The Vikings will start the second round of interviews for their general manager position in the coming days, with five candidates expected to make visits to TCO Performance Center during the opening week of organized team activities (OTAs).

Four of the five candidates who’ve been tapped for these in-person interviews have ties to the organization or coach Kevin O’Connell.

Those ties align with what Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf has emphasized as a focus in the search: finding a general manager who, above all else, has strong leadership capabilities and a track record of fostering collaboration among parties across the organization. Familiarity helps with the latter.

“We certainly want someone who is a great leader,” Wilf said in March at the NFL owners meeting. “Someone who can lead. We feel we have a great scouting staff. Great coaching staff. Of course, never resting on any laurels. We want to be competitive every single year and have long-term success. So someone’s got to fit within that. It’s got to fit within what we have in our building right now, as well. So it’s a host of factors. Hopefully we’ll know it when we see it.”

Here are brief bios on each of the candidates who’ve been selected to advance.

Brzezinski, the longtime front office executive who the Wilfs tapped as interim GM following Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s firing in January, won high praise from O’Connell and college scouting director Mike Sholiton for how he ran the front office through the draft, which could create momentum for him to keep the full-time job. He’s long been lauded for his leadership and people skills within the organization. Executives from other teams have praised Brzezinski as well, while wondering whether the Vikings might explore a structure that pairs the experienced executive with a new GM.

Gray, who has been with the Bills since 2017 in various roles, comes from a scouting background. He spent 11 years early in his career in the Vikings’ college scouting department and was well-liked around the building. Before becoming assistant GM in Buffalo, he served as the Bills director of college scouting, assistant director of player personnel and director of player personnel. He interviewed for general manager openings with the Titans in 2025 and Chargers in 2024. Gray assisted in the Bills coaching search this offseason that resulted in the promotion of offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

Burckhardt, like Gray, spent more than a decade as a scout for the Vikings. The Russell, Minn., native was with the team for 13 seasons after finishing his playing career as a quarterback at South Dakota State. He evaluated wide receiver Adam Thielen in his time as an area scout for the Vikings, eventually ascending to a pro scouting director role before joining George Paton in Denver when the Broncos made Paton their GM in 2021. He was elevated to be Paton’s assistant GM ahead of the 2025 season.

McKay stepped into the assistant GM role in 2025. He had spent the prior four years as the Rams director of pro personnel and was an assistant director of pro scouting before that. McKay started as a scouting assistant in 2016. His duties have included roster evaluations for all 32 teams during free agency, advance scouting reports and pre-draft player evaluations; McKay was tasked with speaking about the Rams’ Day 3 NFL draft haul last month.

McKay and O’Connell worked together when the latter was on Sean McVay’s coaching staff from 2020 to ’21. McKay is the son of longtime NFL executive Rich McKay and the grandson of late NFL coach John McKay. Rich McKay serves as the chair of the NFL Competition Committee, which O’Connell became a member of this year.

Teasley, a Washington native, has spent his whole career with the Seahawks. He started as an intern in the scouting department in 2013 before moving on to a full-time role as a pro personnel scout the next season. Teasley has been heavily involved in free agency strategy and trade analysis. In his current role as assistant GM, he worked with GM John Schneider on the draft, too. Teasley is not known to have previously interviewed for a general manager job.

Though Teasley does not have as obvious a tie to the Vikings or O’Connell as other candidates do, he did work with former Vikings staffers Klint Kubiak and Andrew Janocko, who served as the Seahawks offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, respectively, in 2025.

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