Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been known across the National Football League as the analytics general manager. However, the word analytics can mean a lot of different things.
We immediately jump to Pro Football Focus when we think of analytics, but the term itself means "the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics." That can be used in an infinite amount of ways and teams have their own analytics process.
The 2024 NFL Draft had Adofo-Mensah going against the "analytics consensus" of trading down by making a big move up for Alabama EDGE Dallas Turner. That opened some eyeballs and one AFC executive spoke to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler about it.
"I had to think twice because I had him pegged as a volume guy when it came to draft picks," said an AFC executive whose team had correspondence with the Vikings on draft week. "It looks like he's shifted his thinking to where, the reality is it's hard to win without players you can build around."
This shows a different way of thinking from Adofo-Mensah. He was prioritizing players over just draft-pick assets. Edge rushers need to have elite-level athleticism to be successful at the next level and Turner possesses that. Will it work? That much isn't clear right now. However, it does show a willingness to get impact players over depth.
