The NFL’s general manager ranks featured some key shakeups this offseason. One of the longest-tenured pure GMs in the game, Tom Telesco, lost his Chargers seat 11 years in. The Raiders, however, gave Telesco a second chance. He now controls the Las Vegas roster. Only Telesco and the Jaguars’ Trent Baalke reside as second-chance GMs currently.
Two long-serving personnel bosses also exited this offseason. The Patriots’ decision to move on from 24-year HC Bill Belichick gave Jerod Mayo a head coaching opportunity but also resulted in Eliot Wolf belatedly rising to the top of the team’s front office hierarchy. A former Packers and Browns exec, Wolf held decision-making power through the draft and kept it on an official basis soon after. While John Schneider arrived in Seattle with Pete Carroll in 2010, the latter held final say. Following Carroll’s ouster after 14 seasons, Schneider has full control.
[RELATED: The NFL’s Longest-Tenured Head Coaches]
The Commanders changed GMs this offseason, hiring ex-San Francisco staffer Adam Peters, but Martin Mayhew received merely a demotion. The three-year Washington GM, who worked alongside Peters with the 49ers, is now in place as a senior personnel exec advising Peters. Rather than look outside the organization, Panthers owner David Tepper replaced Scott Fitterer with Dan Morgan, who had previously worked as the team’s assistant GM.
Going into his 23rd season running the Saints, Mickey Loomis remains the NFL’s longest-serving pure GM. This will mark the veteran exec’s third season without Sean Payton. An eight-year gap now exists between Loomis and the NFL’s second-longest-tenured pure GM.
As the offseason winds down, here is how the league’s 32 GM jobs look:
- Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys): April 18, 1989[1]
- Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals): August 5, 1991[2]
- 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[3]; signed extension in 2022
- Les Snead (Los Angeles Rams): February 10, 2012; signed extension in 2022
- Jason Licht (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): January 21, 2014; signed extension in 2021
- Chris Grier (Miami Dolphins): January 4, 2016[4]
- John Lynch (San Francisco 49ers): January 29, 2017; signed extension in 2023
- Chris Ballard (Indianapolis Colts): January 30, 2017; signed extension in 2021
- Brandon Beane (Buffalo Bills): May 9, 2017; signed extension in 2023
- Brett Veach (Kansas City Chiefs): July 11, 2017; signed extension in 2024
- Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay Packers): January 7, 2018; agreed to extension in 2022
- Eric DeCosta (Baltimore Ravens): January 7, 2019
- Joe Douglas (New York Jets): June 7, 2019
- Andrew Berry (Cleveland Browns): January 27, 2020: signed extension in 2024
- Nick Caserio (Houston Texans): January 5, 2021
- George Paton (Denver Broncos): January 13, 2021
- Brad Holmes (Detroit Lions): January 14, 2021: agreed to extension in 2024
- Terry Fontenot (Atlanta Falcons): January 19, 2021
- Trent Baalke (Jacksonville Jaguars): January 21, 2021
- Joe Schoen (New York Giants): January 21, 2022
- Ryan Poles (Chicago Bears): January 25, 2022
- Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Minnesota Vikings): January 26, 2022
- Omar Khan (Pittsburgh Steelers): May 24, 2022
- Monti Ossenfort (Arizona Cardinals): January 16, 2023
- Ran Carthon (Tennessee Titans): January 17, 2023
- Adam Peters (Washington Commanders): January 12, 2024
- Dan Morgan (Carolina Panthers): January 22, 2024
- Tom Telesco (Las Vegas Raiders): January 23, 2024
- Joe Hortiz (Los Angeles Chargers): January 29, 2024
- Eliot Wolf (New England Patriots): May 11, 2024
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.
- The Eagles bumped Roseman from the top decision-making post in 2015, giving Chip Kelly personnel power. Roseman was reinstated upon Kelly’s December 2015 firing.
- Although Grier was hired in 2016, he became the Dolphins’ top football exec on Dec. 31, 2018
Gotta wonder why DeCosta hasn’t been offered a contract extension. He’s done a good job with the Ravens. Paton strikes me as a guy who is just there to rubber stamp Sean Payton’s decisions.
Jerry had to own the Cowboys to keep the GM “job”that long.
He should fire himself.
In all fairness, Jerry does have 3 rings. Too bad he simply can’t admit Jimmy built that dominate roster, himself.
@arty yeah, but that was nearly 3 decades ago. And like you said, Jimmy was the driving force then. Guys get fired now 1-2 years after winning it all.
The thing is, it wouldn’t matter if he stepped down from the position/job title, he’d still be the one making the decisions.
He is also has put them in a terrible salary spot now by not handling contracs better
At this point, Dallas is balancing between poor cap management by Jerry and excellent draft scouting by Will McClay
Someone needs to get into Mickey loomis’ head, that this current situation of kicking the cap can down the road is eventually gonna come back to haunt the franchise. The saints have been in perpetual cap purgatory for what seems like 10 years. Bite the bullet and you’ll be terrible for a few years and then restart. It’s not like they’re even in contention, they’re basically in Jeff Fischer territory of endless 8-9 9-8 seasons.
Yeah, I at least understood the idea of trying to maximize the Brees/Payton era, but now that both components are gone, the Saints seem like one of the most directionless teams in the league.
Poor cap situation, a dearth of youth, and an altogether mediocre roster in spite of the price. Honestly, Derek Carr is the perfect poster child for this franchise given its current status
I hate this narrative. Loomis and the Saints have been successfully navigating the cap situation for years, and they’ll continue to successfully do so. They still manage to add talent throughout it all. This mythical day where they can’t fix the cap situation isn’t going to come.
Also, 9-8 isn’t far from 10-7 or 11-6, which easily wins the NFC South. There is zero reason to tear that down. The only thing New Orleans needs to do is sure up their drafting because if they hadn’t missed on a few early picks, this isn’t even a conversation.
While nobody is wrong with any of these thoughts, let’s face it- They’re gonna need a better QB than Carr to take an average team in an average division to the next level.
And yet in this division they have no playoff games since 2020. I think the cap juggling has to play in that.
I love the best drafting and shrewd moving Brad Holmes and would take him over anyone any day period. Number 1
What no women? Lol