Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Cleveland Browns President of Football Operations
Glenn Cook, Cleveland Browns Vice President of Player Personnel
Eliot Wolf, New England Patriots Player Personnel Consultant
John Spytek, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Vice President of Player Personnel
Brandon Brown, Philadelphia Eagles Director of Player Personnel
Ryan Poles, Kansas City Chiefs Director of Player Personnel
Catherine Raiche, Philadelphia Eagles Vice President of Football Operations
Monti Ossenfort, Tennessee Titans Director of Player Personnel
From last Sunday through Thursday, the Vikings interviewed each candidate. On Friday, they scheduled interviews with two finalists.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
Ryan Poles
Adofo-Mensah will be in Minnesota on Tuesday for his interview. Poles will interview on Wednesday. If all goes well, the Vikings could have their general manager soon after.
As far as I know, Adofo-Mensah is a first-time finalist for a general manager position. Poles, on the other hand, is a veteran to this stage of the process. That tends to happen when one has helped build a team that’s been to the past two Super Bowls. Poles was a finalist for the Carolina Panthers job last year. He was a finalist for the New York Giants job this year. In addition to being a finalist for the Vikings job, he’s a finalist for the Chicago Bears job. Perhaps to get a jump on the Vikings, his interview with the Bears is scheduled for Tuesday. It’s a desperation move.
For what it’s worth, I’m thrilled with the Vikings general manager finalists. Over the course of the search and interviews, Ryan Poles and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah emerged as my favorites. They got to top of my wish list very differently. As soon as the initial eight candidates were revealed, Poles was a favorite. When searching for a person to build an NFL team it’s a pretty good idea to look at a group that put together a successful team. Poles didn’t build the Kansas City Chiefs into a champion but he was an important part of the group that did. I should’ve been more aware of Poles before this offseason. I should’ve been more aware of someone that was a finalist for a general manager position a year ago. I suppose that I wasn’t aware of him because I felt that the Vikings were in a good place with Rick Spielman calling the shots. In short, I wasn’t looking for a general manager. I finally became aware of Poles when the Vikings needed a general manager. It was through Mike Borgonzi that I discovered Poles. I knew of Borgonzi because NFL Network’s Peter Schrager once identified him as the Chiefs secret personnel weapon. That tends to stick. So does the name. Borgonzi! Anyway, in looking at the Chiefs personnel group to learn more about this secret weapon I discovered Ryan Poles. I liked his scouting experience. I liked his career progression. I liked that he survived regime changes in Kansas City. I also found it interesting that it was Poles that was getting significant general manager attention while Borgonzi remained a secret weapon. Poles was an easy and immediate favorite for the Vikings general manager job. Adofo-Mensah wasn’t. When the eight-candidate short list was revealed, he was eighth for me. He was eighth for a very simple reason. I’m not a fan of a football team’s top decision-maker being analytics-centric. I’m a fan of the scouting world. I know that analytics has an important role in team-building. I prefer it to be part of the process rather than the process. Adofo-Mensah worried me. Then he didn’t. The more I read about him, the more I heard about him, the more I discovered that he’s embraced by the scouting community. Rather being shut in a room looking at numbers rather than film, he’s out with the scouts. He has a different background. He looks at the process differently. That’s really all it is. Maybe the Vikings need something different. This is what separates Ryan Poles and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. If Poles is the next general manager, the Vikings decision-making, scouting, team-building will probably continue much like it has. There’ll just be some different eyes. If Adofo-Mensah is the next general manager, the process will change. However, it probably won’t change as much as I originally thought.
I’d be thrilled with either finalist as the next general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. If I had to pick a preference, I’m probably leaning Poles. I’ll always be a fan of those that come through the grind of scouting. In a tie between the two it probably comes down to this. Adofo-Mensah played basketball at Princeton. Basketball! At Princeton! Poles played offensive line at Boston College. Advantage Poles.
Best of luck to both. I’ll be thrilled with either.
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