Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a secret weapon with his NFL Draft strategy

The Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as general manager in January 2002. When he accepted the job as general manager of analytics, major questions arose about how he would approach building a team .

Would he try to do things with Moneyball? What will his approach be? Analytics itself is a broad term that covers any data analysis. Trying to figure out what he would do to be a potential Super Bowl contender proved to be both an interesting and daunting task.

We thought things were relatively settled heading into his second NFL draft, but the way he approached things raised a lot more questions.

Vikings NFL Draft Strategy Under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

In 2022, Adofo-Mensah has seemingly prioritized players with a big 10-yard spread. That explosiveness fit across the board with what they wanted to do on defense under Ed Donatell. It's also a good measure of overall athleticism.

When the 2023 NFL Draft came around, the process completely changed. Relative Athletic Score or the 10-yard dash were no longer a priority. What happened to change its strategy? It appears that GPS tracking data is to blame.

Max Chadwick of Pro Football Focus appeared on The Real Forno Show and was asked specifically why the Vikings guaranteed Jeshaun Jones $225,000. The answer lay in GPS tracking data.

“Yeah, I really liked him and he's a really good athlete. I don't know if I would have taken him in the draft, I think an undrafted free agent is probably what I expected from him honestly But he's a very good athlete, we actually have a metric at PFF that we just got a few years ago called Game Athleticism Score that basically measures your speed, your agility, your change of direction and everything else and. compiles them using GPS tracking data Jones tested as the 93rd ranked athlete in 2022 and 81st ranked athlete in 2023.

Jones' two torn ACLs also play a role in why he went undrafted, but taking a chance on a player who has that kind of athleticism is a great bet to make. Jones isn't the only one with excellent GPS tracking data, either.

GPS tracking data is relatively new to the NFL, but it is used by many teams, including the Vikings. This data seemed to work in 2023 when it affected both wide receiver Jordan Addison and cornerback Mekhi Blackmon.

If this continues to work for the Vikings, it will be fascinating to see how it manifests both in Minnesota and in the league's growth.

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