After an extensive process, the Chargers have hired Joe Hortiz to fill their general manager vacancy.
Let’s get to know the new GM.
1. Ravens lifer
Hortiz has been with the Ravens since 1998. He’s had his fingerprints all over modern Baltimore drafts and scouting. Hortiz started as a scout and eventually received a promotion to become Baltimore’s Director of College Scouting 11 years later. Eventually, he’d moved up the chain to Director of Player Personnel, his current title.
2. A rather obvious connection
While there’s no direct link from Harbaugh to Hortiz that compares to some of the other general manager candidates, he’s worked with his brother, John, in Baltimore for a decade and a half. He’s a student of former Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, the architect of the modern Ravens that we’ve seen outsmart the league time and time again over the past 20 years.
3. A chance to be the main guy
Hortiz could be considered overqualified compared to some other GM candidates. He’s spent three decades in one spot in various roles as he’s risen up the chain. Eric DeCosta ultimately got the promotion from assistant GM to lead man once Newsome retired. Hortiz’s best chance to run his own front office was always to look externally. Now, he’ll have the chance to be Jim Harbaugh’s top confidant and collaborator as Chargers’ general manager.
4. Some coaching experience
Hortiz also has coaching experience, albeit brief. He was a graduate assistant at Auburn for three years under then-head coach Terry Bowden.
5. Master scouter who has learned the ways
Hortiz’s skillset is, without a doubt, his decades of college scouting and draft experience. Baltimore has consistently been a draft enigma in their team construction. Whether it was Newsome or DeCosta, the Ravens have been a versatile draft team in their approach. The draft always tends to be where the Ravens are built more than other teams. They also pursue free agency and other moves, of course, but Baltimore wouldn’t exist in their current organizational form over the last two decades without success in spring’s primetime event.
Hortiz seems like a savvy, experienced choice for GM, who will have a chance to work with one of the best culture builders in Harbaugh. It represents what could be the most rock-solid foundation the Chargers have had for their team in quite some time. Outside-the-box thinking and consistent hits in scouting/draft are what this team will need going forward.