Profiling Every GM Ahead of the 2016 NFL Draft
How you were raised to appreciate the sport of football changes the way you evaluate the game, and general managers aren't any different. Behind all 32 franchises are 32 stories of head men in front offices who were raised in different conditions.
The first step to diagnose how franchises are run is to find out who is really in charge. For the most part, the top personnel men in every organization are labeled as general managers, but that's not always the case. For example, the Cleveland Browns don't have a true general manager, but they do have a power structure.
The second step is to realize what background each general manager comes from. Is he an owner or a former scout or come out of the football world? What are his hits and misses at this point in his career?
A look into who these men are gives us a glimpse as to where each franchise is at the moment, as well as the league as a whole. We hope to attain this by looking at the track record and history of each head man of every team in the league.
Arizona Cardinals: Steve Keim
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Name/Title: Steve Keim, General Manager
Team: Arizona Cardinals
Background: Keim has been with the Arizona Cardinals for over a decade-and-a-half. Joining the team in 1999, the majority of the team's history in the Phoenix area has been during Keim's presence with the franchise. After spending seven years as a college scout, he slowly moved up the chain of command to the director of college scouting, to the director of player personnel and to the vice president of player personnel. He eventually settled in as the general manager of the team in 2013.
Team Record as GM: 34-14
Biggest Draft Hits: S Tyrann Mathieu, LB, Deone Bucannon, WR John Brown, RB David Johnson, DL Rodney Gunter
Huge Swing and Miss: IOL Jonathan Cooper
Draft Trends: Keim is not afraid to invest a lot of assets at non-premier positions. He took a linebacker-safety hybrid in Deone Bucannon in the first round of the 2014 draft and selected Jonathan Cooper, a guard, seventh overall in 2013.
This also reflects to free agency, where the team has invested heavily into two guards. Mike Iupati is second in the league in terms of cost per year over the life of his contract at the position, and Evan Mathis ranks in the top 20. For as much as teams like to talk about the positionless "best player available" myth, Keim is one of the few general managers whose track records reflect that line of thinking.
Atlanta Falcons: Thomas Dimitroff
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Name/Title: Thomas Dimitroff, General Manager
Team: Atlanta Falcons
Background: Dimitroff bounced around as a scout for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns and even the World Football League, but many credit the current general manager's early influence to his time with the New England Patriots. There, he was a national scout and the director of college scouting under Bill Belichick.
The book War Room by Michael Holley details the ties of Belichick to his former underlings who then ran multiple franchises across the league, including Dimitroff in Atlanta. Prior to Dimitroff's tenure in Atlanta, the team had never posted back-to-back winning seasons in its history, dating back to 1966.
Team Record as GM: 74-54
Biggest Draft Hits: CB Desmond Trufant, WR Julio Jones, QB Matt Ryan
Huge Swing and Miss: DL Peria Jerry
Draft Trends: The Atlanta Falcons have struggled over the last two seasons in the sack column. They are 32nd in the league over a two-year span in regard to that particular statistic. In recent years, though, they seem to have changed their approach to pass-rushers, which hopefully will dig them out of the hole they put themselves in. Vic Beasley, the eighth overall pick of the 2015 draft, and Ra'Shede Hageman, the second-round pick in 2014, are both freak athletes on the defensive line.
Dating back to 2014, we can find the Falcons using force-plate technology to test pass-rushing prospects. This should be no surprise, as Scott Pioli is Dimitroff's right-hand man in Atlanta. Pioli was a fan of drafting athletes in the front seven during his time in Kansas City as the franchise's general manager.
Baltimore Ravens: Ozzie Newsome
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Name/Title: Ozzie Newsome, General Manager/Executive Vice President
Team: Baltimore Ravens
Background: Newsome is one of the most respected general managers in the league, if not the most. He's also one of six NFL general managers who are the executive vice presidents of their entire franchise. He was a first-round pick out of Alabama who played for three decades of Cleveland Browns football, which led to a front office job with the franchise after his playing career. When the team moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, he also made the relocation to Maryland. Less than 15 years after being named the NFL's Man of the Year in 2002, Newsome was named an NFL general manager.
