Vikings Hiring Former Colts GM Ryan Grigson to Senior Personnel Role in Front Office
The Vikings are hiring former Colts general manager Ryan Grigson to a senior role in their football personnel department, according to NFL Network.
"The Vikings will determine the full structure of their personnel department under new GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after the draft," tweeted Tom Pelissero. "Ryan Grigson, along with co-directors of player personnel Ryan Monnens and Jamaal Stephenson, [are] all expected to have big roles."
Grigson, who turns 50 this month, was the GM in Indianapolis from 2012 to 2016 after coming up as a scout and executive with the Rams and Eagles. Since being fired by the Colts, the former Purdue offensive lineman has had stints with the Seahawks and Browns in senior advisory roles. Grigson had been with Adofo-Mensah in Cleveland for the past two years, which explains how this move came about.
While it makes sense for Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings to add someone with GM experience to their front office, Grigson's Colts tenure wasn't exactly the strongest model to follow, even if he never presided over a losing season.
Grigson got off to a strong start in Indy. He took over a 2-14 team, got the good fortune of drafting Andrew Luck No. 1 overall, and overhauled the roster in various ways. The Colts went 11-5 in each of Grigson's first three seasons, winning three playoff games. He was named Sporting News's executive of the year in 2013.
But things started to fall apart based on some key roster decisions Grigson made. In September 2013, he traded a first-round pick for running back Trent Richardson, which may have been the worst move of the decade. Grigson struggled in the draft, taking Bjorn Woerner (2013) and Philip Dorsett (2015) as his next two first-round picks after Luck. The Colts found very few, if any, major contributors in the draft from 2013-15, which was when they needed to be building around their franchise quarterback. Andre Johnson, Arthur Jones, and LaRon Landry were among the Colts' failed free agent signings, although Grigson did have some solid signings as well. The main area he struggled in was putting a strong offensive line in front of Luck.
Grigson was fired after the Colts went 8-8 in 2015 and 2016. Luck wound up retiring in 2019 after just seven seasons, largely because of the injuries he dealt with during his career.
This is an interesting move. Grigson should not entirely be defined by his tenure with the Colts, as that ended five years ago and he has presumably learned quite a bit from the experience. Adofo-Mensah knows him well from the past two years in Cleveland, so he clearly feels like Grigson can add value to the operation in Minnesota. Again, having someone with GM experience should be a nice resource for a first-time GM like Adofo-Mensah. Grigson also comes from a traditional background as a former player who became a scout, which is a nice balance to Adofo-Mensah's analytics background.
But when it comes to personnel decisions, I'd be leery about giving Grigson too much input. It'll be interesting to see what the structure of the Vikings' personnel department ends up looking like after the draft.
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