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New Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has brought in a former co-worker and NFL general manager to assist him in his new job.
But the new hire comes with some baggage, including vilification from two former players.
Former Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson was hired February 9 by the Vikings to take on a senior personnel role and report directly to Adofo-Mensah.
“I am thrilled to add Ryan Grigson to our staff,” Adofo-Mensah said, per Vikings.com. “During my time in Cleveland, I was immediately drawn to Ryan’s passion for the game, big heart and reflective wisdom. He is a talented evaluator who brings energy and humor to every discussion. As a former general manager in the NFL, Ryan offers complementary skills to help me in my transition in becoming general manager and brings energy and humor to the room.”
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In 2020 and 2021, Adofo-Mensah worked with Grigson on the Cleveland Browns, where Grigson served as senior football advisor. Grigson, 49, played in the NFL in 1995 and one year in the Canadian Football League before moving into coaching, scouting and eventually administration.
However, his resume is overshadowed by his stint as Colts general manager, where some former players have blamed the franchise’s fall from grace on Grigson.
Grigson Rebuilt, Then Destroyed Colts
Inheriting a 2-14 Colts team in 2012, Grigson selected Andrew Luck with the No. 1 overall pick that year. In his first season as general manager, Grigson led the Colts’ return to the playoffs after they went 11-5. He had turned over 70% of the previous year’s roster and won Sporting News’ NFL Executive of the Year award for his masterful reshuffling in Indianapolis.
The Colts were back to their winning ways. But then Grigson started making questionable moves.
In September 2013, Grigson traded a 2014 first-round pick to Cleveland for running back Trent Richardson, the former No. 3 pick in the 2012 NFL draft who failed to impress the Browns. In two seasons with the Colts, Richardson averaged 3.1 yards per carry before being released by the team in 2014.
With the exception of standouts such as Dwayne Allen and T.Y. Hilton, the players drafted by Grigson from 2012 to 2015 failed to make much long-term impact on the Colts. In a 2016 analysis by Jim Ayello of The Indianapolis Star, Ayello found that of Grigson’s 30 picks in four drafts, 14 currently occupied spots on the team, the lowest number on any NFL roster in that time frame.
Luck suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in 2015, and the Colts went 8-8 in 2015 and 2016, after which Grigson was fired.
By then, according to two former Colts, kicker Pat McAfee and linebacker Robert Mathis, the damage to the Colts’ culture had been done.
On a January 2020 episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” McAfee and guests Mathis and former NFL star A.J. Hawk discussed the years during which McAfee and Mathis played for Tony Dungy, who coached the Colts from 2002 to 2008, and the transition toward the Grigson era, which started in 2012.
Hawk asked McAfee and Mathis, “What changed from first regime to the second?”
McAfee, who was a Colt from 2009 to 2016, appeared to bite his tongue before Mathis, who starred on the Colts from 2003 to 2016, slowly responded: “Ryan Grigson.”
McAfee added: “The culture did change, though. The culture completely changed.” He then said that Grigson wanted “to put his stamp” on the Colts, and in doing so “he changed a lot about what was great about Indianapolis.”
Grigson’s impact in Indianapolis remained polarizing.
In October 2020, Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot noted Grigson’s positive impact on the Browns, writing:
On Grigson’s way out, he was vilified by Colts players such as Reggie Wayne and Pat McAfee, who described him as arrogant and gruff and said the firing was long overdue. Others blamed him for not protecting 2012 No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck, who retired in (2019) because of yet another injury, this time an ankle.
Never mind that Grigson won Sporting News Executive of the Year in 2013 and produced three straight 11-5 seasons before his two 8-8 campaigns with no playoffs.
“Just look me up,” he said. “You’d never believe we won any games.”
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The Case for Grigson
Grigson underwent a metamorphic change after he was fired from the Colts.
From Cabot:
Having lost his father when he was young, Grigson felt like he had to be the tough guy and fight through things on his own.
“There’s no sense in hunkering down,” he said. “I personally used to draw strength from feeling like it was me against the world. I know there are players that play with a chip on their shoulder. I was kind of an executive with a chip on my shoulder.”
“You lose your sense of self sometimes and you don’t sleep,” he said. “You’re non-existent at home, and even when you’re there with at the table, you’re not really present. There aren’t many people that really understand the GM job. It’s a great thing, but you can get lost in it, and you need to hit the reset button.”
When Grigson saw how the Colts players viewed him, he took it to heart.
As general manager of the Colts, Grigson took a chance on future Browns general manager Andrew Berry, hiring the executive onto his staff in Indianapolis. Berry later returned the favor, hiring Grigson as senior football advisor of the Browns. Had Grigson not hired Berry in Indianapolis, Berry likely wouldn’t have become the league’s youngest general manager and connected Adofo-Mensah and Grigson.
“(Grigson) was determined not to let Berry make the same mistakes he made in Indy, especially failing to build a stronger offensive line sooner to protect Luck, who was hit 118-plus times from 2012-16, most of any QB in football, according to Sharp Football,” Cabot wrote.
“It’s one thing he’ll readily admit is that he wishes he would’ve accomplished that a little bit better when Andrew was there,” Berry said, per Cabot. “It’s something he really pounded the table about here in the offseason, the importance of [o-line quality and depth] to our long-term success.”
Grigson helped the Browns build one of the NFL’s most formidable offensive fronts upon his arrival in 2020.
With Grigson in the building, Cleveland added three vital pieces: signing All-Pro right tackle Jack Conklin in free agency, selecting Jedrick Wills Jr. tenth overall in the draft to take over as the starting left tackle and adding depth with fifth-round rookie Kendall Lamm. The unit finished No. 1 in pass- and run-blocking, per Pro Football Focus.
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