Team Record as GM: 120-88
Biggest Draft Hits: EDGE Terrell Suggs, QB Joe Flacco, DL Haloti Ngata
Huge Swing and Miss: QB Kyle Boller
Draft Trends: In 13 years as a general manager, the Ravens have had only three losing seasons under Newsome. There hasn't been much of a sample size to guess what he does at the top of drafts, but looking at how he leans with top-100 picks, there's a skew toward defensive players. In 2015, like in 2008, the Ravens took back-to-back offensive players to start their draft class. In 2014 and 2013, though, the squad took three defensive players to begin its rookie pool.
Baltimore doesn't seem to give much value to combine numbers, either. It will take players like Timmy Jernigan, who was an undersized, average athlete but a talented All-American at Florida State, in the second round, if another team makes the mistake of allowing gems to fall into Baltimore's lap. For Newsome, coming from the background of an old-school player, this should be no surprise.
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Buffalo Bills: Doug Whaley
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Name/Title: Doug Whaley, General Manager
Team: Buffalo Bills
Background: Prior to taking over as a general manager for the team in 2013, Whaley had worked with the Buffalo Bills since 2010 as an assistant general manager with a player personnel background. Before that, he spent a decade with the Pittsburgh Steelers organization under general manger Kevin Colbert, who is still heading the Steelers to this day. Though he's only overseen one winning season in Buffalo, Whaley's past two seasons' combined record of 17-15 is the best two-year stretch for the Bills since 1999 to 2000.
Team Record as GM: 23-25
Biggest Draft Hits: CB Ronald Darby
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: Whaley, 43, is a young general manager, and it's hard to pin down his tendencies at this point. One aspect of his regime that has stood out, though, is how many trades the Bills are involved in. Be it Kiko Alonso, LeSean McCoy, Sammy Watkins or even Matt Cassel, plenty of players have moved to or from Buffalo in some sort of trade, be it player for player, player for pick or a draft position move.
Carolina Panthers: Dave Gettleman
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Name/Title: Dave Gettleman, General Manager
Team: Carolina Panthers
Background: Gettleman bounced around the league as a scout for the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos and New York Giants before taking over the Giants' pro personnel director role in 1999. After spending well over a decade in New York under both Ernie Accorsi and Jerry Reese, he earned the general manager gig in Charlotte.
Team Record as GM: 34-13-1
Biggest Draft Hits: DL Star Lotulelei, DL Kawann Short, WR Kelvin Benjamin
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: Under Gettleman, the team has only drafted in the third round once in the past three seasons. In the first two rounds, four of the six players taken have been on the defensive side of the ball, with Benjamin and Devin Funchess being receivers. In the middle rounds, the team has taken offensive linemen in Daryl Williams, Trai Turner and Edmund Kugbila. On paper, Gettleman leans toward defenders and pass-catchers early in the draft while valuing offensive linemen less on a relative scale of the rest of the league.
Chicago Bears: Ryan Pace
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Name/Title: Ryan Pace, General Manager
Team: Chicago Bears
Background: After spending 2001 until 2014 with the New Orleans Saints, Ryan Pace left his director of player personnel position with the Saints for the general manager role with the Chicago Bears last season. Less than 40 years old, Pace is one of the youngest general managers in the NFL.
Team Record as GM: 6-10
Biggest Draft Hits: DL Eddie Goldman
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: With only one draft class under his belt, it's hard to get a feel for what Pace likes when isolated from the New Orleans organization. All six of his draft picks came from Power Five conference teams, though. Kevin White, Pace's first first-round pick, missed his entire rookie year with a stress fracture. His second-round pick, Eddie Goldman, a nose tackle, recorded 4.5 sacks, the most for a rookie interior defensive lineman.
