Vikings hire former Colts GM Ryan Grigson for front office role

The Vikings hired Ryan Grigson for a senior personnel role, per a club announcement. Grigson, once the GM of the Colts, will work under new Minnesota GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

Grigson, 49, has been in the NFL ranks since 1999. His most recent stop came in 2020, when he served as a senior football advisor for Browns GM Andrew Berry. The two had history and a solid working relationship, but Berry brought him in for more than just familiarity.

“[Grigson] is here because I think he is very good,” Berry said at the time of the hire in 2020. “He has a very established track record as a personnel evaluator from his time in St. Louis at the time, Philly and then obviously, Indianapolis. General Manager experience, rebuilt the Colts into a winner very quickly, Executive of the Year. And that is something that is valuable to me.”

It’s a similar story this time — Adofo-Mensah and Grigson overlapped in Cleveland, where they both managed key leadership decisions. Still, Grigson is best known for his tenure as Colts GM, where he captured Executive of the Year honors in his first year at the helm. The Colts went 49-31 during Grigson’s five-year run, though they failed to qualify for the playoffs in those final two years.