Pro Football Rumors
The Vikings announced a number of front office updates yesterday as new general manager Nolan Teasley began to shape the group around him. In some of those updates, Minnesota parted ways with quite a few personnel staffers, chief among them being former assistant general manager Demitrius Washington. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the team is expected to name his replacement(s) soon.
Per Pelissero, Andrew Healy and Trent Kirchner are expected to be named assistant general managers sometime over the next few days. Pelissero’s NFL Network colleague Ian Rapoport added that Healy “will serve as the team’s secondary football executive,” and Kirchner, who “is widely regarded as one of the NFL’s top talent evaluators,” will be another “top lieutenant” for Teasley. Additionally, Ryan Grigson — who also served as an assistant GM next to Washington under former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah — will be retained in Minnesota but will serve in a different capacity.
Healy’s entire NFL career has come in Cleveland, where he started as a senior strategist, player personnel in 2016 before getting promoted to vice president, strategy three years later. Before finding his way to the NFL, Healy spent quite a bit of time in academia. After earning Bachelors in Applied Mathematics and Political Science at Yale, Healy spent six years earning PhD in Economics at MIT. Following his time as a student, Healy worked six years as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Loyola Marymount University and held an Associate Professor of Economics position for four more years before being named Professor of Economics. He held that role for a year before joining the Browns.
Kirchner is following Teasley in the move from Seattle to Minneapolis. Kirchner started his tenure with the Seahawks even before Teasley did. A Minnesota-native, Kirchner first found his way to the NFL as an intern for the Seahawks in 2000. After a season as college scouting coordinator for Washington, Kirchner spent eight seasons as a pro scout for the Panthers before arriving in Seattle in 2010 as assistant director of player personnel. He earned a series of promotions, starting with an elevation to pro personnel director in 2013. He was named co-director of player personnel in 2015 then vice president of player personnel in 2019. After last year, Kirchner has now helped build two Super Bowl-winning rosters after winning his first ring in Carolina.
After a short playing career as an offensive tackle, Grigson tried his hand at coaching before turning to scouting in 1998. His first NFL role came the next year as a national scout with the Rams. He joined the Eagles in 2004 and worked his way up the ladder in Philadelphia until being named general manager of the Colts in 2012. In between his final year as GM in 2016 and his first year with the Vikings in 2022, Grigson worked in the same front office as Healy in Cleveland in 2017 then again from 2020-21, working the two vacant years between Browns stints as a senior...
