Said it before, but it’s hard for me to have too hot of a take on a GM hire when we don’t get that clear of a picture on the decision making process inside of the Vikings building, let alone the Seahawks for the last x number of years this guy was there. They hired a guy from a well run team, which is probably better than the alternative. Hopefully they find a QB long term so we don’t have to use that as an excuse again.
Yep. The Hawks sold extremely high on Rusty at exactly the right time, and it’s easier to draft well and build a roster with *four* extra premium picks.
But, we have nothing to assess about Teasley’s skills and contributions other than, as you note, it’s better to come from a place that made a lot of good decisions than the opposite.
on point 1 -- Teasley came up in pro personnel with the Seahawks. He probably didn't have much to do with their drafts directly until 2023 when he became AGM. Schneider had a stretch of pretty terrible drafting for about 5 years (2017-21) before turning things around in 2022 (Cross, Mafe, Walker, etc).
Having said that, Teasley should get a lot of credit for Seattle's trades and free agent signings, going back to 2018 when he took over as director of pro personnel. The only major misfire in that era was the Jamal Adams trade (for two 1sts), and that may have had some of Pete Carroll's fingerprints on it. Seattle made up for that and more with the Russell Wilson trade to Denver (for two 1sts, two 2nds and several players including Noah Fant and Shelby Harris) -- an absolute haul that set up them up for their current Super Bowl window. Other strong recent moves included trading for Leonard Williams (a steal for a 2nd and a 5th) and signing Demarcus Lawrence and Cooper Kupp. Teasley would also get some credit for signing Geno Smith for vet minimum in 2019 -- Geno was a quality starter who gave them the platform to move off of Russ as QB1 -- and then bringing in Darnold last year as the final piece of the puzzle.
Teasley no doubt was also involved in the draft along the way, and would've been one of the decision makers at the table as AGM since 2023, but I doubt he can take full credit for that draft record.
on point 3 -- John Schneider as Seahawks GM may have had final say on the roster, but Pete Carroll as HC had a lot to do with their personnel decisions, especially on defense. It's not clear, but Mike Macdonald probably has similar influence, again on the defensive side of the ball. So Teasley will have experience in a collaborative organization where the GM has to get on the same page with the HC.
on point 5 -- Seattle are one of the organizations that figured out how to win without an elite talent at QB, and break out of the middle-tier of roster quality. Schneider as GM has rings with Russell Wilson (3rd round pick, 5'11") and Sam Darnold (on his 5th team, signed for $33.5M AAV). Between Super Bowls, the Seahawks never tanked -- their only top 10 picks in the last 15 years were Charles Cross and Devon Witherspoon with the Broncos picks for Wilson. They were a consistently good-not-great-but-never-terrible team, much like the Vikings, for about a decade.
It's exciting to think that Teasley moving up the ranks in Seattle was part of their growth and development, which involved finding answers for some of the same questions the Vikings face today. I guess he'll have some specific ideas for how he wants to try to bring about the same kind of improvement in Minnesota
I didn't give Teasley "full credit" for Seattle's drafting, that's a total franchise effort for every team. Simply brought up that they have had great plans while drafting, which the Vikings will want to borrow.
Very happy that they finally picked a guy. By what everyone is saying, they got a good one. I'm glad they didn't stay with Brez. He's an amazing guy on the contract side, but between the "Triangle of Authority" disaster and I felt he mishandled cutting cap this off-season, I'm glad he's not getting the GM job.
Hope this is a signal of stability for a long time to come with him and KOC.
Definitely pretty happy about the hire. All of the guys in the 2nd round seemed solid enough but I liked Teasley the most (probably for the drafting). Also I am glad he has no previous Vikings ties so he can go in without preconceptions.
Do we know KOC and Teasley are on different timelines? If Teasley has a four year deal, they would both be signed through the ‘29 season.
Revamping scouting departments and processes is lovely, but it really comes down to finding a good qb, and then using draft capital intelligently. Foolish free agent spending is taken out of play when there are good draft picks to extend.
Listening to your podcast I was struck by your comment on building the team a bit year by year. I think that was the downfall of Kwesi (which he acknowledged trying to do too much).
I think that first draft trade set the tone for some many wrong reasons
1. While advanced models might have shown it to be a draw, it was ugly by most estimates. And the one trading down are supposed to win. Which lead to a bunch of signals to other teams
A. Mr Analytics was weak sauce. He was the mark for bad trades (the trade where we paid up to get a first round pick in the draft where we got JJM is the perfect example. We had no guarantee of NE willing to trade down and NE (even if willing to trade down) could have taken the picks we gave to Texas). Just a useless trade that burned capitial
B. It seemed to show desperation and you always want to be on the other side of desperation
2. Call it bad luck or bad drafting, but then managing to hit on nobody with those picks was impressive (in a bad way).. With the extra darts (even if one should have gotten more darts) you would think we find somebody useful)
3. I think those failures lead to him being always in catchup mode and catchup mode is for losers.
And that bring me to this years draft. Clearly a couple of picks were the coaches saying "I want this guy - Banks in particular and Goliday to a certain extent (there were a couple of other LB that might have been higher ranked) But Orange to a certain extent and Tiernan to a large extent are guys that they picked up at a bargain to the concensus board.... Let stuff (draft picks/trades) come to you. I would also add it seemed to me to make perfect sense for Seattle to get Darnold at $35mm a year. Great price for a top 10 QB.
It would be nice to build a team with lots of draft picks.
