When the Minnesota Vikings poached Kwesi Adofo-Mensah from the Cleveland Browns back in 2022, the now GM was billed as a sort of missing link in the football universe; an analytically inclined personnel executive who could also speak the language of those molded exclusively by matters related to scheme and film.
That was no small praise given the marketplace’s desperation for such credentials, and with that kind of runway, one would expect to see something we’ve never seen before. (Indeed, the process of finding football-minded folks who can speak the language of other departments has sent some coaches to great lengths, like one coach I heard of who pretended to interview his database manager for a scouting job over the course of 12 hours before revealing that he actually wanted him to work in the IT department and not scouting.)
The Vikings, undoubtedly, were the perfect roster for this kind of general manager. Unlike many other NFL teams whose roster tells something of a coherent story related to their immediate ability to contend (or not), Minnesota was sandwiched into this perpetual, middling purgatory. A quarterback whose upside we accept but are not necessarily enamored by. A defense that needed drastic turnover. An offensive line that could be good enough to eventually support a high powered offense. And Justin Jefferson.
