This year’s NFL GM carousel figures to be more active than usual. The Falcons, Lions, Panthers, Texans, and Jaguars are all on the hunt for a new front office leader. And that’s only the official list. The real tally shows six clubs looking for a GM, since the Washington Football Team is expected to install a GM to work alongside head coach Ron Rivera. By mid-January, we could easily see a couple more jobs opening up — that’d put ~25% of the NFL on the market.
We’ll keep track of the GM candidates for each club here, along with their current status. If and when other teams decide to make general manager changes, they’ll be added to this list. Here’s the current breakdown:
Updated 1-19-21 (7:02pm CT)
Atlanta Falcons
- Morocco Brown, Colts college scouting director: Interviewed
- Terry Fontenot, Saints VP/assistant GM: Hired
- Brad Holmes, Rams director of college scouting: To receive second interview, finalist for position
- Anthony Robinson, Falcons director of college scouting: Interviewed
- Joe Schoen, Bills assistant GM: To be interviewed
- Rick Smith, former Texans general manager: Interviewed; finalist for position
Carolina Panthers
- Mike Borgonzi, Chiefs player personnel director: Rumored candidate
- Nick Caserio, Patriots VP of player personnel: Interviewed
- Ed Dodds, Colts assistant GM: Interviewed; name withdrawn from search
- Scott Fitterer, Seahawks VP of player personnel: Hired
- Champ Kelly, Bears assistant player personnel director: Interviewed
- Omar Khan, Steelers VP of football and business administration: Interviewed
- Jeff Ireland, Saints assistant GM: Interviewed
- Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Browns VP of football operations: Interviewed
- Monti Ossenfort, Titans player personnel director: To receive second interview
- George Paton, Vikings assistant GM: Rumored candidate; withdrew name from consideration
- Adam Peters, 49ers VP of player personnel: To receive second interview
- Ryan Poles, Chiefs assistant player personnel director: Received second interview
- Jerry Reese, former Giants general manager: Interviewed
- Joe Schoen, Bills assistant GM: Interviewed
- Pat Stewart, Panthers player personnel director: Interviewed
- Samir Suleiman, Panthers director of player negotiations: Interviewed
- Brandt Tilis, Chiefs football administration director: Interviewed
Denver Broncos
- Terry Fontenot, Saints vice president of pro personnel: To receive second interview
- Champ Kelly, Bears assistant director of player personnel: Interviewed
- George Paton, Vikings assistant GM: Hired
- Brian Stark, Broncos director of college scouting: To be interviewed
- Dave Ziegler, Patriots assistant player personnel director: To be interviewed; bowed out of search
Detroit Lions
- Kevin Colbert, Steelers general manager: Rumored candidate
- Thomas Dimitroff, former Falcons general manager: Interviewed
- Terry Fontenot, Saints assistant GM: Interviewed
- Brad Holmes, Rams director of college scouting: Hired
- Jeff Ireland, Saints assistant GM: Interviewed
- Rob Lohman, Lions director of pro scouting: Interviewed
- Lance Newmark, Lions director of player personnel: Interviewed
- Kyle O’Brien, Lions VP of player personnel: Interviewed
- George Paton, Vikings assistant GM: Interviewed
- Scott Pioli, former Chiefs GM/NFL Network analyst: Interviewed
- Louis Riddick, ESPN analyst/former Eagles exec: Interviewed
- John Schneider, Seahawks general manager: Rumored candidate; signed Seahawks extension
- Rick Smith, former Texans general manager: Interviewed
Houston Texans
- Matt Bazirgan, Texans player personnel director: Interviewed
- Malik Boyd, Bills pro scouting director: Interviewed
- Nick Caserio, Patriots VP of player personnel: Hired
- Scott Cohen, Ravens football research director: Interview requested
- Omar Khan, Steelers VP of football and business administration: Interviewed; received job offer
- Trent Kirchner, Seahawks VP of player personnel: Interviewed
- Ozzie Newsome, Ravens executive vice president: Preferred candidate
- Louis Riddick, ESPN analyst/former Eagles exec: Interviewed
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Trent Baalke, interim Jaguars GM: Expected to be hired
- Ray Farmer, former Browns general manager: To be interviewed
- Terry Fontenot, Saints assistant GM: Interview requested
- Jerry Reese, former Giants GM: Interviewed
- Louis Riddick, ESPN analyst/former Eagles exec: Interviewed
- Rick Smith, former Texans general manager: Interviewed
Washington Football Team
- Ryan Cowden, Titans VP of player personnel: Interview requested
- Marty Hurney, former Panthers general manager: Expected to be hired; joined team in non-GM role
- Martin Mayhew, former Lions general manager: Hired
- Nick Polk, Falcons football operations director: Interview requested
- Rick Smith, former Texans general manager: Mentioned as candidate
- JoJo Wooden, Chargers player personnel director: Interview expected
I hope you just forgot the NY football Giants here. It’s Christmas you know. I hope Santa just forgot to bring them a new GM too. Well I guess a firing would have to happen first but here’s to New Years Resolutions lol.
Maybe he’ll decide that he’s accomplished all he set out to do with the Giants and retire.
Thank goodness we have these trackers. The real fun starts when teams start shuffling their coaching staffs.
Anybody who thinks Rick Smith is a good hire, go look at his drafts. Only reason they drafted JJ was Wade Phillips.
