Philly Front Office

Not every owner treats their personnel decisions like the Corleones. I get that not all family business can be handled efficiently but some teams still have us waiting and wondering what they are going to do and it is already…is it only Wednesday? Seems like an eternity in Hurts concussion days. In all honesty, on Monday after finishing the coaching article and moving on to the draft article I realized there were a lot more incompetent GMs out there than I wrote about. Let’s talk about who else got the axe and who should be next.

Antonio Pierce, HC Raiders: Like Mayo in Foxboro, it is easy to fire a head coach after a bad season. Basically, you have your reason and in the employment world that is good enough. Mayo may have had some other BS reasons to cause his termination, but WTF Raiders??? This is some serious nonsense. Do you realize what happened in Las Vegas this year? Pierce was retained after being promoted last year to interim HC. A few days later they hired GM Tom Telesco. Pierce retained DC Patrick Graham. Luke Getsy was hired as OC a few days later. Getsy was fired in November and the passing game coordinator Scott Turner (son of Norv), who was hired by previous coach Josh McDaniels, took over as OC. All of this while starting Gardner Minshew, Aiden O’Connell, and Desmond Ridder at QB. Having to start 3 different QBs during a season is bad enough, but these are 3 QBs whose best overall talent is an off-season photoshoot. Pierce had NO chance. I wouldn’t be surprised of Pierce had a Dan Campbell like coaching career, flaming out early in a bad organization only to see his motivational talents resurrected and appreciated by a better team. Antonio, you are better off being away from Chucky.

Ran Carthon, GM Titans: The curse of AJ Brown continues. Carthon wasn’t the guy who famously traded Brown but the franchise is still recovering. You could say that his top draft picks didn’t work out, but they were solid investments in the offensive line. You could say it was the Calvin Ridley signing that seems a lot like Christian Kirk 2.0, but they really haven’t had anything going for them in that area since Brown left. Who are we kidding, it’s Will Levis. I’m not going to tell you he is a bad QB, but he looks atrocious. Some of the most infamous plays of the season were Levis looking like a fool. The team didn’t want to chance the GM screwing up another QB when they pick #1. If they had the #4 pick or better he would probably still have his job.

How are they the only other two to get fired since Monday? Some coordinators were fired including in Indy, Cincy, and SF but there are still a lot of bad GMs with jobs.

Jerry Jones, GM Cowboys: Dallas declined the Bears request to interview Mike McCarthy for their HC position. Maybe the request was a favor to McCarthy’s agent to force the Cowboys hand or maybe Jerry is legitimately trying to extend his coach. As Jerry is wont to do, he has painted himself into another corner. Between Zeke, Dak, Lamb, Parsons and now McCarthy, Jerry continues to show that he is a friend to agents with his sly ability to get the worst possible outcome for his team. I’ll have an in-depth look at his contract follies in a future piece tentatively titled Jerry Jones: Master Negotiator.

Terry Fontenot, GM Falcons: The only reason this guy has kept his job is because absolutely no one cares about the Falcons, apparently including owner Arthur Blank. Any other team that receives even a little press coverage would not be given this kind of slack from the media. Can you imagine if Howie Roseman made any of these moves? After being hired in 2021, Fontenot:

• 2021 – Drafted TE Kyle Pitts 4th overall ahead of (you aren’t ready for this list) Jamar Chase, Jaylen Waddle, Penai Sewell, Patrick Surtain II, Devonta Smith, Micah Parsons, and Rashawn Slater. With this year’s awards still to come, in 3 seasons that is already 11 Pro Bowls and 7 All Pro awards between them.
• 2022 – Drafted Drake London #8 overall despite having no QB. This turned out to be a weak draft and London just had a good season, but drafting a WR here was a poor use of resources.
• 2022 – Drafted Desmond Ridder in the 3rd round and used him as the answer at QB post Matt Ryan.
• 2023 – Drafted RB Bijan Robinson one spot ahead of Jalen Carter. At least he didn’t draft Will Levis.
• 2024 – Signs Kirk Cousins to a 4 year $180m contract with $100m guaranteed (Cousins is benched after 14 weeks)
• 2024 – Drafts QB Michael Penix #8 overall, 44 days after signing Cousins.

For a team that spent a few years in Matt Ryan related cap hell, using draft picks on these positions is baffling. Granted, he didn’t exactly miss on any good QBs, but why are you getting weapons if you have no one throwing to them???

Andrew Berry, GM Browns: Deshaun Watson. I mean that says it all, right? Maybe we should focus on the reasons he still has a job then. First, the Watson trade and contract had to be an owner decision because it is the single worst set of transactions in sports history. NOT HYPERBOLE. They traded huge assets for a guy who was accused of sexual assault/harassment by over 20 women despite him likely being suspended for a year then gave him an enormous fully guaranteed contract that even had the loophole of backloading the deal to get around the looming suspension. Just phenomenally bad work that no real GM would EVER do. Second, because of this trade he has not had a first round pick to work with since. Third, he just got an extension that is fully guaranteed. Fourth, his boss is one of the worst including many lawsuits related to his company and is currently embroiled in a standoff over the city regarding a new stadium. (Programing update: he is the leader in the clubhouse for a future article on the worst owners in the NFL)

Mickey Loomis, GM Saints: He is likely not going anywhere for many reasons but now wouldn’t be the worst time for the Saints to suggest retirement or some kind of promotion that gets him out of the driver’s seat. The Saints have been right up against the cap for years, haven’t drafted well, never replaced an aging team due to salary cap problems, and never had a real plan for replacing Drew Brees 4 years ago. I know he won a Super Bowl, and brought in Brees, and even served as the Pelicans GM for years when the Benson’s needed him, but still…it’s over. His entrenchment in New Orleans makes it hard for the team to move on and attract a good coach following the retirement and subsequent trade of Sean Payton.

Most of the teams covered above and those previously profiled suffer from bad ownership. It might not matter who they bring in because a bad culture is created at the top. Bad owners tend to meddle with the decisions they supposedly hired experts to make. Maybe its because they were successful in other ventures or they are nepo-babies who have never been told “no” and didn’t have to work to buy the team. There is a reason why the same teams keep making the same bad decisions.