NFL Free Agency: 5 Worst General Managers in Recent Years

Contracts, scouting, drafting, managing, trading, coexisting, and the list goes on. The point is, being the general manager of an NFL franchise is not an easy job. 

But because we're the ones taking in the football product that is usually the direct result of a general manager, we have every right to make it entertaining and bash GMs from all over the NFL with every bit of believing that we could do a better job at running our beloved teams.

Throughout the world or sports, people have made a name for themselves for being miserable managers of professional franchises. In fact, it seems almost as if the dismal GMs get more recognition than the good ones.

This is particularly true in the NFL.

And if you were to look over the last few years and attempt to come up with a list of the top five worst general managers of pro football teams, you would be hard-pressed not to include these fine gentlemen. 

5. Jerry Jones

More recognized as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys rather than the general manager, Jerry Jones took over managing responsibilities most recently in 2007.

As much as I would like to bash Jones because 1.) he's a Dallas Cowboy and 2.) because his team had gone 4,760 days in between playoff wins, I honestly can't be too critical of the guy in terms of bringing talented football players to Dallas.

Year after year, the Cowboys are pegged during the preseason as being one of the most talented teams in the league, yet every year the team results in disappointment and let-down for Dallas fans.

Again, it's not that Jones is necessarily terrible at evaluating talent, but his egotistical power trips lead him to be pretty bad with contracts.

He refuses to fix glaring weaknesses, he has a difficult time with keeping his hands out of every football operation and he often fails to coexist with the team's coach.

Which bad contracts? Think Marion Barber (seven years, $45 million), Flozell Adams (six years, $42 million), Leonard Davis (seven years, $50 million), Roy Williams (six years, $54 million), Ken Hamlin (six years, $38 million) and the other Roy Williams (four years, $25 million). 

Which glaring weaknesses? How about the offensive line that hasn't seen a drafted starter this past decade besides Andre Gurode and Doug Free? Think about the problems at safety since Darren Woodson retired.

It appears that Jones is more obsessed with the skill positions and drafting Arkansas alum rather than addressing the team's true needs. 

Jones' ego and his wanting of being closer to the players than their actual jerseys doesn't help his reputation or better his relationships with coaches.

One can only wonder how much things will change, if at all, when Jerry's son Stephen eventually takes over managing duties.  

4. Mike Brown

Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown is another one, like Jerry Jones in Dallas, that serves double roles as both owner and general manager. 

Over the past few years, Brown may be most famous for bringing in players with a history of character issues and them second, third, sometimes even fourth chances. 

When you think back to guys like Chris Henry (RIP), Odell Thurman, Cedric Benson, Larry Johnson, Tank Johnson and Adam Jones, it's a wonder how the team didn't suffer even more than it actually did.

It seems, even to this day, that when a football player gets into legal trouble, he also happens to don a Bengals jersey. 

Brown also has an issue with scouting, apparently believing that it's not all that important. Rather than having a group of scouts, Brown employs a much smaller scouting team, and it's supposedly much smaller than those of competing teams.

Luckily for Bengals fans, Marvin Lewis mentioned in his first presser as head coach that Brown was committed to improving the scouting crew. But since 2003 when Lewis was brought on, it hasn't seemed to take on that transition. 

According to Sports Illustrated, Brown implemented the "loyalty clause" in 2000 that allowed the team to deny various player bonuses depending on the remarks they make about the Cincinnati Bengals.

Why would anyone have to implement this? Because the owner/general manager is a pain in the rear to work for.

Most recently, Brown has made the news for his heated offseason discussions with long-time franchise quarterback Carson Palmer, who is demanding a trade or threatening to retire.  

Although I don't believe Brown to be a bad guy with the wrong intentions for his football team, I do believe that he's way over his head in terms of responsibility.

The game and business of football is entirely too much for just one man to handle.  

3. Al Davis

It's tough to put a guy on this list that has done so much for the game of football as we know it, but owner/general manager extraordinaire Al Davis deserves to be on this list after years of running the Oakland Raiders into the ground.

Since the Raiders were blown out in the Super Bowl in 2002, they had yet to post more than five wins in a season until last year—a season in which they won eight games in Tom Cable's second full season as coach.

To everyone's surprise (but not really that shocking), Davis announced that Cable's contract would not be renewed with the team and once again Raiders Nation was dubbed.

That's not to say that Cable was a legend in the making, but he seemed to have the support of his players and the team was certainly improving.

Under Davis' watchful eye, the Raiders have made some of the most bizarre transactions of any football team in the league.

From the acquisition of Randy Moss to the signing of Lamont Jordan. The hiring of Art Shell as head coach and replacing him with Lane Kiffin. The drafting of JaMarcus Russell to the abandonment of Tom Cable—Raiders fans have reason to believe that Al Davis has gone completely bonkers.

And while it's painful to look at, some of the contracts that Al Davis has handed out have been nothing short of ridiculous. DeAngelo Hall was given a seven-year deal worth $50 million after the Raiders traded for him in 2008.

