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The Minnesota Vikings hired Cleveland Browns vice president of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as the team’s general manager of the future on Wednesday.
The move was met with mixed reviews after a report that Kansas City Chiefs executive Ryan Poles was the favorite for the job. Poles was a member of the scouting department that drafted an uber-talented Chiefs team over the last decade — a draft resume that was eye candy for fans.
However, Poles, who took a job with the Chicago Bears instead, may not have ever been the Vikings’ first choice. CBS Sports’ Johnathon Jones reported on Wednesday, January 26, that Adofo-Mensah “may very well have been the pick in Minnesota regardless of what’s going on in Chicago. Sources have indicated since the weekend he was the leading candidate there.
The Athletic’s Chad Graff revealed why Adofo-Mensah was the No. 1 candidate instead.
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Disagreement in Scouting Department
Following the announcement that Adofo-Mensah would be the Vikings’ new general manager, Graff reported that Minnesota didn’t want massive changes in the scouting department. Adofo-Mensah was more accomodating.
“The Vikings also plan to keep many of the same scouts and front office members in place even with Adofo-Mensah’s arrival,” Graff wrote. “The top of the organization didn’t want massive changes in the scouting department, and since that’s not Adofo-Mensah’s background, he was, according to a source, more willing to accommodate those wishes than perhaps Ryan Poles, the other GM finalist who accepted the same job with the Chicago Bears, would have been.”
Graff’s report comes a day after ESPN ranked the Vikings’ 2021 rookie class the worst in the NFL. However, the decisions behind their picks and the players’ involvement were largely under the influence of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer, who were both fighting for their jobs and were unwilling to leave their careers in the rookies’ hands.
No matter.
Minnesota moves on with Adofo-Mensah, who’s developed a diverse skillset — finances, roster management and scouting — that prompted Browns general manager Andrew Berry to steal Adofo-Mensah from the San Francisco 49ers after the former commodities trader spent seven years in San Francisco. In an ESPN survey among analytics staffers around the NFL, Adofo-Mensah was voted by his peers as the overwhelming favorite for the next analytics staffer to become an NFL GM.
“Ryan Poles would’ve been a strong hire for the Vikings, but he also would’ve been a relatively safe one. Poles. like Rick Spielman, came up in scouting,” Inside the Vikings Will Ragatz tweeted on January 26. “Hiring Kwesi Adofo-Mensah means going in an exciting new direction. Analytics, process, market values. Minnesota Moneyball.”
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Draft Excellence
Spending the past two seasons in Cleveland, Adofo-Mensah was considered Berry’s right-hand man.
The duo pieced together the fifth-best 2021 rookie draft class, per ESPN. First-round pick cornerback Greg Newsome (No. 26 overall) and second-round linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (No. 52 overall) landed on PFF’s 2021 All-Rookie Team. The Browns also saw contributions from late-round rookie wideouts Anthony Schwartz and Demetric Felton.
Before Cleveland, Adofo-Mensah helped the 49ers rebuild a Super Bowl-caliber roster still intact today after the Jim Harbaugh era.
After four years as a manager of football research and development, Adofo-Mensah was promoted in 2017 to director of the department that informs both roster management and scouting practices.
San Francisco struck gold in the 2017 draft, selecting George Kittle in the fifth round. The 49ers also drafted All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner in the third round of the 2018 draft. In his final year in San Francisco, Adofo-Mensah was in the draft room that selected Nick Bosa No. 2 overall and Deebo Samuel in the second round. Both players made the Pro Bowl in 2021.
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Vikings Insider Reveals Why Team Passed on Chiefs’ Ryan Poles