Cincinnati Bengals: Mike Brown
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Name/Title: Mike Brown, General Manager/Owner
Team: Cincinnati Bengals
Background: The Cincinnati Bengals are a family business for Mike Brown. His father, Paul Brown, was the owner-general manager of the team during his 1968-1990 run. When Paul passed away in 1991, Mike, his son, took over the franchise, both as an owner and the head personnel man. The first draft that Mike oversaw was the 1992 draft class. In recent years, though, he's allegedly taken a more passive approach to personnel power, despite keeping the general manager title, as he's "handed the ball" to head coach Marvin Lewis and director of player personnel Duke Tobin, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer (h/t NFL.com).
Team Record as GM: 152-214-2
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Carson Palmer, DL Geno Atkins, WR A.J. Green, OT Willie Anderson
Huge Swing and Miss: QB Akili Smith
Draft Trends: The Bengals have established some defining traits. First, they love big-school players. Of their 54 draft choices since 2010, 47 have come from teams with a Power Five background. Only three prospects drafted came from the FCS level, and two of the three were seventh-round picks.
Cleveland Browns: Sashi Brown
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Name/Title: Sashi Brown, Executive Vice President of Football Operations
Team: Cleveland Browns
Background: Technically, there isn't anyone in the Cleveland Browns organization with the "general manager" title. At this point, the leadership is structured around Brown and Paul DePodesta, the chief strategy officer of Cleveland, who comes from a "Moneyball" baseball background. Brown came to Cleveland in 2013 as the executive vice president of the team, coming off some time spent with the Jacksonville Jaguars organization.
Team Record as GM: First year
Biggest Draft Hits: First year
Huge Swing and Miss: First year
Draft Trends: First year
Dallas Cowboys: Jerry Jones
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Name/Title: Jerry Jones, General Manager/Owner
Team: Dallas Cowboys
Background: In 1989, Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys. Before then, the only connections he had to the sport were as a student-athlete at the University of Arkansas and when he tried to buy the San Diego Chargers during the American Football League Era. Jones made his money as an oilman and flipped that into full control of one of the most important franchises in the NFL.
Team Record as GM: 230-202
Biggest Draft Hits: IOL Larry Allen, QB Troy Aikman, EDGE DeMarcus Ware, OT Tyron Smith
Huge Swing and Miss: LB Bobby Carpenter
Draft Trends: In six of the last seven draft classes, the Dallas Cowboys have drafted a front-seven defender with one of their first two picks of the draft. This is a team that has proved itself over and over to value off-the-ball linebackers and pass-rushing defensive ends more than any other position on the defensive side of the ball.
Denver Broncos: John Elway
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Name/Title: John Elway, General Manager/Executive Vice President of Football Operations
Team: Denver Broncos
Background: Elway is one of the greatest players in Denver Broncos history, ending his career with the team with back-to-back Super Bowl rings. Shortly after his retirement from the NFL, he became an Arena Football League team owner with the Colorado Crush. In 2011, he joined the Broncos as the director of player personnel. A year later, he would fill the role of a general manager, officially taking the title over in 2012. In his four years acting as the head of the Broncos, they have never finished with a record worse than 12-4.
Team Record as GM: 50-14
Biggest Draft Hits: DL Malik Jackson, DL Sylvester Williams, LB Danny Trevathan
Huge Swing and Miss: RB Montee Ball
Draft Trends: In Elway's four draft classes, he's taken a defender at a premier position with the Broncos' first pick. In every class, he immediately followed a defender with an offensive player, and in three of the four classes, he went with back-to-back offensive players, with five of the seven offensive rookies coming in as skill players.
Detroit Lions: Bob Quinn
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Name/Title: Bob Quinn, General Manager
Team: Detroit Lions
Background: After serving as a graduate assistant for the University of Connecticut, Bob Quinn spent 2000 through 2015 with the New England Patriots, playing the roles of area scout to the director of player personnel to everything in between.