I don’t think he was that bad. He picked up Watson and found a gem in Matt Schaub for pennies on the dollar. He seemed to be pretty good at scouting pass-rushers, nabbing Mario Williams, JJ Watt, Whitney Mercilus, and Connor Barwin. Some notable blockers he acquired through the draft include Duane Brown, Eric Winston, Brandon Brooks, and Nick Myers. Successful linebackers include Demeco Ryans, Benardrick McKinney, and Brian Cushing. We shouldn’t forget DeAndre Hopkins either. It’s not as though he was thought to be a guaranteed success upon being drafted.
Of course, Smith had his weaknesses. He seemed to fail at scouting cornerbacks and drafted the likes of Amobi Okoye and Kevin Johnson. It’s hard to blame him for the Clowney selection, as everyone at the time was touting him to be the first overall selection. Honestly, I see more good than bad when evaluating his overall body of work. He had the occasional miss, but that could probably be said about any intelligent general manager. Even Ozzie Newsome and Bill Belichick made/make mistakes from time to time. If you really want to see some poor draft history, look at the Falcons
Agreed. Smith got a lot of starts out of his picks-over the the course of over a decade that he was in Houston. More than half of his picks from 2007-2012 were still on the Texans according to an SI article I read (64%). I looked for some more recent analysis since his leaving the Texans to get some better specifics to support my memory, but did not see any. Smith was known for flying under the radar so I am hardly surprised.
I’d say that he did an excellent job drafting. Whatever issue the Texans had, it wasn’t there.
I’d have to disagree on just 2 big draft failures; both #1 overall opportunities were wasted on good but not great edge rushers, Mario Williams & Clowney (who was overhyped because of one tackle that went viral). You can not miss on a #1 overall pick, ever.
I understand Mario wasn’t elite, but he was a steady contributor and turned out to be way better than the alternative options (Bush and Young). I mean, let’s be honest, is there any scenario in which the Texans select an “elite” player with the first overall pick in that draft? Remember, we can’t use hindsight and have to take into account the player evaluations at the time. The only selection that would have definitely panned out would be D’Brickashaw Ferguson. Otherwise, I don’t really see what else he could have done
Yeah, Williams actually ended up with a decent career. Should have done better? Yes. Had work ethic issues? Doubly yes. Left for a big money deal? Certainly. But the talent was there, and he did produce for the Texans. 53 sacks in six or so years isn’t too bad.
As for Clowney, he was the consensus number one pick before that hit. I don’t get why that bit of misinformation is still making the rounds. Was he a disappointment? Yes, partially, because he never became the sack master that he was supposed to be. But he was a very good player on the field. His missed games were the biggest issue, especially because Watt was missing games when Clowney wasn’t. Even so, he was traded for a pittance because O’Brien did not like him. His play was not bad. I can’t say that he was really a failure, despite the low sack numbers, and while Smith could have picked someone better, Clowney did look like the number one pick at the time and did produce for Houston. The Texans’ last playoff season is the best example, when both Watt and Mercilus went down and Clowney was their only rusher of note.
I wouldn’t hold that against Smith’s record as evidence of his inability to draft. By all accounts, he made reasonable picks.
I’m so glad for once to not see the Browns on this list!
Is it true whenever you watch a football game you automatically become an expert?
The cosmic order of the universe is maintained by having men experts at sports and women experts at shopping for shoes.
The Lions sure are kicking a lot of tires. I think some teams might be waiting to see if Howie Roseman gets cut by the Eagles. However, with him being an Eagles employee for 20 years now, and a friend of Jeffrey Laurie’s, he will probably get reassigned but not dismissed. Put Howie in contracting and get him the hell out of drafting.
Roseman also righted the ship after the Chip Kelly debacle. I could see him hanging around after Pederson is deservedly fired. I am unsure how much blame for this season specifically to lay at Roseman’s feet, especially considering the fact that he essentially did nearly all the work in assembling the SuperBowl win, aling with Frank Reich. Maybe it’s a lot, maybe not so much. How much is his own failure at building the roster, and how much actually is it bad luck with injuries and bad coaching of who was left?
I hope the Jags don’t think about letting Baalke keeping the GM position. Not a Jags fan, I’m a 49ers fan and I promise they do not want that guy lol
Agreed. Balls not only was awful but apparently difficult to work with. You may be able to get away with one of those, at least temporarily, but not both of them.
Eliot Wolf really dropped off the radar after he lost the GB job to Gutekunst.
Elliott Wolf absolutely deserves an interview, at least, with clubs looking for a GM. He did a solid job here in Cleveland while with a John Dorsey. Since he isn’t an analytics guru he was let go. But he’s young enough and smart enough to learn and has an old-school sense of scouting that smart teams should still value and incorporate into “modern” scouting protocols.And why Louis Riddick isn’t running a team yet I can’t understand.
I’d like to see Reggie McKenzie get another chance. He didn’t deserve to be thrown under the bus in Oakland by Mark Davis and Gruden.
Agreed here. McKenzie built a pretty successful roster with Del Rio, and both seemed to get unceremoniously dumped despite their overall decent job in rebounding from the Dennis Allen mess. He seems like someone to at least get an interview if he wants it.
Looks like the Panthers and Lions are committed to using the dart board approach.
Lions interviewed Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds today. I still like a Riddick, but he’d also be a good hire in my opinion.
Lions and Dodd as well