With the Vikings entering the second round of interviews for the vacant GM position, I have done as much deep dive as possible on each of the five finalists. Some are harder to find information on than others. All have lengthy histories with teams where we can assess draft and free agency decisions. All are projections.

Terrance Gray, BUF

Bio: Gray has been working in NFL front offices for over 20 years, starting back in 2003 as an assistant for the Chiefs. He spent a decade in Minnesota as a college scout before joining the Bills to lead their college scouting. He has been promoted three times since, serving as the Assistant GM each of the last 2 years. Gray has received multiple interviews in the past few years: 2025 JAX, 2025 TEN, 2024 LV, 2024 LAC. Gray is one of the harder candidates to gain information about, as the Bills' staffers are one of the least media-heavy groups in the league. The most I can find of him talking is this video where he and Joe Schoen walk through the draft process.

The Results: Although the Bills have been a perennial title contender over the past few years, the 2025 season has raised questions about how much a Greek god at QB is masking a mediocre roster. Buffalo rarely makes outright bad draft picks (Kaiir Elam is the only true first round bust of the Beane era). But they also have been unable to find star players, both in the draft and in free agency. The team has only drafted 3 Pro Bowlers since 2019, and big name veteran acquisitions like Von Miller and Joey Bosa have created more media headlines than on-field results.

Bottom Line: A selection of Gray as the GM is faith in his resume, his history with the franchise, and a belief that the Bills are more than Josh and the Josh-ettes, but a SB-caliber team that God truly despises. With his history, he will present as a trusted voice to the Wilfs. Coming from a traditional scouting background -- and having seen a true rebuild in Buffalo -- Gray certainly has the requisite experience for the job. While I am skeptical (the lack of media availability doesn't help), Gray certainly seems like a competent candidate at worst. At least on paper.

John McKay, LAR

Bio: McKay, the son of Falcons CEO Rich and grandson of Bucs' legend John, has spent nearly his entire NFL career with the Rams, first joining in 2016 after a collection of internships with the league office. He worked his way up as a traditional scout, eventually leading the Pro Personnel department in 2021 before landing the Assistant GM title last year. This offseason, he received his first official GM interview with the Dolphins.

The Results: The Rams are unique in that pro scouts split their evaluation specialties by position, not by team or division. This allows a cleaner method to stack players at a position. McKay focused on WRs, CBs, and OLBs. He was an essential part of bringing in Demarcus Robinson, Ahkello Witherspoon, and Nate Landman -- all of whom played have significant snaps for the Rams down the stretch. McKay works closely with various departments, including the coaching staffs and analytics teams, to identify the archetypes that are missing from each room and tailor his free agent recommendations accordingly.

Philosophy: One of the benefits of working with the Rams over the past decade is seeing the team go through variations of the team building process -- from the high-flying Gurley-led offense to the Superbowl winning roster to the current iteration trying to thread the needle between short-term success and long-term stability. This also means that the Rams are one of the less predictable front offices in the league. They aren't afraid to go away from consensus and truly view all of their resources as talent acquisition tools. You've seen this in the GMs that have come out of that tree -- from "reaching" on a 1st round RB and LB to trading two 1sts to move up 3 spots for a CB/WR.

McKay also overlapped with HC Kevin O'Connell, who spent 2 seasons with the Rams before joining Minnesota. You see a bit of alignment in their evaluation philosophy because of that. In reviewing Ty Simpson, McKay discussed the importance of extracting Simpson's performance in clutch situations -- similar to how O'Connell praised JJ McCarthy coming out of Michigan.

Bottom Line: On paper, McKay's resume is solid. He has experience as both a college and pro scout. He comes from a winning franchise. He understands the importance of collaboration toward a common vision. But McKay's relative lack of experience makes me a bit uneasy. The Rams' process isn't exactly stable or sound either. Les Snead is nimble -- nobody can deny that. But it would be foolish to expect that a team could replicate Snead's process sans the top HC in the game and an MVP QB and achieve the same high end success. While I wouldn't be shocked if McKay advances in the interview process, I find him one of the more unlikely candidates.

Nolan Teasley, SEA

Bio: Teasley, a Washington native, joined the Seahawks in 2013 as an intern after reaching out to his former college teammate Aaron Hineline, who was working in Seattle's front office. From there, he majored in pro scouting, eventually serving as Director of Pro Personnel for 5 years before his promotion to Assistant GM in 2023. This is his first formal interview as a GM candidate.

The Results: The Superbowl is certainly the cleanest result. But it is the steps along the way that makes you confident in that ending. It's trading away DK Metcalf and Geno Smith. It's signing Sam Darnold, drafting Nick Emmanwori, and trading for Rashid Shaheed. Every move that Seattle made was the right move. However, you do have to go back a bit deeper in their history. While the mid-2020s have been kind to Seattle, this front office went through a 6-8 year stretch where almost no draft picks turned into meaningful contributors for the team. What did John Schneider and Nolan Teasley learn from that stretch? How has it informed their roster building philosophy?

Philosophy: In reflecting on the 2025 draft class, Teasley spoke a lot of versatility in highly athletic prospects. With Mike Macdonald leading the team, that shouldn't be a surprise. But the Seahawks have also been intentional about adding depth and rotational players to their team. It's what made the team so special last season. Look no further than Rylie Mills, who came up with a crucial sack in the Superbowl after missing most of the season recovering from an ACL tear. While it may seem obvious -- just take big fast players that can do a lot of good things -- the consistency of the draft philosophy is something that has been lacking in Minnesota.

