EAGAN, Minn. -- New Minnesota Vikings general manager Nolan Teasley spent part of Wednesday listening to reporters pepper co-owner Mark Wilf with questions about the team's front office structure. It might have seemed odd or even disruptive on a day the organization meant as a celebration, but it was important for anyone who knows the Vikings' recent and even not-so-recent history.
As the team sought to portray collaborative leadership moving forward between Teasley, coach Kevin O'Connell and executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski, it was necessary to ask: Who is in charge?
"Nolan is," Wilf said. "He's the general manager of the organization. He has final say on the roster, of the 53 [players], but in the end, he's going to lean heavily ... on our head coach, obviously, and people like Rob Brzezinski in the building that have deep experience and skill sets that are complementary.
"So I think we have it all put together in a great way, and I'm confident that this is a great move for the organization, a great move for the Minnesota Vikings."
Wilf went on to say that both Teasley and O'Connell will report directly to ownership. Brzezinski, the team's longtime contract negotiator and salary cap analyst who served as interim general manager for four months this spring, will report to Teasley.
"That's the structure," Wilf said. "That's the way it is. [But] if it comes to structure, we've got a problem. The end result is making sure leaders collaborate, work together."
Wilf's answer might have been the clearest explanation of his leadership expectations in 21 years of ownership: multiple leaders with one holding the tiebreaking card.
Functionally, what the Vikings now have is similar to what Mark and his brother Zygi have tried to implement through their tenure. Inspired largely by their own family-run real estate business, they have always emphasized collaboration. It always sounds good in theory -- multiple experts in their fields pushing and pulling until they get the right answer -- but from a practical sense it has favored the most dominant personality.
That's how Rick Spielman convinced the Wilfs to promote him to general manager in 2013, and it also explains how O'Connell's influence grew during the four-year tenure of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was fired in January. There has always been a designated person in charge, an important label in the traditional and hierarchical world of pro football. But in Minnesota, at least, it has not always been clear whether that person was behind every roster decision.
Teasley is the newest designee, paired with a coach who isn't expected to pull back from the team-building role he marshalled in recent years. And in Brzezinski, Teasley will have a subordinate, at least on the org chart, who filled the general manager role temporarily this spring and interviewed twice for the permanent job himself.
After hiring Teasley, the Wilfs clearly convinced Brzezinski that he would still play an important role moving forward -- beyond his specific duties with contracts and the salary cap.
Teasley referred to Brzezinski as the "ultimate team player," while O'Connell called him a "pivotal part" of the organization. An observer might view those sentiments as an attempt to encourage a colleague who might be disappointed with the outcome of the search, but they were more likely a genuine indication of Brzezinski's continued role.
"The good thing that's come about," O'Connell said, "is that for many years around here [Brzezinski] would kind of chuckle and call himself the 'cap guy.' And every single time, I think not only myself, but ownership, our fanbase, we're all trying to tell him, 'We all know you're more than that, so stop just saying that.'"
Brzezinski did not comment at Wednesday's news conference but said in a statement released Monday: "This organization means so much to me and my family, and I take tremendous pride in being a part of the Minnesota Vikings. I have a great deal of respect for Nolan and look forward to partnering with him, Kevin and our entire football operation to build the best team possible. I will continue to do everything I can to help this organization achieve its ultimate goal of bringing a championship to Minnesota."
The expectation is that Teasley will develop team-building consensus between the scouting department, coaching staff and other administrators. He said Wednesday that "if we have disagreements, we just go back to the beginning. We start over and we work together until we have that consensus."
If there still is no agreement, Teasley said, "we're not moving forward with that particular acquisition."
Structure matters in Minnesota and for all NFL teams. Ultimately, though, success for the Vikings under the Wilfs' ownership depends more on the collaborative spirit of the participants than whose contract dictates specific authority. It can be harder, messier and more opaque than having a singular all-powerful leader, as the Philadelphia Eagles have with Howie Roseman and the Seattle Seahawks have with John Schneider. But this is the approach the Wilfs have always taken, to various degrees, and it's here to stay.
