A very cryptic report rose from Minnesota early in the day on Wednesday when it was announced that assistant general manager Ryan Grigson would “pursue another opportunity” as the Vikings began the process of flipping their front office over.
Grigson was the assistant to general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was also a former member of Cleveland’s front office. Adofo-Mensah was the deserved scapegoat in the Vikings organization after they stacked another disappointing season on while their former quarterback, who they declined to bring back, won the Super Bowl.
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it was time for the Vikings to cut bait and start over. Part of that was a shuffling of the front office. One person who got caught in the crosshairs was Ryan Grigson. As new Vikings’ GM Nolan Teasley offered to keep Grigson in a different role, he declined.
It wasn’t until later in the day on Wednesday that the news began to circulate that Grigson’s next opportunity was back in Cleveland.
Grigson’s first stint with the Browns was in the 2017 season, where he served as the senior personnel assistant. Then, in 2020-21, he came back to the Browns as the senior football advisor, the role that he will hold in his 2026 return.
Grigson has a complete football resume. He played his college ball at Purdue prior to becoming a sixth-round draft pick. He played professionally for three seasons, two in the NFL and one in the CFL.
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After those three quick years, he began to coach but quickly realized that the front office was his calling. He took his first job in 1998 and became a scout, and the rest is history. His resume includes stops in St Louis (Rams), Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Seattle, Cleveland round two, Minnesota, and then Cleveland round three.
The highest title he held was general manager of the Indianapolis Colts from 2012 to 2016. He was awarded the Sporting News and PFWA NFL Executive of the Year when he shepherded the Colts from a 2-14 season post-Peyton Manning to 11-5 in Andrew Luck’s first year at the helm.
He definitely leans more to the analytical side in terms of his approach, but he has found a lot of success in his career and is a familiar face to Andrew Berry’s front office.
He comes to Cleveland having worked with Berry in the past and with the experience of drafting great players and building some high-quality rosters in each of his stops.
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This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Andrew Berry adds to the Browns’ Front Office, adds familiar face
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