Tag: Chargers general manager

Takeaways from Chargers GM Joe Hortiz’s introductory presser

New Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz was formally introduced at a press conference on Tuesday.

New Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz was formally introduced at a press conference on Tuesday. After attending head coach Jim Harbaugh’s media availability last Thursday, Hortiz got an opportunity to lay out his own vision and take questions.

Hortiz stressed the point of collaboration with Jim Harbaugh when asked about decision-making from an organizational standpoint. Echoing the “Batman and Robin” sentiment Harbaugh expressed last week, Hortiz acknowledged that the offseason will be a time for him to lead in contrast with when the games kick off in September.

Process, discussion, and collaboration are phrases that consistently came up in his presser. He says he learned from Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta in Baltimore and that communication from the top on down in the organization is critical for success, especially in player evaluation.

Hortiz also talked a lot about comp picks, mentioning that he’s a big fan of them as a team-building method. He also harped on the realities of the cap in conjunction with comp picks. Some players are going to walk every year in free agency as a reality. He referred to the process of getting comp picks as yearly cycles the team will go through.

In 2022, the Ravens received a slew of three mid-round comp picks. One of those choices that year would turn into TE Isaiah Likely in the fourth round at 139. Since 2013, the Ravens have had just two draft classes with seven player selections or fewer. The Chargers, in that same timeframe, have had eight such classes.

Hortiz talked about the cap situation after he was asked about some of the maneuvering they will have to do this offseason. He credited Ed McGuire and many of the “smart people” who are in the organization in terms of crunching the numbers and taking care of the logistics.

In response to a question about “ripping the band-aid off” financially with respect to the Chargers’ cap situation and restructured contracts, Hortiz made it clear that LA wants to compete in 2024.

That statement means that the Chargers will most likely weigh immediate 2024 success in their plan for what to do with their big 4 restructured contracts of Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joey Bosa, and Khalil Mack.

Hortiz finished off his press conference by discussing the value of draft selections when asked about the fifth pick. The new Chargers’ GM made it very clear that every pick is important to the organization, mentioning their first-rounder, a second-rounder, and even a compensatory seventh they’re projected to receive this offseason.

Hortiz also mentioned the trade market and the opportunity that comes with looking at deals at the deadline or any point on the calendar. Tom Telesco’s tenure was defined by being relatively inactive on the trade market outside of a few draft-day pick swaps.

5 things to know about new Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz

Let’s get to know the new Chargers general manager.

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.

Instant analysis of Chargers hiring Joe Hortiz as general manager

What the hiring of Joe Hortiz means for the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Chargers are going for a synergistic approach regarding their quarterback, head coach, and general manager.

Los Angeles already had Justin Herbert on the roster and hired Jim Harbaugh as head coach last week. On Monday, the team announced they’d added another J.H. to the organization chart, hiring Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz as general manager.

Those reading the tea leaves likely saw this coming. Ed Dodds and Ian Cunningham, considered the favorites at the beginning of the search, were phased out for finalists Brandon Brown and Hortiz. But Brown was spotted in Frisco, TX, interviewing players with the Giants as recently as Sunday, suggesting that the Chargers may have informed him they were moving in a different direction. That same day, Ravens reporter Jeff Zrebiec noted that Hortiz and Harbaugh had a discussion on the sidelines before Baltimore’s AFC Championship loss to Kansas City.

Hortiz has worked in Baltimore since 1998, when he began his career as an area scout. He was promoted to national scout in 2006, director of college scouting in 2009, and director of player personnel in 2019. Widely regarded as one of the best eyes for talent in the college ranks, the Delaware native was the runner-up in the Giants general manager search that concluded with the hire of Joe Schoen in 2022.

