HEADLINES

John Spytek

Titans Setting Up Second GM Interviews

January 14th, 2025 at 11:55am CST by Sam Robinson

JANUARY 14: The Titans’ second round of interviews will take place in person today, tomorrow and Thursday, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports’ reports. Once all six candidates have been met with, it would come as no surprise if a decision were to be made in relatively short order. Tennessee may well be the first of the three GM-needy teams to move forward with a hire during the 2025 hiring cycle.

JANUARY 13: Needing a GM for the second time in three years, the Titans are moving fast. Less than a week after firing Ran Carthon, Tennessee is setting up second interviews. One of those involves a candidate the team met with in 2023 as well.

Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham met with Titans brass two years ago, and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport notes the Ryan Poles lieutenant is in line for a second interview this time around. Joining Cunningham in advancing to this stage will be Chiefs assistant GM Mike Borgonzi and Buccaneers assistant GM John Spytek.

We may not be at the finalist stage yet, though third interviews are virtually unheard of. Still, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports Bills director of player personnel Terrance Gray and Colts AGM Ed Dodds are also expected to receive second interviews. Ditto Jon-Eric Sullivan, per Pelissero. While this process is moving swiftly, the Titans still have several candidates in the race.

This batch of candidates includes some who are still in consideration for the Jets and Raiders’ GM gigs. Spytek, a Tom Brady college teammate, is on the Raiders’ radar early. Borgonzi is a Long Island native who has interviewed with the Jets. Sullivan interviewed for the Jets’ job as well. Beyond these three, none of the Titans’ set of second interviewees has been connected to one of the other available jobs. Though, the Raiders have not made official requests yet.

Cunningham would join the Bears’ HC search committee once he is no longer connected to leaving, but for now, the fourth-year Chicago staffer is in limbo. The Bears gave Cunningham an extension after he lost out to Adam Peters for the Commanders’ GM job. The Titans strongly considered Cunningham in 2023, giving him a second interview during the pursuit Carthon eventually won. Cunningham is also believed to have turned down the Cardinals’ GM job that year, with ex-Titans exec Monti Ossenfort winning. Titans brass circling back with another second interview bodes well for Cunningham’s status this year.

Dodds has been on GM carousels previously and has been in the AFC South for seven seasons now. The Colts hired Dodds shortly after Chris Ballard took over in 2017. Dodds interviewed for the Chargers, Panthers and Raiders jobs last year. Gray met with the Bolts and Raiders but declined a Patriots interview request, joining others in doing so as the Patriots looked to satisfy the Rooney Rule for a job most correctly figured would go to Eliot Wolf.

Borgonzi was part of last year’s GM carousel as well, meeting about the Commanders job, but this year marks the first time he has met with multiple teams in the same offseason. The Chiefs have lost Ballard and Brandt Tilis from their front office during Andy Reid‘s tenure. Considering Kansas City’s success over the past several years, it would surprise if Borgonzi was not in the mix for the Jets and Titans’ jobs until the end. Both the Bucs’ assistant GMs, Spytek and Mike Greenberg, are on this year’s GM carousel. Greenberg has interviewed with the Jets. Spytek has been with the Bucs for nearly 10 seasons, two in his current role.

The Titans are giving Chad Brinker significant power, with the team’s former assistant GM — after having usurped Carthon — now president of football operations. That will affect the team’s next GM considerably, significantly affecting this search. Sullivan’s resume should be important here, as he and Brinker worked together for nearly 15 years in Green Bay. Sullivan has been with the Packers since 2004, learning under Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst. Brinker featured the same background upon arriving in Nashville.

Via PFR’s General Manager Search Tracker, here is how the Titans’ process looks nearly a week in:

Raiders Request GM Interview With Jon-Eric Sullivan, To Meet With John Spytek

January 14th, 2025 at 9:48am CST by Adam La Rose

The Raiders have begun the process of seeking out candidates for their general manager vacancy. To no surprise, two of the names on the team’s radar are among the top options in this year’s hiring cycle.

Jon-Eric Sullivan has received an interview request, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports. The Packers’ director of player personnel also received a slip from the Jets as part of their ongoing search. More notably, Sullivan is also among the apparent finalists for the Titans’ GM gig. A second interview with Tennessee is on tap, something which is also the case with a number of other in-demand candidates.

Another name heavily connected to the Titans is that of Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek. He too has a second interview lined up, but the Raiders have arranged a meeting of their own. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times report Spytek will interview with Vegas as part of the team’s first round of meetings with candidates.

