What are some GMs on the hot-seat?

[ClutchDJ]

We talk a lot about Head-Coaches being on the hot-seat, but who are some of the GMs you think or believe should be on the hot seat this season?

[notthatbluestuff]

Ballard's roster really needs to show something - the Chiefs win hasn't filled the entirety of my garden with fine-scented roses. If the Colts can't make the playoffs (and this is Ballard's sixth year) questions will need to be asked. He refused to supplement the WR group with veteran presence and it remains to be seen if he was right. OL looks overpaid and can't protect Matt Ryan, the fourth consecutive band-aid QB solution. We'll see how it goes. Fans were very upset after the latest Jax loss and one quality win shouldn't erase the things that were said at that time. Of course, I hope improvement and consistency will come rendering this post meaningless.

[notthatbluestuff]

Outside of my own team, btw, I'd like to preemptively bring up Telesco because I think that's an interesting one. Fans are routinely shocked that the Chargers miss the playoffs - doesn't that reflect well on the GM for building a roster that's deemed playoff-worthy? You can point to some top-heaviness being a concern with the Chargers, but I don't know that any team seems to have as bad a medical staff/conditioning coaches as them. Maybe can them before Telesco.

[CP3MVP]

1 hour ago, notthatbluestuff said:

Outside of my own team, btw, I'd like to preemptively bring up Telesco because I think that's an interesting one. Fans are routinely shocked that the Chargers miss the playoffs - doesn't that reflect well on the GM for building a roster that's deemed playoff-worthy? You can point to some top-heaviness being a concern with the Chargers, but I don't know that any team seems to have as bad a medical staff/conditioning coaches as them. Maybe can them before Telesco.

He’s been there a decade has a record under water with 2 playoff wins. It also is looking like his 3rd head coach is a disaster 

[Forge]

The funny thing about Telesco is that I don't think he's bad. If he got canned and someone recycled him as a retread hire, I'd kind of get it. 

[.Buzz]

7 minutes ago, Forge said:

The funny thing about Telesco is that I don't think he's bad. If he got canned and someone recycled him as a retread hire, I'd kind of get it. 

Agreed. That Chargers roster is consistently loaded on paper. He’s had his issues choosing a HC but I’m sure there’s some teams that would look past that/have the owner more involved in that process.

 

[sryan66611]

Considering what happens with the Titans I think Jon Robinson could potentially be on the hot seat....     He has had some questionable free agent pick up/ trades and his drafts haven't been that great.    Conklin was good but they traded him right?    All the others are pretty much considered busts except for Treylon burks which is too soon.   Caleb Farley who has been injured and hasn't played very much.   Only thing that has been positive in the first round is Jeffery Simmons pick.  The 2016 Draft was easily his best and he picked up Derrick Henry and Kevin Byard later which are two all pros.  He also had some later draft picks such as Harold Landry and Kristian Fulton  which have panned out.

2016	8	Jack Conklin	T	Michigan State
2017	5	Corey Davis	WR	Western Michigan
	18	Adoree' Jackson	DB	USC
2018	22	Rashaan Evans	LB	Alabama
2019	19	Jeffery Simmons†	DT	Mississippi State
2020	29	Isaiah Wilson	T	Georgia
2021	22	Caleb Farley	CB	Virginia Tech
2022	18	Treylon Burks	WR	Arkansas

 

 

The ones that really need to go won't like Steve Keim and John Schneider IMO.

[Soko]

I truly don’t know how Keim has been a GM for as long as he has. Keim’s made a handful of splash moves in an ocean of indecision and question marks. 

[HoboRocket]

45 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

I truly don’t know how Keim has been a GM for as long as he has. Keim’s made a handful of splash moves in an ocean of indecision and question marks. 

Keim should be at the top of this list but he just got extended. And the reason he's been the GM is because he has the fortune to work for the Cardinals. As bad as he is, he's possibly the best GM the Cardinals have had. Which is terrible. 

