The Minnesota Vikings have reportedly hired Nolan Teasley, Assistant General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks, as their next general manager. Various reports also mention that the Vikings will continue to have Rob Brzezinski in his long-time role of EVP of Football Operations, specializing in salary cap management and contract negotiations, among other things.
The Teasley hire was a bit surprising based on comments during the process by Mark Wilf, President and co-owner of the Vikings, who said the Vikings were happy with their coaching and scouting staffs and were looking for someone to fit into that existing structure. Someone with ties to the Vikings would have seemed to be a more likely hire based on those comments. But Teasley was the only finalist candidate without any ties to the Vikings as a former front office employee or having worked with Kevin O’Connell. Teasley does apparently have a long-standing relationship with O’Connell through Seattle GM John Schnieder, however.
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Teasley’s Background
Nolan Teasley worked his way up the ranks of the Seattle Seahawks organization from an intern in 2013, to a pro personnel scout from 2014-2016, to assistant director of pro personnel in 2017, to director of pro personnel from 2018-2022, and finally assistant general manager under John Schnieder from 2023-2026. He worked for six years in marketing outside the NFL for six years after graduating from Central Washington University with a degree in public relations. He was a running back for Central Washington while a student there.
So Teasley worked his way up the ranks through the pro scouting channel from 2014-2022, meaning he evaluated existing NFL players for purposes of free agency, trades, and scouting opponents. He was also involved in with college free agent signings.
His responsibilities broadened as Assistant General Manager, “helping manage the development of the current roster with the club’s Performance team, Teasley helps with the implementation of the use of data within the scouting process, and manages the ongoing communication between the scouting, research, and analytics departments. He continues to be involved in the club’s draft process throughout and evaluate talent from NFL rosters and practice squads throughout the year” under GM John Schnieder.
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Teasley’s tenure with the Seahawks began and ended with Super Bowl victories. The first in 2013 when he was an intern, and again last season. The middle years saw the Seahawks slowly turn over their “Legion of Boom” roster as it aged, eventually parting ways with Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Cam Chancellor (for injury reasons), and ultimately Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner in 2022 and head coach Pete Carroll in 2023.
It’s unclear what role Teasley had in the Seahawks draft decision-making while Assistant General Manager (he is unlikely to have had much input when he was on the pro personnel side), but it is notable that the Seahawks’ drafting did improve significantly beginning in 2022, the year before Teasley was named AGM. Seattle has hit on a number of top draft picks since 2022 including Charles Cross, Boye Mafe, Kenneth Walker III, Riq Woolen (5th round), Devon Witherspoon, Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Byron Murphy, Gray Zabel, and Nick Emmanwori.
On the pro personnel side, the Seahawks have also been very active beginning with the Russell Wilson trade in 2021. They ended up drafting Cross, Mafe, and Witherspoon with the picks they got from trading Wilson.
Last year they also traded DK Metcalf and Geno Smith, while acquiring Sam Darnold, Dexter Lawrence, and Cooper Kupp. They also traded for Rashid Shaheed before the trade deadline.
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Bottom line here is that the Seahawks have been very active in aggressively turning over their roster (and coaching staff) in recent years, making a number of key acquisitions both through the draft and via free agency while also trading some key players as well to generate more draft capital. All that undoubtedly kept Teasley very busy since he became AGM.
A Process Guy
At a recent Sports Management conference earlier this year, Teasley was asked what separates a good evaluator from a great general manager. His answer was revealing:
Being open minded and organized are the two things I’m gonna tell you. Because when I think about our process and how we make decisions on player acquisition- I don’t have enough hubris, I’m not arrogant enough to tell you I’m better at watching football than you are- but I do have a process and I think my superpower is the ability to take in information from a lot of different people that have different areas of expertise, then implement that and build a process off of that, that ultimately leads me to try and make sound decisions in a short period of time.“
That answer, combined with his responsibilities as Assistant General Manager suggests Teasley is a process-driven guy, who was responsible for communicating with the various scouting-related groups from traditional scouts to the data analytics people and implementing an evaluation process.