Said it before, but it’s hard for me to have too hot of a take on a GM hire when we don’t get that clear of a picture on the decision making process inside of the Vikings building, let alone the Seahawks for the last x number of years this guy was there. They hired a guy from a well run team, which is probably better than the alternative. Hopefully they find a QB long term so we don’t have to use that as an excuse again.
Yep. The Hawks sold extremely high on Rusty at exactly the right time, and it’s easier to draft well and build a roster with *four* extra premium picks.
But, we have nothing to assess about Teasley’s skills and contributions other than, as you note, it’s better to come from a place that made a lot of good decisions than the opposite.
on point 1 -- Teasley came up in pro personnel with the Seahawks. He probably didn't have much to do with their drafts directly until 2023 when he became AGM. Schneider had a stretch of pretty terrible drafting for about 5 years (2017-21) before turning things around in 2022 (Cross, Mafe, Walker, etc).
Having said that, Teasley should get a lot of credit for Seattle's trades and free agent signings, going back to 2018 when he took over as director of pro personnel. The only major misfire in that era was the Jamal Adams trade (for two 1sts), and that may have had some of Pete Carroll's fingerprints on it. Seattle made up for that and more with the Russell Wilson trade to Denver (for two 1sts, two 2nds and several players including Noah Fant and Shelby Harris) -- an absolute haul that set up them up for their current Super Bowl window. Other strong recent moves included trading for Leonard Williams (a steal for a 2nd and a 5th) and signing Demarcus Lawrence and Cooper Kupp. Teasley would also get some credit for signing Geno Smith for vet minimum in 2019 -- Geno was a quality starter who gave them the platform to move off of Russ as QB1 -- and then bringing in Darnold last year as the final piece of the puzzle.
Teasley no doubt was also involved in the draft along the way, and would've been one of the decision makers at the table as AGM since 2023, but I doubt he can take full credit for that draft record.
on point 3 -- John Schneider as Seahawks GM may have had final say on the roster, but Pete Carroll as HC had a lot to do with their personnel decisions, especially on defense. It's not clear, but Mike Macdonald probably has similar influence, again on the defensive side of the ball. So Teasley will have experience in a collaborative organization where the GM has to get on the same page with the HC.
on point 5 -- Seattle are one of the organizations that figured out how to win without an elite talent at QB, and break out of the middle-tier of roster quality. Schneider as GM has rings with Russell Wilson (3rd round pick, 5'11") and Sam Darnold (on his 5th team, signed for $33.5M AAV). Between Super Bowls, the Seahawks never tanked -- their only top 10 picks in the last 15 years were Charles Cross and Devon Witherspoon with the Broncos picks for Wilson. They were a consistently good-not-great-but-never-terrible team, much like the Vikings, for about a decade.
It's exciting to think that Teasley moving up the ranks in Seattle was part of their growth and development, which involved finding answers for some of the same questions the Vikings face today. I guess he'll have some specific ideas for how he wants to try to bring about the same kind of improvement in Minnesota
I didn't give Teasley "full credit" for Seattle's drafting, that's a total franchise effort for every team. Simply brought up that they have had great plans while drafting, which the Vikings will want to borrow.
sure that's fair enough
not complaining about what you wrote but trying to add some context
Yeah, I gotcha. Appreciate it, just wanted to clear that up.
Very happy that they finally picked a guy. By what everyone is saying, they got a good one. I'm glad they didn't stay with Brez. He's an amazing guy on the contract side, but between the "Triangle of Authority" disaster and I felt he mishandled cutting cap this off-season, I'm glad he's not getting the GM job.
Hope this is a signal of stability for a long time to come with him and KOC.
Definitely pretty happy about the hire. All of the guys in the 2nd round seemed solid enough but I liked Teasley the most (probably for the drafting). Also I am glad he has no previous Vikings ties so he can go in without preconceptions.
Do we know KOC and Teasley are on different timelines? If Teasley has a four year deal, they would both be signed through the ‘29 season.
Revamping scouting departments and processes is lovely, but it really comes down to finding a good qb, and then using draft capital intelligently. Foolish free agent spending is taken out of play when there are good draft picks to extend.
Listening to your podcast I was struck by your comment on building the team a bit year by year. I think that was the downfall of Kwesi (which he acknowledged trying to do too much).
I think that first draft trade set the tone for some many wrong reasons
1. While advanced models might have shown it to be a draw, it was ugly by most estimates. And the one trading down are supposed to win. Which lead to a bunch of signals to other teams
A. Mr Analytics was weak sauce. He was the mark for bad trades (the trade where we paid up to get a first round pick in the draft where we got JJM is the perfect example. We had no guarantee of NE willing to trade down and NE (even if willing to trade down) could have taken the picks we gave to Texas). Just a useless trade that burned capitial
B. It seemed to show desperation and you always want to be on the other side of desperation
2. Call it bad luck or bad drafting, but then managing to hit on nobody with those picks was impressive (in a bad way).. With the extra darts (even if one should have gotten more darts) you would think we find somebody useful)
3. I think those failures lead to him being always in catchup mode and catchup mode is for losers.
And that bring me to this years draft. Clearly a couple of picks were the coaches saying "I want this guy - Banks in particular and Goliday to a certain extent (there were a couple of other LB that might have been higher ranked) But Orange to a certain extent and Tiernan to a large extent are guys that they picked up at a bargain to the concensus board.... Let stuff (draft picks/trades) come to you. I would also add it seemed to me to make perfect sense for Seattle to get Darnold at $35mm a year. Great price for a top 10 QB.
It would be nice to build a team with lots of draft picks.
Rant over.