ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the Detroit Lions plan to interview longtime NFL executive Scott Pioli next week for their GM opening.
Pioli is well-traveled, working in six front offices over his 27-year NFL career, and was awarded NFL executive of the year honors in 2007 as Vice president of player personnel with New England Patriots and in 2010 as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, among other awards.
This marks the seventh reported interview the Lions have in place for their GM spot. So far they have interviewed internal candidates Kyle O’Brien, Lance Newmark, and Rob Lohman, and plan to bring in former Philadelphia Eagles director of pro personnel Louis Riddick, former Houston Texans GM Rick Smith, and former Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff.
Pioli was not one of the top candidates for general manager we at Lions Wire identified after Quinn was fired.
He does have a long history of identifying and targeting quality players — and he is largely credited for influencing GMs to draft players like Jonathan Odgen, Ray Lewis, and Tom Brady — but it’s been a while since he has been directly tied to any current players.
After holding multiple roles over multiple organizations, his resume is very appealing, but what’s concerning is that most of his achievements are tied to when others were in charge of the final say. For example, he is credited with facilitating the Patriots trade to acquire Randy Moss — but Bill Belichick still had the final say.
When Pioli was calling his own shots as GM of the Chiefs, like Quinn, he fell back on his Patriots roots, trading for quarterback Matt Cassell in 2009 and hiring Charlie Weiss and Romeo Crennel as offensive and defensive coordinators in 2010. By 2011, in the middle of his third season as GM, he fired his head coach Todd Haley and promoted Crennel.
His fourth season, 2012, was flush with controversy. Accusations from former coaches and employees emerged, and fans began to protest his management of the team. He was fired at season end.
After a year off, he joined Dimitroff in Atlanta as his assistant GM but by 2019, he stepped away to “pursue other opportunities”. Currently, Pioli is an NFL analyst at several networks including NFL Network, NBC, and Sirius XM radio.
As Pioli was not included in our initial list he was also not included in our examination of GM and coaching candidates crossing career paths, but he has worked with two popular coaching candidates.
From 2000-06, Pioli and current Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll worked together in New England. Then the pair crossed paths again in 2012 in Kansas City when Daboll was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator.
Additionally, current Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni worked with Pioli and the Chiefs from 2009-2012. Sirianni was an offensive quality control coach, an assistant quarterbacks coach, and a wide receivers coach.