Tag: Raiders General Manager

Raiders new GM is former Chargers GM Tom Telesco

Raiders new GM is former Chargers GM Tom Telesco

In a bit of a surprise, the Raiders are expected to name Tom Telesco their new General Manager according to NFL media’s Ian Rapoport.

UPDATE: The Raiders have officially announced Telesco as the team’s new GM.

Telesco spent 11 seasons as GM of the Chargers from 2013-23. The Chargers went 84-95 over his tenure, along with 2-3 in three trips to the playoffs. He oversaw the drafting of such players as QB Justin Herbert, S Derwin James, OT Rashawn Slater, and CB Asante Samuel Jr.

Other strong candidates for the Raiders included interim GM Champ Kelly and Colts Assistant GM Ed Dodds.

In the end, it appears Mark Davis is going with the most experienced of the candidates to pair with Antonio Pierce who is making the leap to head coach after just one season coaching at the NFL level as a linebackers coach.

Kelly had been the Raiders Assistant GM prior to the firing of Dave Ziegler. No word yet on if Kelly will return as Assistant GM job or another position in the organization.

Raiders new GM Dave Ziegler will have final say on personnel which is a refreshing change

Having a GM say without hesitation that he will have final say on personnel decisions may not seem like a big deal, but for the Raiders it is a refreshing change.

In most organizations, the idea of the General Manager making the call on personnel decisions would kind of go without saying. It’s like ‘well, yeah, that’s his job.’ But that hasn’t been the case with the Raiders the last few years and it’s led to some disastrous personnel decisions.

That was with Jon Gruden as head coach and Mike Mayock as GM. Mayock seemed at times to be almost more of a consultant while Gruden overruled him. And if that wasn’t the case, there was never really any indication otherwise. The result was playing fast and loose with trades and taking big risks — Vontaze Burfict, Antonio Brown, Trent Brown — and seemingly always getting bitten by it.

It was hard to know who was really to blame. Overall it was just a confusing time that needed to end. And end it did as Gruden was forced to resign midway through last season and Mayock was let go this offseason.

Enter Dave Ziegler as the new GM and Josh McDaniels as head coach. And with them some sense of how a normal NFL chain of command should sound like.

“At the end of the day as the general manager and as the one leading the charge on the scouting side and personnel and college and pro, that direction will come from me in terms of the construction of the roster,” said Ziegler at his introductory press conference. “Obviously Josh and I are tied in many ways in our vision of how to build a team and our vision of what we want in terms of the players that we bring into the building is very connected. But at the end of the day when it’s time to make decisions on personnel, while we’re work together, those final decisions will be made by me.”

Those are not words we’ve heard much from Raiders brass. The team went from Al Davis who had absolute say in all things team-related, to several years of GMs trotting out the tired line about how every decision was going to be a team effort.

With the Patriots it was Bill Belichick he was the coach and General Manager. That is not the way the majority of teams are run, but it’s also not unusual. And it seems to be working out well for them.

In Ziegler’s nine years in New England, he learned how Belichick makes his decisions and it offers some insight into how Ziegler will approach each of his roster decisions.

“I would say the one thing that sticks out to me that Bill taught me is Bill is a forward thinker,” Ziegler said of Belichick. “It’s not just about a decision in the moment, it’s about how a decision can — one decision can impact four different things, one decision can impact what we’re going to do in 2022, in 2023, and just to have really an understanding of how decisions can impact different parts of the organization and can impact your team.”

You could look at the way the Raiders have been run for decades and say there hasn’t been a lot of forward-thinking.

Even with Reggie McKenzie in charge, it seems like his only goal was to gut the roster. Between that and having basically just one even moderately successful draft (2014) in his time as GM made it tough for the Raiders to find their way back to relevancy.

And what McKenzie was trying to gut from the team was the immense salaries that the team was on the hook for due to Al Davis going all out to try and win in his final years.

So, for most fans, their team having a GM with a normal role and a normal chain of command, if you will, is something they take for granted. But any Raiders fan can tell you, it’s a breath of fresh air around these parts.

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Raiders expected to hire Patriots exec Dave Ziegler as new General Manager

Raiders expected to name Dave Ziegler as new GM

It’s been leaning this way for the past few days. After a long meeting on Friday, the Raiders are expected to name former Patriots personnel man Dave Ziegler as their new General Manager according to NFT media’s Ian Rapoport.

Ziegler is referred to as the Patriots de facto GM because Bill Belichick holds to the title of head coach and General Manager. Belichick was recently named the PFWA Executive of the Year.

Ziegler’s official title is director of player personnel. A title he held for just one year with the Patriots. He spent the previous year as assistant director of player personnel and the three years prior as director of pro personnel.

As Rapoport notes, this news figures to lead to the team also hiring Patriots OC Josh McDaniels as their next head coach. Another move that had been expected should the team go with Ziegler as GM. The two seemingly coming over as a package deal from New England.

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Former Titans GM Ruston Webster interviews with Raiders for GM job

A second GM interview from Tuesday has emerged for Raiders open GM job. It’s former Titans GM Ruston Webster.

A second interview conducted by the Raiders on Tuesday has been revealed.

Along with Steelers Pro Scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt, the Raiders also interviewed former Titans GM Ruston Webster for the job according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Webster is currently a national scout for the Falcons. He had served as General Manager for the Titans for six years from 2010-15. Prior to that, he was the VP of Player Personnel with the Seahawks from 2006-09. He entered the NFL front office with the Buccaneers in 1988 holding various personnel roles until 2005.

Webster’s including puts the number of candidates to interview for the Raiders GM job at eight.

