The Lions are set to interview former Falcons exec Thomas Dimitroff for their GM vacancy, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The two-time Executive of the Year was dismissed earlier this year, putting him out of the NFL for the first time in a long time.
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Dimitroff is the third known candidate to interview for the post, following former Texans GM Rick Smith and ESPN’s Louis Riddick. Dimitroff — who was one of the league’s longest-tenured GMs before he was fired — helped build the team that reached the Super Bowl following the 2016 season. He’s also responsible for drafting franchise pillars including Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. But, on the whole, many have questioned his scouting track record.
The Lions are expected to cast a wide net, so their search will not be limited to just these three candidates. Their pool may also include former Giants general manager Jerry Reese, who has the support of Ford family advisors.
lol
Jerry Reese. Ford family is hopeless. Don’t they check references? Call the Giants.
Reese: biggest loser
My first instinct is to roll my eyes as well, but when looking back, Reese had actually a solid run before the team started to tank around 2012-2013. This of course does not eliminate the period of ineptitude that followed, but I was surprised when looking back that I saw so many decent acquisitions that he made before the team sank into futility. I’m not saying that I’d push for his hire, just that I was surprised to see that he overall wasn’t as bad as I thought.
OMG please no.
Bring back Matt Millen!
No offense, but it really didn’t require a lot of mind power to figure out that Ryan and Jones were the picks to take at their points in the draft.
But he traded up for Jones.
He actually does deserve credit for identifying that there weren’t many impactful offensive prospects between the 6 spot and their pick and took the risk of giving up draft capital to get up to 6 and draft him. And I think was right.
Remember to always recycle.
Dimitroff could have done better at several points in Atlanta, and in particular failed in recent years to add better defensive talent in the secondary. He did however end up drafting some pretty solid players (Garrett, Jones, Trufant pre-injury, not counting a few on offense). His biggest mistake was hiring and enabling Quinn, in my estimation, and having too much trust in Quinn’s strategy to fix the Falcons. He does deserve blame for that. But of the two, Dimitroff certainly the more likely to offer value in a second opportunity as compared to Quinn. In my view he is much less responsible for the Falcons’ poor record and, unlikeQuinn, did offer the team some measure of value.