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I suspect that aspect of his background may have resonated with the Wilfs, who wanted a guy who can collaborate with the coaching and scouting staffs better than Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did, and hopefully implement a better evaluation process as well.
There were reports after Adofo-Mensah was fired that he didn’t spend enough time collaborating with others in the front office, to the point where the Wilfs suggested he do so. Adofo-Mensah was something of an outsider with an analytics and Wall Street background but no experience as a scout or more traditional player evaluation. And so when drafts didn’t work out, that left people more skeptical than perhaps they were to begin with, given his non-traditional background. There was speculation as well that Adofo-Mensah’s analytics process didn’t add up to much more than consulting PFF grades. That speculation may have been unfair and/or off base, but there did seem to be some parallels that are difficult to deny.
In any case, I could see the Wilfs buying into a message from Teasley of implementing a more sophisticated collaborative process, communicating with all the various groups from the coaching staff to the scouting staff and analytics staff that hopefully will yield better results as has been the case on both the pro and college scouting channels in Seattle. Alec Lewis of The Athletic reported that Teasley won because of his “strong football acumen” according to several team sources. The Wilfs apparently liked Seattle’s operation from afar as well.
Great Reputation
Teasley has a great reputation internally in Seattle and across the league. Lewis reports:
A bevy of NFL evaluators and agents praised Minnesota’s choice. One NFC executive said, “They speak highly of him around the Seahawks’ offices. He’s probably as qualified as any.” One NFC scout mentioned Teasley’s ability to supplement the tape evaluation with data: “He knows how to communicate with those guys and use that side to help what you see on tape.”
One agent described Teasley as “patient,” and another used the word “calm.”
“He really is the perfect present-day GM,” one current Seahawks staffer said. “He’s taken the time to learn all of the new stuff that one needs to know to succeed in the role — sports science, player development, health and wellness, analytics and good, old-fashioned ball.”
One of Kevin O’Connell’s first moves after he was named head coach of the Vikings was to bring over Tyler Williams from the Rams to lead the sports science/player health and development, who was widely seen as a leader in those areas, which O’Connell seems to value.
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The Wilfs hiring Adofo-Mensah with a data analyst background was also an attempt to bring a more modern approach to player evaluation but ultimately backfired as Adofo-Mensah lacked a more traditional football background and the leadership skills to bring together the various groups responsible for player evaluation and development.
Staff Changes Could Be Imminent
Alec Lewis from The Athletic has reported that contracts with multiple executives are set to expire in the coming days and that Teasley, along with Kevin O’Connell and Rob Brzezinski, will be meeting to make front office staffing decisions as these contracts expire. Presumably Teasley would want to bring some people over from Seattle that he has worked with in the past, but the fact that Lewis reports that O’Connell and Brzezinski will be part of that decision-making process suggests that Teasley’s power over staffing decisions and the roster may not be absolute.
Still, it would be surprising if Teasley didn’t have the last word on the roster- even interim GM Rob Brzezinski was given that authority- but the expectation from the Wilfs is likely that Teasley will build consensus and communicate early and often through the process of player acquisition and disposition. Kevin Seifert reported that Teasley will be the Vikings’ primary decision-maker, per a source.
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The coaching staff including both Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores are likely to be major influences in developing the parameters of the players they are looking to acquire, while Rob Brzezinski will weigh-in on salary cap issues, both short- and long-term.
I would imagine Teasley will have a relatively free hand with the analytics staff and implementing changes there, along with selecting his immediate staff like assistant general managers, director of player personnel, college scouting and pro personnel. Both current AGMs Ryan Grigson and Demitrius Washington were Adofo-Mensah hires, as is director of pro personnel Sam DeLuca. Director of Player Personnel Ryan Monnens has been with the Vikings for 25 years and Director of College Scouting Mike Sholitan has been with the Vikings for 22 years. Assistant director of player personnel Chisom Opara was an Adofo-Mensah hire.
We’ll see how things unfold and it will be interesting if staff changes include mostly Adofo-Mensah hires or other more long-term guys like Monnens and Sholitan. It will also be interesting to see who Teasley may bring with him from Seattle.
Stay tuned.