Wednesday, we took a look at how the 2022 offseason changed the HC landscape. While 10 new sideline leaders are in place for 2022, not quite as much turnover transpired on the general manager front. Five new decision-makers, however, have moved to the top of teams’ front office hierarchies over the past six months.
The Bears, Giants, Raiders and Vikings rebooted their entire operations, hiring new HC-GM combos. The Minnesota move bumped out one of the previous top-10 longest-tenured GMs, with 16-year Vikings exec Rick Spielman no longer in power in the Twin Cities. The Steelers’ shakeup took the NFL’s longest-tenured pure GM out of the mix. Kevin Colbert was with the Steelers since 2000, and although he is still expected to remain with the team in a reduced capacity, the 22-year decision-maker stepped down shortly after Ben Roethlisberger wrapped his career.
Twelve teams have now hired a new GM in the past two offseasons, though a bit more staying power exists here compared to the HC ranks. Two GMs (the Cardinals’ Steve Keim and Chargers’ Tom Telesco) have begun their 10th years at the helms of their respective front offices. They have hired three HCs apiece. The Buccaneers’ Jason Licht is closing in on a decade in power in Tampa Bay; Licht will now work with his fourth HC in Todd Bowles. Beyond that, a bit of a gap exists. But a handful of other executives have been in power for at least five seasons.
Here is how long every GM or de facto GM has been in place with his respective franchise:
- Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys): April 18, 1989[1]
- Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals): August 5, 1991[2]
- Bill Belichick (New England Patriots): January 27, 2000[3]
- Mickey Loomis (New Orleans Saints): May 14, 2002
- John Schneider (Seattle Seahawks): January 19, 2010; signed extension in 2021
- Howie Roseman (Philadelphia Eagles): January 29, 2010; signed extension in 2022
- Les Snead (Los Angeles Rams): February 10, 2012; signed extension in 2019
- Steve Keim (Arizona Cardinals): January 8, 2013; signed extension in 2022
- Tom Telesco (Los Angeles Chargers): January 9, 2013; signed extension in 2018
- Jason Licht (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): January 21, 2014; signed extension in 2021
- Chris Grier (Miami Dolphins): January 4, 2016[4]
- Jon Robinson (Tennessee Titans): January 14, 2016; signed extension in 2022
- John Lynch (San Francisco 49ers): January 29, 2017; signed extension in 2020
- Chris Ballard (Indianapolis Colts): January 30, 2017; signed extension in 2021
- Brandon Beane (Buffalo Bills): May 9, 2017; signed extension in 2020
- Brett Veach (Kansas City Chiefs): July 11, 2017; signed extension in 2020
- Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay Packers): January 7, 2018
- Eric DeCosta (Baltimore Ravens): January 7, 2019
- Joe Douglas (New York Jets): June 7, 2019
- Andrew Berry (Cleveland Browns): January 27, 2020
- Nick Caserio (Houston Texans): January 5, 2021
- George Paton (Denver Broncos): January 13, 2021
- Scott Fitterer (Carolina Panthers): January 14, 2021
- Brad Holmes (Detroit Lions): January 14, 2021
- Terry Fontenot (Atlanta Falcons): January 19, 2021
- Trent Baalke (Jacksonville Jaguars): January 21, 2021
- Martin Mayhew (Washington Commanders): January 22, 2021
- Joe Schoen (New York Giants): January 21, 2022
- Ryan Poles (Chicago Bears): January 25, 2022
- Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Minnesota Vikings): January 26, 2022
- Dave Ziegler (Las Vegas Raiders): January 30, 2022
- Omar Khan (Pittsburgh Steelers): May 24, 2022
Footnotes:
- Jones has been the Cowboys’ de facto general manager since former GM Tex Schramm resigned in April 1989.
- Brown has been the Bengals’ de facto GM since taking over as the team’s owner in August 1991.
- Belichick has been the Patriots’ de facto GM since shortly after being hired as the team’s head coach in January 2000.
- Although Grier was hired in 2016, he became the Dolphins’ top football exec on Dec. 31, 2018
The worst GM in football is also the longest tenured.
I didn’t realize Trent Baalke had been hired for so long
All but certainly the worst person, too.
Steve Keim’s job security is flummoxing from just about every angle, and this is one.
To be an owner doubling as a GM, you have to seriously be an ‘I’ burger with ‘me’ sauce.
Jerry Jones. Made me chuckle.
Longevity apparently has nothing to do with success. The last time the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl was Super Bowl 30 – Sunday Jan 28, 1996.
But yet he has 3 Lombardi trophies . Bengals owner ?
I’m looking forward to the list of longest tenured mascots.
How about cheerleaders? They only get a few years at best.
Owner/GMs hardly count. Brown and Jones are final decision makers, but personnel below them (Stephen Jones in Dallas’ case, and Duke Tobin in Cincinatti’s) do the actual GM work. It’s easy to pick on Jones, but he does have three (very dated) Superbowls to show for it, and several good seasons. Some of these guys don’t even have that (Mike Brown, for example).
Trent Baalke has, what, two successful seasons to show for his work? Jason Licht and Les Snead both finally bought their way into Superbowls after massive spending sprees and riding the coattails of accomplished coaches, but there are others (again, Baalke) who have been handed jobs with worse performances. Steve Keim and Tom Telesco have had long periods of either mediocrity or failure buoyed by limited success, and are in the top ten of this list. Each have somehow presided over three different coaching regimes without any special level of success. Licht got to hire four coaches, though Arians’ “retirement” didn’t come on as negative a note as the others.
As much as we like to pile on Jones, he at least made the right decisions (or, really, hired the right people) to give his team some measure of success at some point, which some of these other guys cannot claim to have ever done.
Jones’ success came years ago before the trend to create bloated executive staffs took off. Now, even if your a capable GM you have to contend with a huge bureaucracy of assistants and advisors to get anything accomplished. It’s not surprising that some of the less organized franchises seem to be constantly running a Chinese fire drill getting nowhere.
Agreed. Vice President of Football Operations, Director of Player Personnel, Team President, Executive Personnel Officer…and then you have the lowly General Manager, of course.
I cannot believe that Louis Riddick’s name is not on this list yet…..