When the Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to be their general manager, they knew it was a risk. Anytime that you make a hire that goes against the grain, it's going to be scrutinized more than others along with providing you with a process that doesn't have a lot of data to back it up.
However, a new approach can yield incredible results. Staying stagnant in your approach can be a major hindrance in making progress in winning a Super Bowl. That is also how Adofo-Mensah is approaching his job and there are both trends and evolutions in his process.
Vikings analyst Judd Zulgad of SKOR North sees the growth in how Adofo-Mensah has approached the draft and it's evident how the 2022 NFL Draft, his first, has impacted him.
"First of all, you know a year ago, we got the whole thing with (Kevin) O'Connell telling Kwesi to make the damn pick (Jordan Addison) essentially and Addison's there and he's like let's turnin that card. And then (Ryan) Grigson's like we gotta go, the clock is gonna run out. It just felt like Kwesi was in the middle of something that he wasn't necessarily controlling super well.
"This, and again, it all could be in how it's shot and then what we see, but this felt far more like this was a calm environment. Like, this felt far more like everyone was far more synchronized. It felt way more chill and the other thing I think is so intriguing is you realize it appears that how much of an impact the 2022 draft has had on Kwesi.
"Back then, it was trade back, I'm going to get more creative, I'm gonna get more picks. And now, there is two guys here who could help us big time and they're impact players. It's gonna cost us picks, but screw it. We want those players. You just think about within a couple of years, the difference there in the approach. And guys don't ordinarily change their approach a ton. Like, your approach is your approach. So, I would say that this is definite growth and revisions made by a guy who got burned by his previous strategy."
When you are the analytics general manager, this is a really good approach. Analytics by definition is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. That in itself means that you approach with new datapoints.
Zulgad mentions that the approach he used in 2022 is far different from what he has shown in the last two years. There is a more aggressive approach in targeting players rather than assets. Will this continue? Hard to say. It all depends on what the draft class looks like.
Either way, the future looks better because of the adaptability.