During his career under legendary GM Ozzie Newsome and his successor, current Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta, the Ravens have consistently drafted well, especially at the top. Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs were back-to-back first-round picks in 2002 and 2003. 2006 first-rounder Haloti Ngata and sixth-rounder Sam Koch lasted 25 seasons in Baltimore. The Ravens also found mid-round talent like Marshal Yanda, Pernell McPhee, Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Jensen, Kyle Juszczyk, Za’Darius Smith, Darren Waller, Matt Judon, Chuck Clark, Mark Andrews, Zach Sieler, and Isaiah Likely throughout Hortiz’s tenure.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh, Jim’s older brother, also named Hortiz as one of the reasons the organization traded for All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith last season:

“Our scouts do a great job. I think of [director of player personnel] Joe Hortiz going back and scouting Roquan [Smith] back at Georgia. Those are all in the reports. You knew what kind of a guy you were getting, for sure.”

With the Chargers, Hortiz will likely remain in a similar role as he had in Baltimore, but with a wieldier title and hefty pay raise. Jim Harbaugh will probably serve as de facto general manager, maintaining the final say over personnel, while Hortiz will be the “second-in-command.” The familiarity with the Harbaugh family from working with John in Baltimore for over a decade was undoubtedly an attractive aspect of Hortiz’s candidacy, especially if he signed off on ceding some of the control typical of an NFL GM.

Regardless of title or role behind the curtain, Hortiz’s background as a proven talent evaluator with experience around some of the best front-office personnel in the history of the game is impossible to ignore. Even if his job as general manager is to take a deep dive into the college ranks every season and help Harbaugh build his vision for the roster through the draft, adding the 48-year-old Auburn grad should be seen as a tremendous victory for the Chargers.

Chargers hiring Joe Hortiz as next general manager

The Chargers have finally found their new general manager.

The Chargers have finally found their new general manager.

According to multiple reports, Los Angeles is working to finalize a deal to hire Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz as their next GM.

Hortiz, 48, has worked for the Ravens since 1998, where he started as a scout. He was then promoted to the team’s director of college scouting for ten years before becoming the director of player personnel in 2019, overseeing both the pro and scouting departments since then.

Hortiz has plenty of experience and has benefited from learning under Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome, one of the most well-known executives in the league.

Hortiz is a graduate of Auburn with a degree in accounting. He was an undergraduate assistant coach for the Tigers’ football team from 1995- 97. He worked with the quarterbacks and wide receivers and coached the scout team linebackers and secondary.

Where the Chargers’ general manager search stands after hiring Jim Harbaugh

After hiring Jim Harbaugh to be their next head coach, the Chargers will now figure out who will be the general manager.

The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh as head coach last night in a franchise altering move. After years of flirting with NFL interest and winning the College Football Playoff National Championship at Michigan, he’s back in the NFL. But now, the focus shifts to “building infrastructure” as Harbaugh said yesterday. That will most likely start with the completion of the Chargers’ general manager search.

Brandon Brown completed a second interview yesterday for the position. Ravens Director of Player Personnel Joe Hortiz will also come back for a second in-person interview today. The Chargers first round of interviews included Hortiz and Brown as well as JoJo Wooden, Ian Cunningham, Terrance Gray, Jeff Ireland, Ed Dodds, Jeff King, and Dawn Aponte.

Of those candidates, quite a few have some connections to Harbaugh. Brandon Brown has been mentioned by Albert Breer as a candidate that could fit that mold. Per Benjamin Allbright, Michigan was a school Brown scouted while he was with the Colts and Eagles.

Joe Hortiz doesn’t have a direct connection to Jim Harbaugh himself, but obviously has worked directly with his brother John Harbaugh in Baltimore. The same is true for Ian Cunningham, who spent nearly a decade with the Ravens as a scout.

After missing out on the Raiders general manager job following the hiring of Tom Telesco, Ed Dodds is still available too. Dodds has long been viewed as a potential “Harbaugh GM” if he was to make a return in the NFL. The two reportedly have a strong relationship dating back to Harbaugh’s time as quarterbacks coach with the Raiders. Back then, Dodds was a Pro Personnel Intern in Oakland.

Harbaugh will presumably want to put together his staff and mobilize the Chargers’ offseason as soon as possible, so I’d expect the general manager search to quickly accelerate now that the former Michigan coach has finally put pen to paper.

Chargers general manager candidate profile: Terrance Gray

Get to know Terrance Gray, a potential candidate for the Chargers’ general manager opening.

