If you thought NFL front offices were all about former players and old-school scouts, the Minnesota Vikings just flipped that script. The franchise announced Friday the addition of two assistant general managers — and the résumés are anything but conventional.
New GM Nolan Teasley didn’t just clean house. He rebuilt it with the kind of hires that make other teams pay attention.
Meet the New Brains Behind the Operation
First up is Andrew Healy, whose background reads more like a university faculty directory than an NFL personnel file. Healy holds a PhD in economics from MIT and studied applied mathematics and political science at Yale. He arrives from the Cleveland Browns, where he served as vice president of research and strategy. Before the NFL, he taught economics at Loyola Marymount University — making the jump from assistant professor to full professor before pivoting to football full-time.
Healy spent his Cleveland years building decision-making models for player evaluation, draft asset valuation, and overall football operations strategy. His role in Minnesota is expected to be the team’s secondary football executive, with a focus on integrating data and advanced analytics. Basically, he’s the guy making sure the Vikings aren’t guessing on draft night.
Then there’s Trent Kirchner, who takes a more traditional route but with a Super Bowl pedigree. Kirchner spent 13 years alongside Teasley in Seattle, most recently as vice president of player personnel for the Seahawks, where he oversaw college scouting, pro personnel, roster construction, and player acquisition. Before that, he spent eight seasons as a pro scout with the Carolina Panthers. A Minnesota native and former quarterback at St. John’s University, Kirchner is widely respected as a talent evaluator who contributed to multiple Super Bowl-winning rosters in Seattle.
According to the team, Kirchner’s familiarity with Teasley’s philosophy was a major factor in the hire. The two worked closely together for over a decade, and that chemistry is expected to speed up the Vikings’ rebuild.
What Happened to the Old Guard?
The front office shakeup also meant a departure. Demitrius Washington is leaving the organization, though the team did not specify his next move. Ryan Grigson, who served as assistant GM under former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, will stay with the Vikings in a different capacity — though his exact title has not yet been finalized. Grigson was the Indianapolis Colts general manager from 2012 to 2016 and later held roles with the Browns and Seahawks.
Fans online noted that the numbers game in Minnesota’s front office has shifted significantly. With Healy and Kirchner in place, the Vikings are signaling a future built on both data science and proven scouting instincts — a hybrid approach that’s becoming the gold standard across the league.
The moves come after a period of instability in the Vikings’ front office following Adofo-Mensah’s departure. Teasley, who took over earlier this year, is clearly putting his stamp on the organization. Whether a PhD in economics can translate to NFL wins remains to be seen. But Minnesota is betting it can.
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