Tag: GM search

Lions to interview Colts exec Ed Dodds for Detroit’s GM vacancy

Dodds withdrew from consideration for Carolina’s GM job over the weekend

Add another name to the official list of candidates for the Detroit Lions and their vacant general manager position. The Lions will interview Indianapolis Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds for the position on Tuesday.

The news was first reported by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press and quickly confirmed by other media in both cities.

Dodds has already interviewed with the Carolina Panthers for the GM openings with that team, and the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans have also been connected by various outlets. However, Dodds removed his name from consideration with Carolina over the weekend. He has been selective in interviewing in the past, also refusing overtures from the Cleveland Browns last year.

The well-regarded Dodds has been with the Colts since 2017. Prior to that, he was a senior executive of player personnel with the Seattle Seahawks and was actively involved in assembling the core of the Russell Wilson/Legion of Boom teams in Seattle.

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Saints exec Jeff Ireland interviews for Lions GM job

Saints exec Jeff Ireland interviews for Lions GM job

The Detroit Lions completed the final of their initially scheduled general manager interviews on Friday, discussing the position with New Orleans Saints executive Jeff Ireland.

Ireland currently serves as the assistant GM and director of collegiate scouting for New Orleans. He has been with the Saints in that capacity since 2015. Prior to that, Ireland is best known for being the GM of the Miami Dolphins from 2008-2013. Those Dolphins teams made the postseason with an 11-5 record in his first season but did not have another winning season.

The 50-year-old Ireland has earned a lot of respect for his ability to evaluate talent at both the college and pro level throughout his career, which also includes stints with the Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs.

If any further GM candidates emerge, they come from beyond the initial list the Lion requested interviews with at the beginning of the process.

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Lions confirm they’ve interviewed George Paton, Brad Holmes for the GM vacancy

Holmes and Paton both interviewed this week

The Detroit Lions GM search committee confirmed they interviewed two more candidates for the team’s vacancy on Wednesday. The Lions formally interviewed George Paton and Brad Holmes.

Paton is the current vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager for the Minnesota Vikings. Holmes is the director of collegiate scouting for the Los Angeles Rams.

The Lions are not the only team pursuing either candidate. Holmes has already interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons, while Paton has an interview lined up with the Denver Broncos.

Paton has worked under Vikings GM Rick Spielman for over a decade. Spielman’s brother, Chris, is heavily involved in the interviewing and decision-making process for the Lions.

Rod Wood: ‘Adding more people to the process’ of hiring a new GM is important

Wood talked about learning from the mistakes of his first GM search

The last time the Detroit Lions hired a general manager, team president Rod Wood was new to the job and new to the NFL. Owner Martha Ford was also new to the process of making such a big change.

They leaned heavily on longtime NFL executive Ernie Accorsi, who joined the team to help in the search. Accorsi and the decision-makers interviewed just three people, and it was fairly clear from the onset that Bob Quinn, who had ties to Accorsi through Bill Belichick, was the preferred choice.

That did not end well, obviously. Wood believes he has learned from his first time and is applying the lessons to the new GM search. One big change: involving more people in both the decision-making process and in the candidate pool.

“I think experience is the best teacher, and I think having gone through this now twice, there’s things I’ve learned and things hopefully that we’ll do better,” Wood said in his Zoom media session this week. “I think one of the things is adding more people to the process. When Bob (Quinn) and I interviewed for Matt (Patricia), it was just Bob and I. Now, obviously, Sheila’s (Ford Hamp) involved, (we) added Chris Spielman. (Vice President of Football Administration) Mike Disner’s been very involved.

I think having more candidates is a difference, too. With Bob’s process, we interviewed three people. We’ve already interviewed seven for the general manager and we’ll continue to add to that list.”

Wood added that Spielman has been very active and involved in the interviewing process. Having someone fresh from outside the organization but one with deep ties to the Lions like Spielman, still the franchise career leader in tackles, has been an excellent addition.
“He’s been great in the interviews, really focusing on a lot of the football questions that he brings expertise to,” Wood said of Spielman. “He’s also been great in the building, meeting with a lot of the coaches and players. He has contacts all over the country from his media days and playing days with coaches and others. He’s brought a lot of information to the table on candidates that we’re considering and feedback and research. So, it’s been great having Chris here. He brings energy, as everybody knows, if you know him. He’s a very positive influence in the building. Great addition.”

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Lions interviewed Saints’ Terry Fontenot for vacant GM position

Fontenot is the vice president and assistant GM of pro personnel for the New Orleans Saints

The Detroit Lions acknowledged the team completed a formal interview with Terry Fontenot for the vacant general manager position. The Lions interviewed Fontenot remotely on Tuesday.

Fontenot is the vice president and assistant GM of pro personnel for the New Orleans Saints. He was promoted to that title in 2020 after serving as the director of pro scouting for several years. Fontenot has been with the Saints for the past 16 seasons in various capacities, working under longtime GM Mickey Loomis.