As a result of Spytek’s connection to Tom Brady given their time spent together at Michigan and again in Tampa Bay, he was floated as a potential candidate for the Raiders’ GM position. To no surprise, then, he has found himself in demand from two of the three teams seeking out a major front office hire. Up to this point, the Jets’ wide-ranging search process has not included contact with Spytek.

Having moved on from both head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, the Raiders have a pair of major organizational decisions looming. Brady – along with veteran headhunter Jed Hughes – will be key figures in the process of filling those vacancies. Owner Mark Davis does not plan on repeating his ‘Patriot Way’ approach from the Josh McDaniels-Dave Ziegler era, so it will be interesting to see which new direction the franchise moves in on the sidelines and in the front office.

NFL Staff Rumors: Raiders, Jets, 49ers

January 12th, 2025 at 9:10pm CST by Ely Allen

Based on several reports in recent days, we’ve been pushing the assumption that part-owner Tom Brady has immense influence in the Raiders‘ operations, namely the ongoing searches for a new head coach and general manager. This sentiment was all but confirmed in an article today by Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. One of Bonsignore’s sources with knowledge of the situation told him that “this is Tom’s show now” and that majority owner Mark Davis wants Brady to have a “huge” voice in the team’s operations.

Brady’s influence does appear to have its limits, though. According to Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed of The Athletic, many in the NFL pinned new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel as Brady’s top option to coach in Las Vegas. Vrabel wasn’t one of the team’s scheduled interviews, though, as those became known to the media. Apparently, Davis was “not interested in another go-round with ‘Patriots Way’ after the failure of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler two years ago.”

Brady’s voice will otherwise still be heavily considered in the search for a new head coach and general manager. Buccaneers assistant general manager John Spytek has already been identified as a potential candidate, aided by Brady’s connection to his former team. While Tafur and Reed don’t mention any actual rumored interest, they list Commanders assistant general manager Lance Newmark, Lions assistant general manager Ray Agnew, Lions director of scouting Dwayne Joseph, Chiefs assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi, and Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley as names to watch for based on their potential compatibility with different head coaching candidates.

Here are a few other staff rumors from around the NFL:

  • The Jets were another contender for Vrabel’s services, and they reportedly were extremely interested in bringing him in. In a Q&A with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, Breer stated his belief that New York would’ve allowed Vrabel to choose his own general manager had he signed with them, especially considering their main plan is to find the best guy (head coach or general manager) and build around them to achieve alignment throughout the coaching and front office staffs. Ultimately, Breer believes the reputation of team owner Woody Johnson likely dissuaded Vrabel away from the Jets.
  • Staying in New York and with Breer’s peer at Sports Illustrated, Patrick McAvoy, we got a report that SportsNet New York insider Connor Hughes is under the opinion that Rex Ryan “is completely out” of the head coaching race for the Jets. Hughes was quoted on WFAN telling Rami Lavi that “that is not gonna happen with the Jets.”
  • Following the departure of special teams coordinator Brian Schneider, the 49ers have begun the process of replacing him. To wit, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the team has completed an interview with Lions assistant special teams coach Jett Modkins. Modkins has spent the last four seasons in Detroit under coordinator Dave Fipp, who is widely considered one of the best in the game.

Raiders Hire Headhunter For HC/GM Search; Pete Carroll Among Top HC Candidates

January 10th, 2025 at 5:37pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Raiders were already looking for a new head coach, and after firing Tom Telesco, they’re looking for a new general manager as well.

The team has brought in headhunter Jed Hughes of consulting firm Korn Ferry to join their search process, per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. Hughes coached in college and the NFL for almost 20 years and has since helped multiple teams hire coaches and executives, including the Packers and the 49ers. He will join Tom Brady as a key voice in the direction of the Raiders this offseason.

Hughes’ NFL experience includes a two-year stint as the Vikings’ defensive backs coach under Bud Grant in 1982 and 1983, giving him a connection with one of the Raiders’ head coach candidates. Grant retired after the 1983 season, but returned to Minnesota in 1985 and hired Pete Carroll in Hughes’ former position.

Carroll is a serious candidate for the HC job in Las Vegas, according to Vincent Bonsignore Las Vegas Review-Journal. He has already interviewed for the same job with the Bears. Carroll stepped down as the Seahawks’ head coach last year, but remained with the team as an advisor.

Brady has plenty of his own connections around the league, including a relationship with Buccaneers general manager John Spytek, according to Jones. Spytek was Brady’s teammate at Michigan in 1999 and later helped bring the quarterback to Tampa Bay as the team’s vice president of player personnel. The Buccaneers then won Super Bowl LV in Brady’s first year.