Team Record as GM: First year
Biggest Draft Hits: First year
Huge Swing and Miss: First year
Draft Trends: First year
Green Bay Packers: Ted Thompson
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Name/Title: Ted Thompson, General Manager/Executive Vice President/Director of Football Operations
Team: Green Bay Packers
Background: Thompson was brought into the NFL's personnel world by Ron Wolf, who's best known for rebuilding the Green Bay Packers and being Al Davis' right-hand man in Oakland. When Mike Holmgren, who previously was Green Bay's head coach, took the Seattle Seahawks' head coach and general manager jobs, Thompson was brought in as his right-hand man. In 2005, he returned to Green Bay as the general manager, when Mike Sherman dropped the title and stuck around as only a head coach.
Team Record as GM: 108-67-1
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Aaron Rodgers, S Nick Collins, LB Clay Matthews
Huge Swing and Miss: DL Justin Harrell
Draft Trends: Thompson loves athletes at every position, which is no surprise with his Wolf-Raiders connection. There are two positions in particular in which he's fairly predictable. On the offensive line, Thompson takes a fourth-round college blindside protector about every other year. From there, he moves the premier athletes around. For example, T.J. Lang, Josh Sitton and David Bakhtiari are current starters who came from that approach.
The other position that is fairly easy to pin down for Thompson is off-the-ball linebacker. He doesn't value it, at least in a 3-4 defense. Since 2006, he hasn't used a top-100 pick on an off-the-ball player. At least five players with pass-rushing backgrounds in college have made the move to inside linebacker for Thompson's Packers in recent years: Clay Matthews, Brad Jones, Nate Palmer, Carl Bradford and Jake Ryan. He looks at outside linebackers and inside linebackers like most view offensive tackle and guard. If they aren't athletic enough to hang outside, he'll just move them inside. He also doesn't draft cornerbacks who are shorter than 5'10 ½".
Houston Texans: Rick Smith
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Name/Title: Rick Smith, General Manager/Executive Vice President
Team: Houston Texans
Background: Smith was the director of player personnel in Denver from 2000 until 2005, after a stint as a secondary coach. In 2006, he came aboard as a general manager for the Houston Texans.
Team Record as GM: 61-67
Biggest Draft Hits: WR DeAndre Hopkins, DL J.J. Watt, EDGE Mario Williams
Huge Swing and Miss: DL Amobi Okoye
Draft Trends: Early on in the draft, the team has leaned 14 of its top 18 picks to the defensive side of the ball. With that being said, two of the offensive selections have been receiver DeAndre Hopkins and offensive tackle Duane Brown, who have been massive hits for the squad.
Indianapolis Colts: Ryan Grigson
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Name/Title: Ryan Grigson, General Manager
Team: Indianapolis Colts
Background: Grigson started in the league as a scout for the St. Louis Rams but eventually made the move to Philadelphia. With the Eagles, he was the director of player personnel in 2010 and 2011, parlaying that gig into the general manager job in Indianapolis.
Team Record as GM: 41-23
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Andrew Luck, WR T.Y. Hilton
Huge Swing and Miss: EDGE Bjoern Werner
Draft Trends: The best defender that Grigson drafted in the top 100 in his first three drafts is Bjoern Werner, who is currently a free agent. How? He was the only defender selected in the top 100 by Grigson out of the eight top-100 picks that the franchise had. That's not including the picks traded for Trent Richardson. Last year, the team took two defenders in the top 100 but spent the top draft choice on Phillip Dorsett, a receiver. Grigson loves to invest in offensive skill players.
Jacksonville Jaguars: David Caldwell
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Name/Title: David Caldwell, General Manager
Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
Background: Caldwell got his start in Carolina, but he's best known for his time in Indianapolis. With the Colts organization, he was an area scout from 1998 to 2007, eventually moving into the direct of college scouting and player personnel roles prior to becoming the Jacksonville Jaguars' general manager. Also on his staff is John Idzik, who was the former general manager of the New York Jets, who is labeled as the special assistant to the general manager.