From his bio on the Saints’ team website,

His responsibilities in managing the pro personnel department include recommending player acquisitions by evaluating players from all professional leagues, including the Saints roster, monitoring the waiver wire and supervising the advance scouting of upcoming opponents.

Fontenot has also interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons for their GM vacancy.

Texans out of GM search competition, hire Nick Caserio from Patriots

The Texans tried to hire Caserio from the Patriots two years ago

There is one less team competing with the Detroit Lions in the search for a new general manager. The Houston Texans exited the pool of vacancies by hiring Nick Caserio on Tuesday.

Caserio has been with the New England Patriots as their director of player personnel. The Texans tried to hire Caserio in the 2019 offseason but were blocked by the Patriots and even filed tampering charges against the club for trying to hire him. Houston gave the GM title to head coach Bill O’Brien, a move that failed spectacularly.

Interestingly, Caserio was not one of five finalists recommended to the Texans by the professional search firm they hired to assist in their search.

Caserio has never seriously been considered a candidate for Detroit. His long and deep ties with the Patriots organization would not be well-received by Lions fans tired of trying to recreate the “Patriot Way”. The Texans opted to double down on that strategy, and star QB Deshaun Watson doesn’t seem too thrilled about the decision.

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Rod Wood: Lions won’t rush GM hiring, could hire head coach first

Wood noted the competition for head coaches with other teams

Detroit Lions team president Rod Wood met with the media on Tuesday morning, and the primary topic of conversations in the cordial press conference was the process of hiring a new GM and head coach for the team.

Wood was fairly candid in his answers, and one of them stood out to me. When asked about the timeframe for hiring a head coach, Wood noted the competition with other teams fighting for the same candidates.

“We’re in competition with other teams who are going to meet with some of the same people, and it’s important I think to get the right coach, and if that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do,” Wood said when asked if the decision to hire a head coach before hiring a GM remained a possibility.

As for the timeline on the GM search, Wood indicated less urgency. He said there is “no deadline to our process” in finding the right GM, even if it means waiting until after the Super Bowl concludes. Several GM candidates are part of teams in the playoffs, including Terry Fontenot with the Saints and Ed Dodds with the Colts.

Wood’s more in-depth explanation,

“What we’re looking for is people that can work together and be partners, and not one working for the other necessarily. So, it doesn’t require us to hire a general manager first. It may work out that way because we’re a little bit ahead of the general manager search relative to the head coaching search, but if we find the perfect head coach and we’ve not yet found a general manager, we’re not going to wait on the coach. We’re in competition with other teams who are interviewing some of the same people, and it’s important, I think, to get the right coach. If that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do.”

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Lions will interview Rams Dir. of College Scouting Brad Holmes for the GM vacancy

Holmes has helped draft the core of the Rams perennial playoff team

Add another name to the Detroit Lions search for a new general manager. Brad Holmes will interview with the Lions for the GM vacancy, per multiple sources including NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.

Holmes is the Director of Collegiate Scouting for the Los Angeles Rams and has served in that capacity for the past eight seasons. The 41-year-old Holmes has worked his way up from public relations intern to his current position, spending his entire 18-year NFL career with the Rams.

He’s best known for being the person pounding the table for defensive tackle Aaron Donald in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Not everyone was enamored with the undersized Donald, but Holmes was proven right in insisting upon the Rams taking him at No. 13 overall.

Holmes has also unearthed some solid middle-round talents who have helped the Rams become a steady playoff team and reach one Super Bowl during his time serving under GM Les Snead. He is also expected to interview for the Atlanta Falcons vacant GM position.

Holmes played defensive tackle at North Carolina A&T before joining the Rams.

The Carolina Panthers join the GM vacancy list

Carolina joins Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Washington and Atlanta

The Carolina Panthers have jumped into the pool of NFL teams looking for a new general manager. Carolina owner Dave Tepper fired GM Marty Hurney on Monday morning.

The Panthers are now 4-10 after Saturday’s loss to Green Bay, a disappointing fall from a 3-2 start. Thus ends Hurney’s second stint as the GM in Carolina. He has been the GM since the end of the 2017 season.

Tepper acknowledged head coach Matt Rhule will have a prominent voice in Hurney’s successor. His words offer some smart guidance for the Lions, too.

“You look at successful organizations, and there’s a certain alignment between the head coach and the GM,” Tepper said in a statement. “To think that you can do that without some sort of alignment is nuts. So to not have a head coach with some input into that is stupid. I don’t want to be stupid, OK?”

Carolina joins Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Washington and NFC South rival Atlanta as teams in search of a new GM.

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Report: Detroit Lions to interview longtime NFL executive Scott Pioli

ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the Detroit Lions plan to interview longtime NFL executive Scott Pioli next week for their GM opening.

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.