Remember, guys, they're like the oldest continuously run professional football franchise and have never won a Super Bowl. They were the first team to 700 losses and hold the longest active Championship drought in North American Sports (75 years). Heck, Kingsbury, a career .500 coach in college and .500 through his first three years with the team, got an extension. Because .500 is better than our franchise win percentage.

[Forge]

1 hour ago, Yin-Yang said:

I truly don’t know how Keim has been a GM for as long as he has. Keim’s made a handful of splash moves in an ocean of indecision and question marks. 

I dunno, I fully support keims decision making and the cards keeping him around for a very long time

[Jakuvious]

48 minutes ago, HoboRocket said:

Keim should be at the top of this list but he just got extended. And the reason he's been the GM is because he has the fortune to work for the Cardinals. As bad as he is, he's possibly the best GM the Cardinals have had. Which is terrible. 

Remember, guys, they're like the oldest continuously run professional football franchise and have never won a Super Bowl. They were the first team to 700 losses and hold the longest active Championship drought in North American Sports (75 years). Heck, Kingsbury, a career .500 coach in college and .500 through his first three years with the team, got an extension. Because .500 is better than our franchise win percentage.

Yup. Last I checked, you have to go back to the late 1940s to find a Cardinals GM with a higher winning percentage than Keim. And as far as I can remember, the Cardinals have never been the franchise to throw money around. There's no choice but to pay for players nowadays, but front office...

[Jakuvious]

I think this is a tough one to gauge, honestly. GM jobs often go really hand in hand with other major roles in the organization. It's unusual I feel to see just a GM fired. So there's a handful that probably should be on the hotseat that actually aren't, and some may get fired just because they're part of a failed era at QB or head coach. Like, when I think about GMs that have overstayed their welcome, my mind goes to Belichick (again, GM, not HC, I will not argue this one), Mike Brown, Jerry Jones, Steve Keim, John Schneider.....all guys who are probably very very safe right now. Keim got extended, Belichick will stay until he doesn't want to, it seems, Brown and Jones own the teams, and Schneider is basically attached to Pete Carroll. I would've thought Schneider would be on the outs, but if they're keeping Carroll post-Wilson, I expect them to keep the duo.

Other semi-tenured guys that stand out as maybes. Chris Grier has been meh in Miami, but the team seems to be turning a corner now, so that seat is getting colder. Jon Robinson was mentioned above, but Tennessee has been too successful lately, I think they would stick with current leadership and just move on from Tannehill first. Maybe Chris Ballard if the Colts really bottom out. I actually like Ballard, I just think they've gotten way too stuck on veteran QBs, for whatever reason. They wasted years of a competitive roster by trying desperately to not waste a competitive roster. Could've developed a QB by now post-Luck. Maybe two. Maybe the 49ers are tired of John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, but again, that's a duo I like overall. I feel like the Saints should be tired of Mickey Loomis, but I'm apparently alone on that one.

After that, truthfully, there's not many guys left. Almost anyone left who is tenured has been very successful, leaving a bunch of GMs who have had a year or two, three at the most, left. And a lot of those will depend on if things seem bad enough to fully blow it up. I don't think the Jets would dump Joe Douglas unless they're going to scrap the whole thing (again) and drop Robert Saleh and move on from Zach Wilson all in one go. Martin Mayhew would be in a similar situation with Ron Rivera, where if they dump one, I would imagine they dump both, and it would mean another start from scratch for them. I wouldn't think the Panthers would want to move on from Fitterer, given that they hired him even more recently than Rhule, but maybe they think the optics have been bad enough so far. Same with George Paton and Hackett in Denver, though they're half-assing their way to enough wins so far that they're probably fine. Maybe you dump Dave Ziegler if you're Vegas and you really have that bad of a season and want to get rid of McDaniels. But again, it's so soon for some of these.

Oh, if the Chargers do dump Telesco, it will be a huge mistake, and I will celebrate it. Put someone else in charge of hiring the coaching staff and move on from Staley if the season goes that poorly. But the Chargers have been one of the best teams in the NFL at talent acquisition, particularly through the draft, this past decade. 2019 was the only draft they didn't get a legitimate star under Telesco. They could do a bit better at filling out the roster and securing depth, but when most GMs can't put together a competent starting roster, he's still well better than most.