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Vikings hire a General Manager, leaving Raiders as only NFL team still without a GM

Raiders are now the only team in the NFL without a GM

On one hand, yeah, it’s taking a while for the Raiders to hire a general manager. On the other hand, they now have no competition in the hiring process, so if any of their candidates are eager to become an NFL GM right now, the Raiders are their only option.

There were four teams in the market for a GM this offseason. The other three have all found their guy.

That latest was the Vikings who today hired former Browns VP of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their next GM. The other two GM hires were the Bears hiring former Chiefs Executive Director of Player Personnel, Ryan Poles and the Giants hiring former Bills Assistant GM Joe Schoen.

The Raiders have either requested or have interviewed six different candidates for their GM opening. Bengals scout Trey Brown, Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly, Colts Assistant GM Ed Dodds, Buccaneers VP of Player Personnel John Spytek, Patriots Director of Player Personnel Dave Ziegler, and an in-house interview with Director of Pro Personnel Dwayne Joseph.

The Vikings had interviewed Spytek and the Bears had interviewed Kelly.

It’s important to get the right guy for the job, but there is a bit of ticking clock here. First and foremost, the Raiders also need a head coach and the GM hiring should come first. Second, there is the matter of offseason activities. The next being the Senior Bowl on February fifth.

That’s just ten days away and it would be good for the Raiders to have both their new GM and head coach in place by then.

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Raiders interview Steelers personnel man Brandon Hunt for General Manager position

The latest GM interview for the Raiders is with Steelers personnel man Brandon Hunt

The interviews continue for the Raiders as they attempt to hire a new General Manager. Today the seventh report came out of the Raiders interviewing a candidate. Tuesday they interviewed Steelers Pro Scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Hunt has been in his position with the Steelers for the past 12 years. The Steelers have not had a losing season in that time. Or three years prior. Not to say their success is attributed to Hunt, but being in a winning environment for that long lends some credibility being that he is well versed in how a winning club operates.

Raiders request interview with Buccaneers exec John Spytec for open General Manager job

Same day Raiders request interview with Bucs DC Todd Bowles for their head coach position, they request an interview Bucs exec John Spytec for open General Manager job

Early Tuesday reports came out that the Raiders are requesting an interview with Buccaneers Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles for their head coaching position. Now reports have the Raiders requesting an interview with Bucs’ personnel man John Spytec according to ESPN’s Tom Pelissero.

A lot has been made about the possibility of the Raiders essentially hiring a GM and head coach who have worked together in some capacity. That would certainly apply to Bowles and Spytec. Though that isn’t an automatic. Successful teams often have coaches and executives poached by other teams.

And if you’d like to see connections, Spytek played football at Michigan. Jim Harbaugh is currently the head coach at Michigan.

Raiders hold in-house General Manager interview with Dwayne Joseph

Raiders hold in-house General Manager interview with Dwayne Joseph

One of the more respected executives in the NFL is getting his shot at auditioning for the Raiders General Manger job. And they needed only to have him walk down the hall.

It’s Raiders Director of Pro Personnel Dwayne Joseph getting the next look for the team’s open GM job according to USA Today’s Mike Jones.

Joseph is a former NFL cornerback who has been a pro scout for two decades. He has the requisite experience to put him up there with several of the other GM candidates the Raiders have had in for interviews.

Others to interview for the job or are expected to do so include Trey Brown, Ed Dodds, Champ Kelly, and Dave Ziegler.

The Raiders also need a head coach. The interviews for that position should heat up once the GM is in place. And clearly the team is still actively seeking interviews for that position.

Several more candidates interview for Raiders open General Manager position

Up to three interviews now for Raiders GM job

The Raiders are wasting no time in their efforts to find a replacement for recently fired Mike Mayock as General Manager. Today former Bengals scout Trey Brown became the third to interview with the team according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The previous interviews have been with Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly and Patriots Director of Player Personnel Dave Ziegler.

Previous reports had the Raiders expected to put in a request to interview Colts Vice President of Player Personnel Ed Dodds, though no reported interview has happened as of yet. Dodds was then reported as having withdrawn from candidacy for the Bears open GM position.

The string of GM interviews should come as very good news. The Raiders are also in a search for their next head coach. And whomever that ends up being should be selected at least in part by the new GM, so it’s important to have him in the building before the head coach hire is made.

Thus far the only outside head coaching interview the Raiders have had is with Patriots LB coach Jerod Mayo. They have also interviewed current Interim Head Coach Rich Bisaccia.

Raiders interviewing potential General Manager candidates

Could Mike Mayock be on his way out? Raiders interviewing potential GM candidates suggests he could be

There could be some major turnover in the Raiders organization this offseason very soon. The immediate discussion has been with regard to whether the Raiders will bring back Interim Head Coach Rich Bisaccia or hire someone from outside the organization. But it may not stop at head coach.

While the team is interviewing head coach candidates, they are also seeking interviews with General Manager candidates as well according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The current GM in Las Vegas is Mike Mayock. He was brought in three years ago as former head coach Jon Gruden’s choice for the job.

The draft guru’s tenure has been known for poor selections in the top two rounds, but some great finds in the later rounds.

Among those high pick duds have included fourth overall pick DE Clelin Ferrell and CB Damon Arnette. Top pick Henry Ruggs III is in jail awaiting trial for a fatal DUI crash and last year’s first round pick Alex Leatherwood had a rough rookie season as well.

Those duds have been offset somewhat by finds like CB Nate Hobbs (Round five), WR Hunter Renfrow (Round five), and DE Maxx Crosby (Round four).

Then again a GM’s job is about a lot more than just he draft. The Raiders will get a look at these GM candidates to see if they have the requisite experience for the job.