Vikings request to interview Ryan Poles for General Manager job

Just a few hours ago, we were waiting for any names to emerge in the Minnesota Vikings’ search for a General Manager to succeed Rick Spielman, who was fired on Monday. Now, we’re up to a six-pack of potential candidates.

Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the Vikings have requested permission to interview Ryan Poles for their GM opening. Poles currently serves as the Executive Director of Player Personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Poles has been with the Chiefs’ organization since 2009, and despite all of those years of experience is still just 36 years old. Our friends over at Arrowhead Pride inform us that he started out as a scouting assistant, and has since ascended to the roles of College Scouting Coordinator (for six years), Director of College Scouting (two years), and Assistant Director of Player Personnel (three years) before assuming his current role in the Kansas City front office.

In what was a bit of a surprise, at least to Chiefs fans, Poles was one of the four finalists for the Carolina Panthers’ GM job last offseason, a job that ultimately went to Scott Fitterer, who was then the Seattle Seahawks’ Vice President of Football Operations.

With this addition, the list of GM candidates for the Vikings now numbers half a dozen.

• Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
• Brandon Brown
• Glenn Cook
• Ryan Poles
• John Spytek
• Eliot Wolf

I honestly don’t know a heck of a lot about any of them other than what I’ve added to the various articles I’ve put up here about them, but here’s hoping that Mark and Zygi Wilf can find the right person to lead this team into their new era.