Thomas Dimitroff is back on the NFL’s GM radar. After not interviewing for a job during the past three hiring periods, the former Falcons front office boss is in the mix for the Jets’ now-available position.
The Jets announced Monday they interviewed Dimitroff for the job. This marks the team’s first meeting with a candidate. They are set to follow this up with a Jon Robinson interview, and a Louis Riddick meeting is on tap as well. The Jets can interview candidates not employed by teams at any point, but they must wait until divisional-round week to talk with candidates attached to clubs.
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Dimitroff served as Atlanta’s GM from 2008-20, overseeing a run of playoff berths during Matt Ryan‘s tenure. Taking over the Falcons in the aftermath of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, Dimitroff chose Ryan third overall in his first draft at the helm and built rosters that booked playoff byes in 2010, 2012 and 2016. The ’16 season famously produced a commanding Super Bowl lead that ultimately disappeared during an infamous collapse.
The Falcons fired Dimitroff and HC Dan Quinn in October 2020. The team had journeyed to the playoffs six times during Dimitroff’s tenure, reaching the NFC championship game twice. The first instance featured a narrow loss to the 49ers, the second a dominant win over the Packers during Ryan’s 2016 MVP season. Although the Falcons pushed the Carson Wentz-less Eagles in a narrow 2017 divisional-round loss, they could not keep the momentum they established with the core that blew a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI. After back-to-back postseason absences in 2018 and ’19, the Falcons retooled in 2020.
Dimitroff, 58, last interviewed for a GM post in 2021, having met with the Lions about the gig that went to Brad Holmes. Dimitroff had attracted the Falcons’ attention after a run with the Patriots; he was the Pats’ scouting director from 2003-07, collecting two Super Bowl rings. The veteran exec worked in the NFL from 1993-2020 but has not held a position since. GMs receive second chances at a much lower rate than HCs, as only two second-chance GMs — Trent Baalke (Jaguars), Tom Telesco (Raiders) — are currently in place. Woody Johnson did hand his search over to two former GMs (Mike Tannenbaum, Rick Spielman), and Robinson also being on the radar would stand to keep the door open to a second-chance hire.
Although the Dimitroff years produced the most sustained success in Falcons history, his having been out of the NFL for more than four years will probably introduce a high hurdle in his path to this Jets position. The Jets are expected to conduct a thorough search to replace Joe Douglas, and that will surely include several execs currently employed by teams. That will stand to drag this process well into January.
Lmao. Good luck
Just don’t let that man draft any defense sheesh lol….He was good a offense players however. Except towards the end with the Falcons a 2nd round pick for Hayden Hurst was a pretty bad move.
Lmao he sucked with money
He’s going to fit in great in New York lol
Lmao now that you mention it…
The new GM can’t draft D, either—awfu D with a ‘D’ minded HC to boot.
That’s probably the best candidate they’re gonna get now that people know how meddlesome the Jets owner is. The good candidates will be hesitant to leave a good situation only to get canned a couple of years down the road over the owner’s bad decisions.
The names so far are not inspiring confidence. Why not wait until the season is over and poach someone from an organization that knows what they’re doing?
They fired Douglas so they could officially start meeting people. That obviously wasn’t going to include people with teams until after the season. Dimitroff is a perfectly good name to have on the list. Obviously his time in Atlanta was flawed, but he did some good work there, and for the last couple of years he’s been doing interesting work with SumerSports (which a post about him should really mention).
Why do teams continue to recycle failed GMs for their openings?
The old adage of insanity…same stupid moves but expecting different results.
J-E-T-S doing J-E-T-S things.