Team Record as GM: 12-36
Biggest Draft Hits: WR Allen Robinson
Huge Swing and Miss: OT Luke Joeckel
Draft Trends: There isn't too much to say about Caldwell's short-ish stint with the Jaguars. The franchise kept the selection of Blake Bortles close to the chest, as it shocked everyone in the draft community with the selection in 2014. One thing the Jaguars consistently do, though, is double-dip in a unit. In 2013, the team took two defensive backs back to back, followed by two receivers back to back, just to finish another defensive back run of three players in a row. In 2014, Jacksonville took two pass-catchers back to back early on in the draft in Allen Robinson and Marqise Lee. If the team has a hole, it fills it multiple times.
Kansas City Chiefs: John Dorsey
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Name/Title: John Dorsey, General Manager
Team: Green Bay Packers
Background: From 1984 until 2012, there were only three years where Dorsey wasn't with the Green Bay Packers organization, either as a player or working behind the scenes. He started as an area scout for the Packers before moving up the executive ladder as their premier interviewer, which likely came in handy in the selection of Marcus Peters. Only spending one season with another NFL squad, the Seattle Seahawks, in his career, Dorsey took over the Kansas City Chiefs' general manager role in 2013.
Team Record as GM: 31-17
Biggest Draft Hits: CB Marcus Peters, TE Travis Kelce
Huge Swing and Miss: OT Eric Fisher
Draft Trends: Dorsey comes from the Ron Wolf-Ted Thompson tree, which often emulates the draft cliches of the Al Davis Raiders. Those characteristics include speed across all positions, but the demand for tall cornerbacks is something that's present in Dorsey's track record at the moment. Out of the four corners whom Dorsey has taken in three draft classes, three of them have been 6'0" tall.
Los Angeles Rams: Les Snead
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Name/Title: Les Snead, General Manager
Team: Los Angeles Rams
Background: Snead cut his teeth with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but his history with the Atlanta Falcons makes it hard to declare any other franchise molded him more as an evaluator. Between 1997 and 2011, Snead was a scout or director of player personnel with the Falcons. In 2012, he became the general manager of the St. Louis Rams, who are now relocating to Los Angeles.
Team Record as GM: 27-36-1
Biggest Draft Hits: DL Aaron Donald, RB Todd Gurley, CB Trumaine Johnson
Huge Swing and Miss: WR Brian Quick
Draft Trends: Snead loves skill players. Loaded with top-100 picks from the Robert Griffin III trade, he's drafted eight skill players in the top 100 since 2012. He's also taken four defensive backs in the top 100. Last year, all four of his top-100 selections were dedicated to the offensive side of the ball, and the team took three offensive tackles in the first four rounds, not including Isaiah Battle, who was taken in the supplemental draft. Over the stretch of Snead's career, he's targeted offensive skill players often with some defensive backs sprinkled in, but recently he's been on a lineman binge.
Miami Dolphins: Chris Grier
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Name/Title: Chris Grier, General Manager
Team: Miami Dolphins
Background: Grier got his first taste of NFL scouting with the New England Patriots in 1994, where he contributed until he made the move to the Miami Dolphins organization in 2000. After 16 seasons with the team, he finally took over the general manager role, but it wouldn't be the Dolphins if there wasn't a power struggle. He still has to report to Mike Tannenbaum, the franchise's executive vice president of football operation. Tannenbaum is the former general manager of the New York Jets.
Team Record as GM: First year
Biggest Draft Hits: First year
Huge Swing and Miss: First year
Draft Trends: First year
Minnesota Vikings: Rick Spielman
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Name/Title: Rick Spielman, General Manager
Team: Minnesota Vikings
Background: Spielman has bounced around the NFC North, scouting in some form or fashion for three of the four teams in the division. He started his career as a scout for the Detroit Lions in 1990, which led to a direct of player personnel gig with the Chicago Bears in 1997 through 1999. He was in Miami from 2000 until 2004, spending that final season with the Dolphins as their general manager. In 2006, after a year at ESPN, he joined the Minnesota Vikings. He's been around the Vikings' draft room since then but only has officially been a general manager since 2012.
Team Record as GM: 33-30-1
Biggest Draft Hits: LB Anthony Barr, QB Teddy Bridgewater, S Harrison Smith
Huge Swing and Miss: WR Cordarrelle Patterson
Draft Trends: If there's one resounding trait of Rick Spielman's draft classes, it's that the Minnesota Vikings love freak athletes on the edge. Brian Robison, Everson Griffen, Danielle Hunter and even Scott Crichton are world-class athletes for their respective sizes.