Brady isn’t the only Raiders minority owner who could impact the team’s ability to attract top candidates. Egon Durban, CEO of investment firm Silver Lake, purchased 7.5% of the team in December, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. The persuasive power of Brady’s reputation and Durban’s financial resources could be a key factor in a crowded coaching market this offseason.

Titans Request GM Interviews With Ed Dodds, Reggie McKenzie, John Spytek

January 10th, 2025 at 10:30am CST by Nikhil Mehta

JANUARY 10: McKenzie is likely to receive considerable support for the GM role, Dianna Russini of The Athletic notes. He may be the favorite at this point in the process, although things could of course change over the coming days as interviews take place.

JANUARY 8: The Titans are casting their net far and wide in search of their next general manager, adding three more interviews to their list on Wednesday.

The latest candidates are Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds (per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero), Dolphins senior personnel executive Reggie McKenzie (per ESPN’s Turron Davenport), and Buccaneers assistant GM John Spytek (per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times).

[RELATED: Titans Begin GM Search With Three Requests]

Dodds has worked under Colts GM Chris Ballard since 2017. He began his NFL front office career as a scouting intern for the then-Oakland Raiders in 2003. That led to a scouting gig in Seattle, where Dodds finished as a senior personnel executive after nearly a decade. He then started as vice president of player personnel in Indianapolis before receiving a promotion to assistant GM in 2018. The Colts have hit on a number of first- and second-round picks in Dodds’ tenure, including Quenton Nelson and Shaquille Leonard in 2018 and Michael Pittman Jr. and Jonathan Taylor in 2020, but they have struggled to consistently find talent in the later rounds.

McKenzie is a former NFL linebacker who retired from playing in 1992. He briefly coached at the University of Tennessee before landing a scouting job with the Packers. McKenzie stayed in Green Bay for almost 20 years, eventually rising to director of football operations in 2008. The Packers won two Super Bowls in McKenzie’s tenure, which also included the 2005 draft selection of Aaron Rodgers.

McKenzie was then hired to turn around an expensive, underperforming Raiders roster as GM. He hit on Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, and Amari Cooper in back-to-back drafts but struggled to find and retain talent in subsequent years amid interference from new owner Mark Davis and his handpicked head coach, Jon Gruden. McKenzie was fired during the 2018 season and joined the Dolphins a few months later. Miami’s next three drafts all yielded several future starters, including Tua Tagovailoa and Jaylen Waddle, though the team is still chasing their first AFC East title since 2008.

Spytek spent time with the Lions, Eagles, Browns, and Broncos – primarily as a scout – before arriving in Tampa Bay in 2016. The Buccaneers have been one of the most successful front offices in the last decade under GM Jason Licht, who has consistently hit on draft picks and free agent signings. Tampa Bay won Super Bowl LV after successfully engineering the acquisition of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski during the 2020 offseason and has won four straight division titles since. The Buccaneers’ drafts under Spytek have been littered with success, particularly at offensive line.

The Titans’ search is being overseen by president of football operations Chad Brinker, whose football experience stands in contrast to some of Tennessee’s other business-focused executives. He has ties to Chiefs assistant GM Mike Borgonzi, Packers VP of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan, and Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, all of whom could be candidates for the Titans’ GM job.

Brinker may also look for familiarity with head coach Brian Callahan, in which case a Bengals executive like Mike Potts, Trey Brown, or Steve Radicevic could be considered, according to Breer.

2025 NFL General Manager Search Tracker

January 8th, 2025 at 6:08pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Titans and Raiders are again part of a GM carousel in the 2020s. Tennessee canned its front office boss after two seasons, while Las Vegas moved on after one. These two join the Jets. Here is how the three AFC teams’ searches look thus far. If other teams make changes atop their front offices, they will be added to the list.

Updated 1-16-25 (4:17pm CT)

Las Vegas Raiders

New York Jets

Tennessee Titans

Buccaneers OC Liam Coen “Gaining Traction” For HC Gigs

December 21st, 2024 at 9:49am CST by Ben Levine

Liam Coen has helped elevate the Buccaneers offense into one of the top-scoring units in the NFL. The offensive coordinator may be able to parlay that performance into a promotion. Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Coen has been “gaining traction” for head coaching gigs. At the very least, the coach is expected to be heavily involved in the interview circuit.

After spending a few years in the college ranks, Coen made a name for himself working alongside Sean McVay in Los Angeles. Coen first served as the Rams wide receivers coach, when he helped guide Cooper Kupp to his breakout season in 2019. Coen later worked closely with Matthew Stafford as the team’s assistant QBs coach.

