Minnesota Vikings General Manager Interviews

Last week, the Minnesota Vikings crafted an 8-person candidate list for their general manager position. 

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

This week, the Vikings started interviewing those candidates. 

Sunday: 

Monti Ossenfort

Monday: 

John Spytek

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

Catherine Raiche

Today:

Ryan Poles

Brandon Brown

Thursday:

Glenn Cook

Eliot Wolf

It looks like Wednesday is something of a recovery day. 

Most of the top general manager candidates for a particular team work in relative anonymity for those fans and media that follow other teams. It’s tough to know of, let alone know about, many of the candidates. Of the eight candidates for the Vikings general manager job, I was only familiar with Monti Ossenfort and Eliot Wolf before this search started. I caught mentions of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah over the years. He was the “analytics guy” for the San Francisco 49ers and then the Cleveland Browns. As I learned more about the candidates, I became impressed with the wide net that the Vikings search group cast. The only candidate that made me a little uneasy was Adofo-Mensah. I’m among the shrinking number of people that isn’t completely sold on analytics as the primary avenue to building a football team. I get that analytics has a place in football and a place in personnel decisions. I just prefer football-lifers that have risen through the scouting ranks as general managers. I became much more comfortable with Adofo-Mensah when I saw this tweet from ESPN Draft Analyst Jordan Reid.

Being out on the road and all-star game circuit over the past month, so many scouts have talked highly of Kwesi. We’ll see which team he ends up with, but it seems to be a matter of when not it with him. 

I’ve always liked Reid’s draft takes and football opinions. If football scouts are high Adofo-Mensah, I see no reason why I should be uneasy about him calling the shots for the Vikings. They know him. I don’t. 

With a revised opinion on Adofo-Mensah, I suppose that he joins Monti Ossenfort, Ryan Poles, and Glenn Cook as my favorites to be the next general manager of the Minnesota Vikings.