The Chargers completed an interview for their general manager position with Bills Director of Player Personnel Terrance Gray on Wednesday. Adding in Jeff Ireland and Ed Dodds, Los Angeles is up to seven reported interview candidates for general manager.

Gray joined the Bills in 2017 and ascended to assistant director of player personnel in 2020. He was promoted to full-time director of player personnel in June of 2022.

Gray comes up through experience as a college scout. Before his time in Buffalo, he worked for the Minnesota Vikings as a college scout for 11 seasons. Before that, he was with the Chiefs for three seasons in various roles.

Along with Bills’ assistant head coach Eric Washington, Gray was selected to participate in the NFL’s accelerator program in 2022. The program promotes diverse candidates, getting more spotlight on their candidacies for future head coaching and general manager positions.

Gray has playing experience as a cornerback in college. He played at Oregon State for his junior and senior seasons in 1999 and 2000.

The rapid ascent of Gray in Buffalo overlaps with the selection of Josh Allen in the 2018 NFL draft, in addition to other moves. It’s not a surprise the Chargers are looking to the original college scouts from the league’s best teams, given their current cap situation with future drafts in mind. The same is true with Joe Hortiz’s interview and candidacy from Baltimore.

Following the Chargers’ interview with Dodds on Wednesday, we’ll have to see if there are more candidates for Los Angeles to look at in their first round of interviews. Or if they start to get serious about narrowing the field with their second round of interviews instead.

Chargers general manager candidate profile: Ed Dodds

Examining who Ed Dodds is, where he comes from and why he’d be a good choice to be the GM of the Chargers.

For the first time in a decade, the Chargers are searching for a new general manager.

Tom Telesco and head coach Brandon Staley were fired on December 15, ushering in a new era of football in one half of SoFi Stadium. Telesco, hired in 2013 as the youngest general manager in franchise history, brought the team to just three playoff appearances and two wins.

So, who could be next?

Colts Assistant General Manager Ed Dodds

Called the number one general manager candidate in this year’s hiring cycle by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Dodds will reportedly meet with the Chargers on Wednesday. He has also interviewed with Carolina and Las Vegas, the latter of whom gave him his first job in the league in 2003.

Dodds has built a name for himself purely via scouting. From 2003-2006, he was a pro personnel intern for the Raiders, before landing his first full-time job as a pro personnel scout with Seattle in 2007. The Seahawks moved him to the college side the following year, where he remained as an area scout until 2014 when he was elevated to a national scout. Another promotion followed in 2015 to senior personnel executive. In 2017, Indianapolis hired him away to become vice president of player personnel before he entered his current role of assistant GM under Chris Ballard in 2018.

An alumni of Texas A&M-Kingsville, where Ballard once served as defensive coordinator, Dodds’ current role as assistant general manager is primarily overseeing the day-to-day operations of the college and pro scouting departments. It’s a fitting role for a man whose tenure in the league has included, in part, the selections of Kam Chancellor, KJ Wright, Richard Sherman, Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith, Grover Stewart, and Zaire Franklin on Day 3 alone.

That work has not gone unnoticed: Dodds has been a hot GM candidate since at least 2020 when he turned down an interview with the Browns. In 2021, he interviewed with Carolina but withdrew from the running and was interviewed but not selected for the job with the Lions. Chicago, Las Vegas, and Pittsburgh all made inquiries in 2022, with Dodds withdrawing from the Bears’ search. (Dodds did not get a reported interview for the openings in Arizona or Tennessee last season.)

Indianapolis’ assistant GM is on record saying there’s a method to all of this. In a 2022 article with The Athletic reporter Zak Keefer, Dodds said:

I mean, there’s quality of life. You have to feel like you’re being allowed to make an impact and do it the way you know works. I mean, there’s more than one way to skin a cat — like, there are other ways that work, but there’s a way I know, and I’m not going to learn some new way and become an expert on it at 42 years old. That’s not the training ground to do it.

