Brought in to advise the Saints before the draft, Dave Ziegler has landed a full-time gig with the NFC South organization. The Saints have officially added the former Raiders GM to their front office, per NewOrleans.football’s Nick Underhill.
The team has Ziegler in place as a personnel advisor in its Mickey Loomis-led front office. This will reunite Ziegler with Derek Carr, creating some interesting optics considering how the latter’s Raiders tenure ended. While Josh McDaniels does not currently hold a full-time NFL gig, the other Raiders bigwig canned midway through last season now does.
This continues Saints connections to Carr-era Raiders power brokers, as Jon Gruden has helped out the team on a temporary basis since Carr’s arrival. Gruden, however, does not hold a full-time role in New Orleans. Ziegler, whom the Raiders fired hours after last year’s trade deadline along with McDaniels, will aim to rebound after his GM opportunity ended in Year 2 of a six-year contract.
The Raiders remain on the hook for Ziegler and McDaniels’ deals, but Mark Davis moved on quickly. Ziegler, 46, held roster control in Las Vegas but will work a few rungs under Loomis moving forward. He joins Jeff Ireland as a former GM on the Saints’ staff. The Saints also hired Brandon Tamres as a scouting assistant, Underhill adds. Tamres was most recently at Georgia as a recruiting analyst.
While Ziegler controlled the Raiders’ 53-man roster, it was assumed he was riding shotgun to McDaniels in Vegas. This period included the end of Carr’s nine-season run as the team’s starting quarterback. The Raiders, with help from Davis, benched Carr before Week 17 of the 2022 season. The team parked Carr to ensure a $40MM-plus guarantee did not vest in 2023, with Jarrett Stidham — who has made a habit of replacing starters with injury guarantees clouding their futures — taking over. The Raiders then cut Carr, whom the Ziegler-McDaniels regime ultimately deemed a poor fit in the latter’s offense, to avoid the guarantee in February of last year.
Opinions were divided on Ziegler’s role in Nevada, but he joined McDaniels and OC Mick Lombardi in receiving the boot at last year’s midseason point. The Raiders, who made the playoffs in 2021, went 14-20 on Ziegler’s watch and handed out a few deals — for Carr, Hunter Renfrow, Darren Waller and Chandler Jones — that did not age well. Ziegler’s handling of the Raiders’ QB position in 2023 played a central role in his ouster. Prior to Ziegler’s Raiders role, he held a key post in New England. Ziegler also worked with McDaniels in Denver and remained there following the HC’s ouster.
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