New England Patriots: Bill Belichick
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Name/Title: Bill Belichick, General Manager/Head Coach
Team: New England Patriots
Background: Belichick is known best for being the head coach of the New England Patriots, but he also serves as their general manager. This isn't the first time he's filled that role, though, as he was the head man in Cleveland before its move to Baltimore. Prior to that, he was a longtime defensive assistant to Bill Parcells.
Team Record as GM: 187-69
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Tom Brady, LB Jamie Collins, TE Rob Gronkowski
Huge Swing and Miss: WR Chad Jackson
Draft Trends: Some teams clearly do or do not pay attention to the combine. On the surface, it looks like one drill in particular, the three-cone drill, can help identify future New England Patriots. Be it for quarterbacks who will be future slot receivers or hybrid players such as Jake Bequette, many Patriots test well in that drill for their size.
New Orleans Saints: Mickey Loomis
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Name/Title: Mickey Loomis, General Manager/Executive Vice President
Team: New Orleans Saints
Background: Loomis, for well over a decade, spent the beginning of his sports career with the Seattle Seahawks. He was an executive in the Northwest, where he was born and raised, before coming to the New Orleans Saints in 2000. By 2002, he had secured the general manager title. He also has a hand in the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA, as he's the head of basketball operations.
Team Record as GM: 122-102
Biggest Draft Hits: OT Terron Armstead, EDGE Cameron Jordan, TE Jimmy Graham
Huge Swing and Miss: WR Robert Meachem
Draft Trends: Long cornerbacks are the all the craze in New Orleans. The franchise drafted Stanley Jean-Baptiste and P.J. Williams early. The Saints brought in Delvin Breaux from the Canadian Football League and added Brandon Browner as a free agent.
New York Giants: Jerry Reese
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Name/Title: Jerry Reese, General Manager/Senior Vice President
Team: New York Giants
Background: Reese was raised in the NFL as a New York Giant. For over a decade, he was a college scout for the team, a job that eventually turned into the director of player personnel title in 2004. In 2007, when Ernie Accorsi left his general manager post, Reese took over. From 2007 to 2012, the Giants never had a losing record, but they've had three straight losing seasons since then.
Team Record as GM: 77-67
Biggest Draft Hits: WR Odell Beckham Jr., EDGE Jason Pierre-Paul
Huge Swing and Miss: RB David Wilson
Draft Trends: Reese leans slightly toward the defensive side of the ball with 17 defenders being drafted in the top-100 compared to just 13 offensive players. With that being said, the team has used only one of those picks on a linebacker (Clint Sintim). Reese seems to neglect the position.
New York Jets: Mike Maccagnan
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Name/Title: Mike Maccagnan, General Manager
Team: New York Jets
Background: Maccagnan was introduced into the league as a Washington Redskins intern, but he soon made a world tour. He worked with the WLAF, the London Monarchs, the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders before coming back to the Redskins in 1994. He stayed there until 2000, when he made the move to Houston to assist the college scouting department of the expansion team. He took over the general manager job of the New York Jets in 2015, which earned him the Pro Football Writers of America's Executive of the Year honors as a rookie general manager.
Team Record as GM: 10-6
Biggest Draft Hits: No hits at this point
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: With only one draft under his belt, it's hard to tell how Maccagnan's draft strategy will look like in the long term, but he doesn't seem to care about positional need. Already armed with two quality defensive ends in Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson, he drafted Leonard Williams, a slipping talent who many considered to be the best in the draft, with the sixth overall pick and his first selection.
Oakland Raiders: Reggie McKenzie
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Name/Title: Reggie McKenzie, General Manager
Team: Oakland Raiders
Background: McKenzie, like many general managers in the NFL, is from the Ron Wolf scouting tree. It's fitting that McKenzie is in Oakland, where Wolf is credited for building a franchise with Al Davis. From 1994 until 2011, McKenzie was in Green Bay, under the likes of Wolf and Ted Thompson. He worked jobs ranging from an area scout to the director of player personnel. In 2012, he took over the head gig for the Raiders.
