Minnesota Vikings have a fascinating candidate for general manager you likely haven’t heard of with a diverse background
Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander is a really interesting candidate with an excellent resume.
The Minnesota Vikings had a lot of candidate interview requests early on Thursday morning. The first one was Tennessee Titans assistant general manager Dave Ziegler, and there were four more that followed.
The most interesting of them all is one you likely haven’t heard of yet: Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander.
Minnesota Vikings request Chad Alexander to interview for general manager job
Alexander has been an interesting candidate for a few years. He got his start under Ozzie Newsome in 1999 as a pro personnel assistant before becoming a scout from 2003-2008. Then, he was the assistant director of player personnel from 2009-2018. That’s when Joe Douglas hired him to be the director of player personnel. He was in New York until 2023 and spent the last two years as the assistant general manager under his former colleague Joe Hortiz in Los Angeles.
I spoke with general manager and coaching expert AJ Schulte about who Alexander is, and his background overall is one the Vikings will be thrilled with.
A scouting background has evidently been atop the Vikings’ priority list after how the Kwesi “analytics” experiment went. Alexander’s background is as strong as it gets. He got started back in 1999 under legendary GM Ozzie Newsome with the Baltimore Ravens. Alexander worked alongside Newsome and other future GMs like Phil Savage, Eric DeCosta, Joe Hortiz, and Joe Douglas for 20 years, overseeing two Super Bowl-winning rosters. After a brief stop with the New York Jets, where he played a key role in the team selecting Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson, Alexander has been Chargers’ general manager Joe Hortiz’s right-hand man in overseeing the Chargers’ rebuild for the last two seasons.
Coaching and GM candidate expert AJ Schulte
Alexander’s background obviously lies in scouting, as one would expect. However, perhaps his secret sauce is his ability to work “big picture” and cultivate a strong culture and relationships in the building. Given his stops with the Ravens and Chargers, culture makes sense. Being a strong GM isn’t necessarily just being a senior evaluator. It’s becoming more and more of a blend of a CEO, CFO, and COO roles. A GM manages hundreds of employees and is entirely responsible for the direction of a nearly $500 million payroll. While Alexander’s background as a scout is undoubtedly a benefit and speaks to his talent there, his ability to cultivate a strong relationship across a front office and marry the visions of every employee might be his strong asset to being an effective general manager.
That was arguably the biggest issue between Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell, and ultimately led to Kwesi’s departure. The vision and direction of the team felt jumbled, and the two’s relationship evidently fractured as a result. I’ve often said culture is what keeps GM’s in place far more often than strategy, and we saw it happen in real time with the Vikings. Alexander’s prowess to build those relationships and spearhead multiple successful rosters across several different buildings could be exactly what the Wilf’s are looking for to get this hire right.
The background in scouting is a big one for the Vikings. After having an analytics general manager in Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the pivot back to a scouting background always made the most sense. The first draft Alexander was involved with was a loaded class, headlined by right tackle Joe Alt, wide receiver Ladd McConkey, and cornerbacks Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still.
Where Schulte is spot on here is with the culture. Reports were all over the lack of a quality culture with the Vikings under Adofo-Mensah. He reportedly spent “too much time” in his office poring over spreadsheets rather than fostering relationships. Alexander, being good at building relationships, is a big deal for the Vikings.
Alexander is going to be an interesting candidate to pore over during the interview process.