After the Vikings fired General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah last week, they announced that long-time front office member Rob Brzezinski, who currently serves as the team’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, would be running the team’s front office operations through the 2026 NFL Draft, after which the team would conduct their formal search for a new GM. In order to help him out a bit, the team has added some experience to their front office crew.
The Vikings announced on Thursday that they have brought aboard Matt Thomas to serve as a consultant through this year’s NFL Draft. Who is Matt Thomas? Well, let’s learn together.
Thomas has been an NFL executive for nearly three decades starting his career with the Miami Dolphins back in 1998. During his first year in Miami, he worked with Rob Brzezinski. . .yes, Rob Brzezinski has worked for an NFL team not named the Minnesota Vikings, as he worked for the Dolphins from 1993 to 1998 as their staff counsel and salary cap manager. Thomas worked for the Dolphins from 1998 to 2009, and then moved on to the Cleveland Browns from 2010 to 2012.
After that, Thomas spent 11 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, serving as their Vice President of Football Operations. In that role, he oversaw the team’s salary cap and all of their contract negotiations. In a 2019 article for The Athletic, Michael-Shawn Dugar referred to Thomas as “the organization’s most important person that you’ve never heard of,” as Thomas preferred to spend his time working behind the scenes rather than being out in the public eye.
With Brzezinski serving as the team’s de facto GM for the next few months, and possibly as the full-time GM after that, bringing Thomas aboard in a temporary capacity will free him up to focus on other things. Vikings fans know Brzezinski as one of the best salary cap gurus in the league, but it certainly sounds like Thomas is no slouch in that category, either.
As it stands now, since the NFL has found a way to make itself a year-round phenomenon, we’re only about five weeks away from the start of free agency. What is this new-look front office going to bring us Vikings fans? We’re not going to have to wait a whole lot longer to find out, and now they’re bringing in a wealth of experience to help make it happen.
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