Team Record as GM: 18-46
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Derek Carr, EDGE Khalil Mack, RB Latavius Murray
Huge Swing and Miss: OT Menelik Watson
Draft Trends: One trait that almost all general managers in the Ron Wolf scouting tree have in common is targeting taller cornerbacks. In McKenzie's first year as a general manager, he selected D.J. Hayden of Houston in the first round. Hayden is 5'11", but the other four defensive backs the team has taken have been over 6'0", with two coming in at 6'3".
Philadelphia Eagles: Howie Roseman
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Name/Title: Howie Roseman, Executive Vice President of Football Operations
Team: Philadelphia Eagles
Background: Roseman first entered the NFL in 2000, assisting the Philadelphia Eagles with their salary cap. He moved up the chain of command, and by 2010, he became the team's general manager. In 2015, though, Chip Kelly took control of personnel power. When Kelly was fired, Roseman gained back personnel power, so despite his executive vice president of football operations title, he's effectively the general manager of the team.
Team Record as GM: 42-38
Biggest Draft Hits: DL Fletcher Cox, OT Lane Johnson, TE Zach Ertz
Huge Swing and Miss: IOL Danny Watkins
Draft Trends: Roseman loves trades. Maybe it's just him taking Kelly's recent moves through a paper shredder, but he's already flipped players such as DeMarco Murray, Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso for draft selections, leading to a top-eight pick in this coming draft. It shouldn't surprise anyone if he is a big mover on draft day as well.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Kevin Colbert
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Name/Title: Kevin Colbert, General Manager
Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Background: Colbert has been in Pittsburgh since 2000, but he spent plenty of time bouncing around the league prior to coming to the Steel City. He started his scouting career by working for the BLESTO scouting service in 1984, which then led to a five-year stint with the Miami Dolphins. He left Miami in 1990 for the Detroit Lions, where he took a pro scouting director job. From there, he became the director of football operations in Pittsburgh, which is essentially the general manager title, which he wasn't given until 2010, when he became the first executive in franchise history to be named a general manager.
Team Record as GM: 61-35
Biggest Draft Hits: IOL Maurkice Pouncey, WR Antonio Brown, RB Le'Veon Bell
Huge Swing and Miss: EDGE Jarvis Jones
Draft Trends: While the majority of the NFL likes to target tall cornerbacks, the Steelers don't seem to mind smaller defensive backs, if they even acknowledge the position. For years, cornerback has been a need for the team. The Steelers have filled the need recently by making moves for Brandon Boykin, Senquez Golson and Doran Grant, who are all 5'10" or shorter.
San Diego Chargers: Tom Telesco
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Name/Title: Tom Telesco, General Manager
Team: San Diego Chargers
Background: Telesco started his NFL career as a humble assistant with the Buffalo Bills in 1991 until 1994. He then was a two-year assistant with the startup Carolina Panthers, resulting in an area scout job with the franchise in 1997. He moved on to the Indianapolis Colts, where he'd move up the ladder from an area scout in 1998 to the director of player personnel in 2012. In 2013, he filled the Chargers' general manager opening.
Team Record as GM: 22-26
Biggest Draft Hits: WR Keenan Allen, CB Jason Verrett
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: Telesco consistently takes the players who are looked over by other franchises. Manti Te'o had that whole girlfriend ordeal, but that didn't stop Telesco. Jason Verrett was called too short. Keenan Allen was flagged during the combine drug test. D.J. Fluker was called too stiff. Telesco doesn't seem to follow the rest of the NFL's line of thinking on "limitations" and "red flags," even at the top of the draft.
