Although Trent Baalke and Jim Harbaugh famously butted heads in San Francisco, Tom Gamble has spent extensive time with both power brokers. The former 49ers assistant GM will move back to Baalke’s side after residing as a Michigan staffer in recent years.
Gamble became part of the Michigan program after a stint with the Jaguars; he is now reversing course. The veteran personnel man is rejoining Baalke in Jacksonville, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets. He had served as the Wolverines’ director of player personnel during Harbaugh’s final years leading the program. The decision to come back to Jacksonville is interesting due to Gamble being rumored to be coming with Harbaugh back to the NFL, had the latter landed the Denver job in 2023.
This will be a third stint with Gamble working alongside Baalke. They were together from 2005-12 in San Francisco and again from 2015-16, the latter stretch coming after the Baalke-Harbaugh feud produced an exit to the college ranks from the fiery HC. Gamble finished his second 49ers tenure as assistant GM, moving into that role months before Baalke’s dismissal. Gamble left San Francisco shortly after the John Lynch GM hire in 2017.
This will be Gamble’s 31st NFL season, and he has hit the ground running. Gamble has been working with Baalke in Jacksonville for the past several weeks, according to SI.com’s John Shipley. Gamble’s title is unknown, but he served as a Jags senior personnel exec back in 2021, when the brief Baalke-Urban Meyer partnership came apart quickly.
During the first two years of the Baalke-Harbaugh alliance in San Francisco, Gamble served as the reignited team’s director of player personnel. That concluded Gamble’s first stint with the team; the Eagles brought him in as their VP of player personnel from 2013-14. Baalke and Gamble both worked under Scot McCloughan in San Francisco, rising up the ranks before Baalke’s eventual ascent to the GM post.
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