Bottom Line: Candidly, I feel the best about Teasley of all the external candidates. At minimum, he's the man where I feel the most clarity thanks to his strong media presence. He has spent his entire NFL career in one of the most stable franchises of the modern era. He has been a central voice in some very bold moves that laugh in the face of ego -- from trading away Russell Wilson to "promoting" Pete Carroll to a front office job to swapping Geno Smith for Sam Darnold. Every move feels calculated without overextending the team's leverage. As a leader of men, Teasley has said a lot of the right things. He talked about the effect his parents had on him, leading by example to instill servant leadership and the value of putting your constituents before yourself. With his experience in pro scouting and the Seahawks' resume in the draft, Teasley is my top candidate.

Reed Burckhardt, DEN

Bio: Burkhardt is not a new name in Minnesota. The starting QB at a tiny rural high school just outside of Sioux Falls, Burckhardt spent 18 years in Minnesota. He began in 2009 as an Operations Intern, eventually earning a scouting role and making his way to become the Director of Pro Scouting. He followed George Paton in 2021 to be the Director of Player Personnel in Denver. He was promoted to Assistant GM last year following Darren Mougey's hiring in New York. This is his first formal interview as a GM candidate.

The Results: While the end of his tenure was underwhelming, Spielman generally fielded strong rosters for the Vikings. Burckhardt was aboard for all of it, seeing the team take 6 playoff trips across multiple ideas of team identities -- from the offensive juggernaut of the 09 Favre team to the immovable object that was Zimmer's 2017 team. And during that time, Burckhardt watched Spielman find gems throughout the draft, from Harrison Smith to Danielle Hunter to Adam Thielen. And he watched Spielman retain all of those star players at below-market deals.

Things in Denver did not get off to a great start, with the Russell Wilson transaction instantly turning into a pile of rubbish. But in having a first hand account of turning that roster around -- drafting players like Nik Bonitto to signing vets like Zach Allen -- to become a 14-win team is nothing short of incredible. A criticism of the Denver front office is that it's been a long time since they've draft a true impact player outside of Bo Nix.

Philosophy: Through most of the Spielman tenure, the Vikings usually stuck to consensus boards early in the draft, attacked positions of need, and were not allergic to outlier players. Spielman traded back a ton, believing in the idea of accumulating lottery tickets and spending those tickets on versatile, athletic players on Day 3. Paton has showed a bit of this in Denver as well, most recently trading out of the 2nd round in the 2026 draft to add a 6th and drafting an upside interior pass rusher. It's fair to assume Burckhardt will fall in line. It's certainly an attitude we have seen former Broncos Assistant Darren Mougey take, as the Jets have accumulated a critical mass of draft picks.

It's also hard to disassociate the role that HC Sean Payton has in that organization. Staff on other teams have remarked on how many hours Payton demands of his team, many coaches and staff often sleeping at the office. Payton has masterfully built the Broncos' offensive personnel in a way that perfectly fits what he wants. He has built the team to complement his QB, and he's able to run most of the schemes he's relied on for years.

Bottom Line: Burckhardt may be a known commodity to the Wilfs, but he is largely unknown to the masses. He has had two CEO-types lead him -- Rick Spielman and Sean Payton. This stability has pros and cons. He has seen multiple teams go through multiple versions of roster construction. But it's also difficult to see Burckhardt's role in the work. However, Burckhardt has earned high praise. Paton said of his first year in MIN: "he was a fixer. Everything he did, he did at a high level". Rick Spielman has called him a future GM. Burckhardt is a solid candidate, but there is a bit of uncertainty to him, as with all GM candidates.

Rob Brzezinski, MIN

Bio: Brzezinski has held the interim GM title since Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's firing in January. Brzezinski first joined the Vikings in 1999 after 6 years as Miami's salary cap manager. Since then, he's held three distinct titles for Minnesota, largely leading salary cap management, contract negotiations, and football administration. In his time here, Brzrezinski has worked with a wide array of coaches and GMs carrying diverse team building philosophies. As far as I can tell, this is his first formal interview as a GM candidate.

The Results: Just sticking to Brzezinski's core job function -- salary cap management -- it's hard to argue with the results. During the Spielman era, Brzezinski helped retain core players at nearly every position -- Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Dalvin Cook, Danielle Hunter, Everson Griffen, Eric Kendricks, Xavier Rhodes, Harrison Smith -- all at below-market deals. he was also an integral part of getting LB Anthony Barr to flip back to the Vikings after verbally agreeing to a deal with the Jets. Of course, all of this led to a ballooning salary situation in 2022 when Adofo-Mensah inherited a fat salary cap that needed to void a ton of contracts and take on significant dead money in order to field a viable roster.

It's difficult to attribute any credit or criticism to Brzezinski for the Vikings' draft and free agent results over the years. He has never held a formal role in either the college or pro scouting departments. Thus, it's also difficult to nail down a true draft philosophy for Brzezinski.

Philosophy: We do have a small sample size where Brzezinski has reportedly worked very closely with the coaching staff and scouting departments to identify acquisition targets and inform the draft strategy. The team's salary cap situation -- which Brzezinski again had a hand in creating -- limited the team's free agency viability. Outside of Kyler Murray (who was an obvious target on the vet minimum) the most substantial free agent addition was James Pierre. In the draft, Brzezinski and Co favored tough players at positions of need. They added a ton of beef up front. Even the secondary players acquired are physical prospects.

Bottom Line: As much as fans adore Brzezinski, I frankly don't feel confident giving this job to someone who does not have a true scouting background. It was one of Adofo-Mensah's biggest faults. When you don't have a scouting background, you are heavily relying on those that do. And the NFL is not great about hiring assistants based on talent rather than friendships. On top of that, I worry that hiring the in-house candidate creates too much risk of complacency. We are already doing a lot of good things. Let's just fix a few things here or there, and we'll be golden. Even if hiring an external candidate risks Brzezinski leaving the team entirely, it would be a mistake to opt for the interim GM just to avoid rocking the boat.