Coen left for Kentucky in 2021 to become the school’s offensive coordinator, but he returned to the Rams in 2022 to replace Kevin O’Connell as OC. Coen went back to Kentucky for a second stint in 2023 before getting hired as Dave Canales‘ replacement in Tampa Bay ahead of the 2024 campaign.

While the Buccaneers already had a formidable offense, Coen has helped take the unit to another level. The offense is averaging more than 28 points per game despite Chris Godwin being lost for the season and Mike Evans missing a handful of games. Coen has also helped turn around the team’s running game; after ranking towards the bottom of the NFL in 2022 and 2023, the Buccaneers currently rank second in yards per carry (5.2) and fifth in rushing yards (2,021).

Considering Coen’s success in multiple stops, it’s not a huge surprise that he’ll be a hot name on the coaching carousel. The offensive coordinator will be relatively new to the HC interview cycle, and considering his limited track record, some longer-tenured coordinators will likely get the first crack at open jobs. Still, it’s a positive development for Coen’s career trajectory that he’s already being considered for these types of gigs.

As Fowler notes, Coen won’t be the only popular name in Tampa Bay. Assistant GM John Spytek will once again be considered for GM jobs, and fellow assistant GM Mike Greenberg could also be a popular name (with Fowler specifically pointing to the Jets gig). Fowler also points to vice president of football research Jacqueline Davidson and director of player personnel Rob McCartney as names to watch, even if they don’t get long looks this offseason.

Buccaneers Promote Mike Greenberg, John Spytek To Assistant GMs

June 29th, 2023 at 7:12pm CST by Ben Levine

The Buccaneers made a few notable changes to their front office today. The team announced that Vice President of Football Administration Mike Greenberg and Vice President of Player Personnel John Spytek will now serve as assistant general managers.

Greenberg has spent 16 years in the NFL, the majority of them with Tampa Bay. Per the team’s release, the executive often worked alongside general manager Jason Licht when it came to salary cap management, contract negotiations, Collective Bargaining Agreement compliance, and the organization’s financial/strategic planning.

Spytek, who will be entering his eighth season with the Buccaneers, was worked alongside Licht on the NFL Draft, “key free-agent acquisitions,” and other personnel decisions. In his role as Vice President of Player Personnel, the executive oversaw the college and pro scouting departments.

The team also announced that Jackie Davidson has been named Vice President of Football Research and Shane Scannell has been named Director of Pro Scouting. Davidson was previously a senior director and will support both the front office and coaching staff “in roster and strategy decisions through research and development of analytical tools and methods.” Scannell was promoted from assistant director and will work alongside Director of Player Personnel Rob McCartney on “advance scouting.”

Latest On Steelers’ GM Search

May 24th, 2022 at 10:20am CST by Adam La Rose

The Steelers have undergone a meticulous search to find outgoing general manager Kevin Colbert‘s replacement. The list of preferred candidates has reportedly been finalized.

Pittsburgh has concluded their interviews for the position, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The team initially met with 16 executives representing a noteworthy cross-section of internal and external personnel. That list was then narrowed down to six candidates, each of whom received a second look.

Included among the finalists are Brandon Hunt and Omar Khan. The former has worked in Pittsburgh on two separate occasions, the most recent stint beginning in 2010; he is currently the team’s pro scouting director. Hunt has also received interest for a significant front-office role in Philadelphia. The latter, meanwhile, has been with the Steelers since 2001, working his way up to the role of vice president of football and business administration and generating interest on a number of occasions from other teams during previous GM hiring cycles.

The other second interviewees come from outside the organization: Ryan Cowden, John Spytek and Andy Weidl, who work in the player personnel departments for the Titans, Buccaneers and Eagles, respectively. The other external name to be given notable consideration is Doug Whaley, who began his front office career with the Steelers before a stint as the Bills’ GM and, most recently, a position with the re-booted XFL.

Dulac notes that it remains to be seen if the six-name list is reduced even further before a hire is made. He adds that there is still “no specific timeframe” for when the new GM will be named.

Here is the complete breakdown of the Steelers’ search:

2022 NFL General Manager Search Tracker

May 18th, 2022 at 5:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

Along with the head coaches being fired, a few NFL teams are looking for new general managers. Listed below are the GM candidates that have been linked to each of the teams with vacancies, along with their current status.

If and when other teams decide to make GM changes, they’ll be added to this list. Here is the current breakdown:

Updated 5-24-22 (9:03pm CT)

Chicago Bears

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

Pittsburgh Steelers

Load More Posts