The way that Dodds does know it took him two years to perfect, from scouting travel to area scout documentation to background research. He uses a modified version of legendary GM Ron Wolf’s 1-9 grading scale, has every member of his team watch every player, and stays in the office nearly every day from December to April, 12 hours on weekdays and 6 on weekends. That sort of demand requires buy-in from staff, even in an industry famous for early mornings and late nights around the league, and Dodds has consistently gotten it and been able to reap the rewards.

Dodds has also been tied to the oft-rumored Chargers’ head coaching target Jim Harbaugh. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported last week that Dodds was seen as the “Harbaugh GM” when he interviewed for the Raiders job in 2022. The two men also overlapped in Oakland in Dodds’ first year in the NFL: while Dodds was a pro personnel intern, Harbaugh was completing his second season as the Raiders’ QB coach. It’s a brief connection, but one that has reportedly spun into a strong relationship that has led insiders to believe Dodds is still the most realistic general manager option for a team looking to employ the current Michigan head coach.

An old-school Texan seen as one of the league’s best talent evaluators, Dodds has been in high demand for close to four years now, but his commitment to his own system and alleged desire to find the perfect situation have prevented him from finding his own team to run thus far. Could Los Angeles, where ownership under the Spanos family is famously disconnected from personnel decisions, be the situation to link Dodds’ own interest with a similar desire from the organization to hand things over?

Chargers general manager candidate profile: Joe Hortiz

Examining who Joe Hortiz is, where he comes from and why he’d be a good choice to be the GM of the Chargers.

The Chargers interviewed Ravens’ Director of Player Personnel Joe Hortiz for their general manager vacancy on Saturday.

Hortiz, 48, has been in Baltimore since 1998. He’s played pivotal roles in college scouting and the Ravens’ draft process. Hortiz was originally a scout who was promoted to Baltimore’s Director of College Scouting in 2009. 10 years later, in 2019, he earned the promotion to his current title of Director of Player Personnel.

The legacy of Baltimore over the past two decades needs no further explanation. Under Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens have consistently dominated the draft in constructing several playoff and Super Bowl teams. Eric DeCosta was promoted to general manager following Newsome’s retirement. Hortiz has remained a constant in Baltimore as he potentially waits for his own opportunity elsewhere to become a GM.

Hortiz also has coaching experience, albeit brief. He was a graduate assistant at Auburn for three years under then-head coach Terry Bowden.

Hortiz’s biggest asset is his decades of college and scouting and draft experience. Baltimore has consistently been a draft enigma in their team construction. Whether it’s slithering up the board or meticulously accumulating capital by trading down, April is where the Ravens are truly built. They also pursue free agency and other team-building moves, of course, but Baltimore hasn’t existed in their current form over the last two decades without success in the spring’s primetime event.

LA also needs a vision of team management that is flexible in approach. Tom Telesco’s hesitance to trade back in the draft has the Chargers generally having fewer draft assets outside of years where they earned compensatory picks. For a team about to enter some version of “cap hell,” more swings at the bat under a GM with Hortiz’s vision and experience could be massive.

Chargers general manager candidate profile: Ian Cunningham

Examining who Ian Cunningham is, where he comes from and why he’d be a good choice to be the GM of the Chargers.

For the first time in a decade, the Chargers are searching for a new general manager.

Tom Telesco and head coach Brandon Staley were fired on December 15, ushering in a new era of football in one half of SoFi Stadium. Telesco, hired in 2013 as the youngest general manager in franchise history, brought the team to just three playoff appearances and two wins.

So, who could be next?

Bears Assistant General Manager Ian Cunningham

The son of a basketball agent and cousin of tennis player Arthur Ashe, Cunningham started 31 games at Virginia as a center and guard before signing with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent. As a Cavalier, he played under coach Al Groh, who had spent time as an assistant under Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells, and Nick Saban, among others. Groh put Cunningham in touch with Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome, who hired the 23-year-old as a player personnel assistant in 2008, the same year Baltimore hired John Harbaugh.

Over the next eight years, Cunningham climbed the ranks in Baltimore, becoming the Southeast area scout for the team in 2013 and adding the Southwest area starting in 2015. A move to Philadelphia in 2017 earned him a promotion to director of college scouting and a second Super Bowl ring while working under Howie Roseman. Cunningham was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2019 and director of player personnel in 2021, a position he held for just a year before being hired as the assistant general manager for the Bears under Ryan Poles.

