The news of the Kansas City Chiefs firing general manager John Dorsey was unexpected. Rarely — and not in my memory — has a general manager been let go at this point in the year, which is approximately a month before training camp starts.
Not only that, but Dorsey had a contract extension on the table earlier this year. Although we didn’t believe him, he said he wanted to stay in Kansas City long-term.
There was nonetheless almost constant speculation that Dorsey would eventually leave to become the general manager of the Green Bay Packers.
Dorsey has strong ties to Green Bay. He spent his entire six-year playing career with the Packers. Dorsey then moved to the personnel department, where he worked from 1991 to 2012, ultimately holding the position of director of football operations.
Clearly, it would be a natural fit for Dorsey to replace current GM Ted Thompson when he retires (a day that can’t come soon enough).
But that seems unlikely.
The Packers have too many guys internally gunning for that job. The two most notable candidates are director of football operations Eliot Wolf and director of player personnel Brian Gutekunst.
Both have interviewed for general manager jobs elsewhere, Gutekunst most recently with the Buffalo Bills. Both men were finalists for the San Francisco 49ers GM job, but the Packers sweetened their pot to keep them home and both withdrew from consideration.
Frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if both were interviewed by the Chiefs.
It should also be noted that in the past, the Packers have blocked Wolf from interviewing for jobs with other teams. He was said to be the Detroit’s top choice in 2016, but never got the chance to talk to the Lions.
Pretty simply, these guys have been in demand and will continue to be.
The third guy in this mix is vice president of football administration/player finance Russ Ball.
Ball has drawn no interest from other teams and is essentially a bean counter. Why you would want a bean counter as the general manager of a football team is beyond me, but we know the Packers are considering him for the position.
In short, when it comes to replacing Ted Thompson, the Packers have three potential replacements internally. Two of those guys are clearly GMs-in-waiting. The Packers have done everything they can to keep them in-house, from regular salary increases to promotions.
Thus, everything indicates the Packers’ next general manager will come from within.
Yahoo’s Charles Robinson looked into that matter after Dorsey was canned.
After talking with sources, sounding like eventual Ted Thompson successor for #Packers would come from Wolf/Ball/Gutekunst trio. Not Dorsey.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) June 22, 2017
And what about hiring John Dorsey in another position?
The first question is where? What position is there for him?
The more important factor would be perception.
Bringing in someone from the outside, even if he isn’t actually an outsider, would no doubt rub Wolf and Gutekunst the wrong way.
Both men have been angling for a general manager job and indications are they will get a shot to fill that role with the Packers. Dorsey, no doubt, would be an unwelcome presence until that’s cleared up.
Two things seem pretty certain here. The Packers will hire from within and it’s unlikely Dorsey will return to the Packers in any role, much less GM, at this point.
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Rumors in the Kansas City press are that Dorsey got fired because in contract negotiations he insisted on having an out added to allow him to leave to go Green Bay if they asked.
I think Dorsey would be better than Wolf or Gutekunst. I believe the reason why Schneider, Thompson, McKenzie, Dorsey, Seale and others are good has as much to do with the Packers scouts from the 80s training them as much as Wolf bringing in the system. Unlike Tom Braatz, Ron Wolf did not bring in his own scouts. He relied on long time Packer scouts. Eliot Wolf and Brian Gutekunst did not learn from the ’80s scouts.
This raises an interesting question of how GM transitions are handled. Thompson’s contract apparently extends through the 2018 season, so I imagine he would want to run the 2018 draft particularly since he’ll be giddy over having 4 compensatory picks. However, when does a new GM come on board? Seems there would have to be some overlap, where successor is in place during 2018 season so full control and draft/free agent strategies could be formulated for 2019. I can’t imagine TT flying solo through 2018 then the new GM parachuting in and taking over in January, 2019. This is more complicated than the English monarchy- I hope Murphy has this thought out as it’s the only meaningful decision he has to make during his tenure. He must be proactive and select his guy, rather than potentially losing him to another organization.
What. The. Actual. Hell. What is going on? I still wouldn’t rule out Dorsey returning to GB, and I am not taking the word of some media hack. I wonder if they are keeping quiet for the time being to avoid being investigated by the NFL for tampering.
I agree that Dorsey becoming the GM of the Packers is unlikely, so much that i’ll say it never happens.
Dorsey must have pissed someone off, or clashed with Ried over personnel control, who knows.
But what i do know is…if the Packers don’t give the job to Wolf, it show’s some real dysfunction after stringing him along all these years.
At this point, I wouldn’t mind TT being replaced by Tommy Dorsey….and he’s been dead for a few years (just like Teddy, but nobody’s told him)
lol…yea