Cole Bransford enters his second season with the Vikings in 2024 as a football quantitative methods analyst. In his role, Bransford uses data and analytics tools to build draft models to help predict player success when analyzing collegiate and free agent prospects.
The McLean, Va., native graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in operations research and financial engineering. He was the captain of the Tigers track and field team and specialized in the 400-meter dash. Bransford completed his senior thesis on predicting NFL offensive play calls in real-time for a theoretical betting application. Prior to joining the Vikings, Bransford worked as a software engineer for Capital One and Invitae in San Francisco before becoming the co-founder and chief technology officer of Zage.