed the top seed in the NFC and won the conference championship before falling to Baltimore in Super Bowl XLVII. In 2020, the Browns ended the NFL’s longest running playoff drought after 18 seasons and completed their most successful campaign in a quarter century.
Adofo-Mensah made significant contributions behind the scenes for both clubs.
Now Adofo-Mensah will get an opportunity to shape a third team, the Vikings.