San Francisco 49ers: Trent Baalke
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Name/Title: Trent Baalke, General Manager
Team: San Francisco 49ers
Background: Baalke has spent the majority of his career in San Francisco, but he started his NFL run in the Northeast as a scout for the New York Jets. In 1998 through 2000, he was in New York City, until he made the move to Washington, where he was a scout for three seasons. In 2004, he climbed up the ladder to become a college scouting coordinator for the Redskins, which only lasted a season. He took a scouting job with the 49ers in 2005, which after six years led to his general manager position.
Team Record as GM: 49-30-1
Biggest Draft Hits: EDGE Aldon Smith, QB Colin Kaepernick
Huge Swing and Miss: WR A.J. Jenkins
Draft Trends: Baalke cares about talent and nothing else. Aldon Smith was coming off a broken leg when Baalke took him as a first-round pick. Tank Carradine and Marcus Lattimore were also coming off major injuries at the time of their selections. Chris Borland was labeled as too small to play linebacker in the NFL. Aaron Lynch's body had to go through a second complete revamp when he was drafted. Even A.J. Jenkins was an out-of-the-box pick. Baalke marches to the beat of his own drum, relative to the rest of the league. Sometimes he hits it out of the park, and sometimes he falls on his face.
Seattle Seahawks: John Schneider
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Name/Title: John Schneider, General Manager/Executive Vice President
Team: Seattle Seahawks
Background: Schneider began as a scout in Green Bay but spent some time in Kansas City and Seattle early on in his career before making the move back to Wisconsin in 2002. Between the start of his career and his second stint with the Seahawks, he had spent only one year out of the Ron Wolf-Ted Thompson tree.
Team Record as GM: 60-36
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Russell Wilson, LB Bobby Wagner, CB Richard Sherman
Huge Swing and Miss: G James Carpenter
Draft Trends: Schneider's plan of action is simple: Acquire as many picks as possible and draft freak athletes. He's taking an "every shot you don't take, you miss" approach, outside of the first round. In the first round, it's hard to get a feel for which positions he values the most, as the team's last first-round draft choice was Bruce Irvin in 2012.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jason Licht
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Name/Title: Jason Licht, General Manager
Team: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Background: Licht has spent time across the league with no real rhyme or reason. He's been a part of the Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals' staffs. He was even an offensive quality control coach for the Dolphins. Two years ago, he took Tampa Bay's general manager job.
Team Record as GM: 8-24
Biggest Draft Hits: QB Jameis Winston
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: Licht has drafted one defender, Kwon Alexander, in two drafts. Out of the 13 draft picks the Buccaneers have had, 12 of them were used on players on the offensive side of the ball.
Tennessee Titans: Jon Robinson
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Name/Title: Jon Robinson, General Manager/Executive Vice President
Team: Tennessee Titans
Background: Robinson was a coach at his alma mater, Southeast Missouri State, and Nicholls State immediately after his playing career. From 2002 to 2013, he was everything from an area scout to the director of college scouting for the New England Patriots. In 2013, he left the Patriots to become the director of player personnel of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a post he kept until 2015. This year, he became general manager.
Team Record as GM: First year
Biggest Draft Hits: First year
Huge Swing and Miss: First year
Draft Trends: First year
Washington Redskins: Scot McCloughan
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Name/Title: Scot McCloughan, General Manager
Team: Washington Redskins
Background: McCloughan was a scout in Green Bay starting in 1994. In 2000, he moved to Seattle to become the director of college scouting alongside Mike Holmgren and Ted Thompson, who also arrived from Green Bay. After 2004, he moved to another NFC West franchise, the San Francisco 49ers, where he was the vice president of player personnel. By 2008, he was the team's general manager. After two seasons, he was let go.
In 2010 through 2013, he assisted the Seahawks, who were then headed by John Schneider, a longtime Packers scout. McCloughan then took some time away from the sport before returning as the general manager of the Washington Redskins last season.
Team Record as GM: 9-7
Biggest Draft Hits: No hits at this point
Huge Swing and Miss: No misses at this point
Draft Trends: With only one draft class under his belt in Washington, it's difficult to get a feel for how he's changed since his days in San Francisco. By drafting Brandon Scherff, a guard, in the top five, you can't say that he values particular positions less than the cliched "premier positions."
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