Recently, Minnesota executive Demitrius Washington became one of the many promoted Vikings during the 2025 offseason (one thinks of someone like Theo Jackson among the players; in the front office, several employees got bumped up).
Alongside Ryan Grigson, Washington has been named the Vikings’ Assistant General Manager after working as the Vice President of Football Operations. The article on the Vikings’ website describes the pair — Grigson and Washington — as complementary pieces: “Although their backgrounds are distinctly different and each took a unique path to the Vikings, they’ve blended efforts into building Minnesota’s roster through free agency, the draft and signing undrafted free agents.”
Promoted Viking Demitrius Washington Keeps Rising
Mr. Washington reminds one of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
Neither have a football background, at least not in the standard sense. Rather, they turned their intellectual sophistication into academic accomplishment. Adofo-Mensah, for a time, chased being a professor before hopping over to Wall Street. Washington, meanwhile, demonstrated excellence while studying business: “Washington received his bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from Central Arkansas in 2011. He also obtained his Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and analytics from Missouri in 2014.”
Another bit of similarity between the two executives is that they each did work for the Browns and 49ers. In San Francisco, the pair overlapped.
Consider how the Vikings’ website describes some of what Demitrius Washington did while working in the Bay Area: “In his previous role as manager of football research and development for the 49ers from 2020-21, Washington managed and oversaw the department’s efforts in optimization and process improvement and developed predictive and statistical analysis for player evaluation, acquisition and strategy.” So, a numbers nerd, a term I pass along with sincere respect (I fail spectacularly when it comes to math).
Guys like Adofo-Mensah and Washington sometimes run into an issue: how to translate high-level analysis that leans on specialty knowledge into information that’s accessible and useful for a non-specialist. Apparently, that’s something that Washington does extremely well.
At the end of February, Adofo-Mensah chatted with KFAN’s Paul Allen and Pete Bercich. Allen reflects on the interview he had with Demitrius Washington — included here, if you’re interested — pointing toward a “bright future.” The GM immediately responds by saying the Vikings’ Assistant GM is a “unique thinker.” Adofo-Mensah says that Washington is “multilingual,” a way of explaining that Washington does a great job of translating the research insights into comprehensible, actionable information: “Demitrius is uniquely-gifted at explaining kind of complex ideas.”
Building the Vikings’ roster in recent seasons hasn’t been without its challenges. In particular, one thinks of the draft foibles that climaxed in 2022 but still lingered into 2023.
Nevertheless, the Vikings are still boasting an excellent roster, one that has the capacity to run amok on the NFC.
Being successful, quite obviously, is the goal, and yet it’s a goal that comes at a cost. The offseason arrives and the vultures start circling around the healthy, vibrant teams and not the unhealthy, decaying teams. An NFL vulture wants a piece of the best teams, looking to get in on the magic that allowed for success for that particular franchise.
In Demitrius Washington, the Vikings have someone who could become a general manager before too long. He has steadily progressed in the NFL world, a reality that speaks to not just intelligence but also the grit and work hard necessary to work through various obstacles and challenges.
Seeing Washington leave for a GM position would mean the Vikings gain a pair of 3rd-Round compensatory selections (learn more on the 49ers’ website).