Hall would ultimately receive $8 million of his deal for eight games of service with the Raiders before being traded to Washington.

Some other contracts worthy of note are safety Gibril Wilson (six years, $39 million), Tommy Kelly (seven years, $52 million), Kwame Harris (three years, $14 million), Javon Walker (six years, $55 million) and Lamont Jordan (five years, $27 million).

But how can anyone forget one JaMarcus Trenell Russell? Taken first-overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, Russell held out throughout training camp and into the first week of the season until receiving an astronomical six-year deal worth up to $68 million ($31 million of which was guaranteed).

We all know how Russell eventually panned out. Now labeled arguably the biggest draft bust in NFL history, Russell is currently out of football with a career quarterback rating of 65.2. Yikes.

Almost everything the Raiders have done in the past eight or nine years has come off as being anywhere from a little crazy to completely idiotic. At 82 years old, I think it's safe to say that the Oakland Raiders and their fans would like to see the go in a different direction—one without Al Davis.

Although the earlier years of Davis and his controversial positions earned him respect throughout the world of football, his most recent antics have earned him the criticisms of being senile and deranged.  

As much as Davis may think he wants to "just win, baby," he clearly seems to have forgotten how.

2. Matt Millen

Serving as the president and CEO of the Detroit Lions from 2001-2008, Millen became one of the most hated men in all of football--or at least in Michigan.

Millen's eight-year run with the Lions is one of the worst in modern NFL history, as the franchise went 31-97 under his direction. When Millen was finally fired in 2008, the entire football fanbase had realized that the termination had come about eight years too late.

Even after failing to win a road game in his first three seasons (0-24) as president, Millen was somehow slated as the second-highest paid general manager in the NFL.

And in 2005, it was rubbed into the faces of Lions fans when team owner William Clay Ford, Sr. gave Millen a five-year contract extension—which came after Millen drafted such busts as Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington and receiver Mike Williams.

Besides doing everything in his power to harm a franchise as much as possible in eight years, Millen will likely most be remembered for the 2008 season in which he assembled a football team that would be the first to ever finish a season 0-16.

Millen also earned the reputation of not being able to pass-up on a flashy skill position player.

Whether it was the combination of athletic ability and speed that made Millen giddy, or the fact that he thought wide receivers threw the ball, caught it and made tackles, Millen seemed to be the most uneducated executive when it came to drafting a football team.

Fans had made it clear how much they despised Millen, holding protests and creating websites that encouraged the termination of the former player with four Super Bowl rings.

Unfortunately for Lions fans, Millen was no where even close to bringing a Super Bowl (or any kind of hardware) to Detroit.

1. Vinny Cerrato

And then there was one. Maybe it's because I'm a Redskins fan. Maybe it's because I've experienced the fiasco firsthand.

But whatever it may be, former Washington Redskins VP of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato is, was and always will be the absolute worst general manager in recent NFL history.

For Lions, Raiders, Bengals and even a few Cowboys fans who have gone through the wringer with knuckleheads running your beloved football team, I feel for you.

I know what it's like to suck as a franchise, to be the laughing stock of the league, to be the butt of every sports joke. And that's all thanks to Cerrato.

When Daniel Snyder purchased the Redskins in 1999, he brought on Cerrato, who had most recently served as Director of Player Personnel for the San Francisco 49er's.

Cerrato turned on his awful talent early, bringing on aged veterans like Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Jeff George and Mark Carrier and paying them top dollar.

Fortunately for all Redskins fans, Cerrato was fired by then-coach Marty Schottenheimer in 2001. Schottenheimer was a coach that had a hold of his football team and a guy that fans trusted to operate the organization.

It didn't take long though, as Schottenheimer was fired after just one 8-8 season and Cerrato was re-hired by Snyder, becoming the VP of Football Operations.

Cerrato continued to bring in lackluster free agents and the Redskins continued to struggle. For me, I always believed that Cerrato had some sort of incriminating photos against Snyder that forced the team owner to keep him employed.

There's just no rational explanation as to why Cerrato was retained for as long as he was, all while beating the franchise to a pulp as if it was a pinata.

Did you say bad contracts?

How about Mark Carrier (five years, $15.9 million), Bruce Smith (five years, $25 million), Deion Sanders (seven years, $56 million), Jeff George (four years, $18 million), Jeremiah Trotter (seven years, $35 million), Adam Archuleta (six years, $30 million), DeAngelo Hall (six years, $54 million), Antwaan Randle El (seven years, $31 million), Michael Barrow (three years, $3 million), Jessie Armstead (three years, $4.5 million) or Albert Haynesworth (seven years, $100 million)?

Some label Cerrato as the "yes man" for all of Snyder's ridiculous roster moves, and that may be true.

But regardless of if he was pulling the trigger himself or simply telling the owner, "Yes boss, I think bringing Sammy Baugh out of retirement is a great idea," Cerrato deserves every bit of ridicule and criticism that he receives.