The 38-year-old Cunningham also declined the Cardinals GM opening that eventually went to Monti Ossenfort last season. In Tennessee, Cunningham was the runner-up to new general manager Ran Carthon during the Titans’ search in 2023. Earlier this week, Cunningham also lost out on the Commanders front office opening to 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters. Later that day, Daniel Popper of The Athletic reported that Cunningham would interview with the Chargers on January 14th.

In 2020, while serving as assistant director of player personnel in Philadelphia, Cunningham was named to The Athletic’s 40 Under 40 list, which tabbed him as one of the “few minority candidates in the GM pipeline.” In a 2022 interview with the Bears media team about his role as assistant GM, Cunningham said that his responsibilities included “free agent meetings, draft meetings, operations, sports science, strength, and conditioning.”

With those responsibilities in mind, it’s reasonable to evaluate Cunningham to some degree on what Chicago has done in the draft and free agency over the past two seasons. In 2022, Chicago found a starting offensive tackle, Southern Utah’s Braxton Jones, in the fifth round. They supplemented that choice with ten other selections, including starting secondary members Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker. This year, the Bears found their other starting tackle, first-rounder Darnell Wright, and Miami’s Tyrique Stevenson at cornerback and Texas running back Roschon Johnson.

Chicago has had a rocky record in the trade market, however. The Bears sent Roquan Smith to Baltimore for draft capital, only to see Smith continue his All-Pro level play as one of the best linebackers in the league. They traded the 33rd overall pick in 2022 for Chase Claypool. But they’ve also shown a willingness to move around on draft night, sliding down a spot from 9 to 10, likely thanks to Cunningham’s connections in Philadelphia. They traded up in the second for Stevenson, then sent another second later in the year for Montez Sweat, who immediately took Chicago’s defense a step forward.

Around the league, Cunningham is seen as one of the foremost general manager candidates on the market. The Athletic reported in relation to the Commanders job that he and Peters were considered the most sought-after candidates this cycle. That report also cites Cunningham’s “ability to marry traditional player evaluation with analytics” as a major draw. That should be especially appealing to a Chargers organization that often felt constrained by Telesco’s traditional vision for how to build a team.

When reporting Cunningham’s interview scheduled for Sunday, Popper wrote that “interest on both sides” was in Chicago’s assistant general manager coming to Los Angeles as the headman. The 38-year-old would break Telesco’s record as the youngest GM in franchise history, with an influx of new ideas about how to win in the modern NFL. He also has ties to oft-rumored Chargers head coaching target Jim Harbaugh through his brother John, the head coach of the Ravens while Cunningham was working his way up the ladder.

Justin Herbert ready to give input on next head coach and general manager for Chargers

Justin Herbert is prepared to give his input on who should be the next head coach and general manager.

As the face of the franchise, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is prepared to give his input on who should be the next head coach and general manager. 

“Having been in the league for four years, I hope that I’m getting better with understanding and seeing things the way they are,” Herbert said.

The Chargers are currently looking for Brandon Staley’s and Tom Telesco’s replacements. In a statement made soon after their release, owner Dean Spanos shared that the organization’s focus would be “building and maintaining a championship-caliber program.”

Herbert signed a multi-year contract extension last July, meaning he will be the leader of the Chargers for the forseeable future. With Herbert at the helm, he knows the team’s success is part of his responsibility. 

“I know that they’re working on that and we have complete faith and trust in the front office to do their job and they’ve done a great job so far,” Herbert said. “Hopefully I’m able to talk with them and offer whatever advice I have.

We’ve got complete trust in them and if they came to me and they needed my viewpoint, my perspective, I’d love to offer it,” Herbert said. “But like I said, I believe in them. They’ve done such a great job taking care of us as players.”

The status of the organization is currently at a crossroads. If the Chargers get it right, they can make the team successful with Herbert as its figurehead and smart personnel. But if they get this wrong, it’ll be a never-ending sob story for the franchise.