[HoboRocket]

19 minutes ago, Jakuvious said:

Yup. Last I checked, you have to go back to the late 1940s to find a Cardinals GM with a higher winning percentage than Keim. And as far as I can remember, the Cardinals have never been the franchise to throw money around. There's no choice but to pay for players nowadays, but front office...

Yeah. Keim absolutely should be on the hot seat, though. 

The Cardinals have held a lead for zero seconds this season.

I repeat.

The Arizona Cardinals - the team that Steve Keim thought was great enough to not address any pressing needs this off-season and preach "next man up" as several key players departed - have not been in the lead at any point during regulation this season.

That's gross incompetence. 

Keim did target the receiving corps this off-season, adding or resigning several pass catchers. Unfortunately, 4 of the top 6 WRs are out. That's not really something he can control, and the main one he acquired (Hollywood Brown) has been good, while another "Keim Time" guy (Greg Dortch) has been excellent.

I don't know how you can approach roster construction in the secondary the way he has this year and think it's winning football. Budda Baker is great. Jalen Thompson is great. Byron Murphy is a solid starter. Everyone else was terrible last season. Marco Wilson flashed, but he's always been a project CB and there are a couple tricks that always work against him. He acquired Gladney, that unfortunately did not play out on the field. Still, Gladney was a cast-off from another team. He did trade for Trayvon Mullen. That hasn't worked out so far, but health has been a question. And then the depth chart in the secondary has been so thin. He's had 4 CBs and 3 safeties on the roster at times. That doesn't work. Especially when you're playing the Chiefs, Raiders, and Rams in the first three weeks.

LB is a massive headache. We're worse there than we were last year. Isaiah Simmons has been bad. He was solid against the Rams, but over his first three seasons in the NFL he has been ABUSED in man coverage and taken bad angles to the ball in the running game. He struggles playing downfield, but if he plays close to the line, he can't get off blocks to save his life. Jordan Hicks, our best LB, is gone. Zaven Collins has been okay, but worse than Hicks or DeVondre Campbell were for us. There are too many ILBs on the roster.

The DL has been iffy. Zach Allen is a safe 5-tech. He's solid in all phases but doesn't really excel anywhere. JJ Watt has been great so far. At Nose, that spot was a massive liability last season and is still one this year, allowing teams to gash us up the middle, especially since one of our starting LBs is MIA in the run game. 

EDGE was addressed on day 2 of the draft. Neither of those guys are getting playing time, but I'm not mad about it yet. Markus Golden is a proven edge rusher, though he's been invisible in both the passing game and running game thus far. He's always struggled setting the edge, but he also has yet to get to the QB. Dennis Gardeck is a high-effort guy with a high ceiling. I think the pass rush is on the roster right now, they just need to get their MOJO going.

Overall, I'm not sure why Steve Keim looked at the defense and thought it was automatically going to be top-10 again. He's continuing to rely on Vance Joseph making miracles. 

On offense, he wasn't aggressive enough bolstering the interior, which was a major section of weakness and still is. DJ Humphries has been good, and Kelvin Beachum has been okay at the tackle spots. But without targets to throw the ball to or push up the middle to run the ball, this offense will continue to be stagnant unless Kyler is having multiple freak plays a drive. 

[HoboRocket]

11 minutes ago, Jakuvious said:

Maybe Chris Ballard if the Colts really bottom out. I actually like Ballard, I just think they've gotten way too stuck on veteran QBs, for whatever reason. They wasted years of a competitive roster by trying desperately to not waste a competitive roster. Could've developed a QB by now post-Luck. Maybe two.

Exactly this. He's done an excellent job of continuously fielding a well-rounded roster, but they've poured so many resources into stopgapping the QB position that they've hobbled themselves because a lot of that star talent has matured and QB is still average to below average. 

[DirtyDez]

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