Denver Broncos: Options to replace John Elway as general manager.
There’s never a dull moment with the Denver Broncos, is there?
After 10 years on the job, John Elway is stepping aside as the general manager of the Broncos and taking on an “elevated” role in the organization.
For the first time since the 2011 offseason, the Broncos will enter an offseason looking for someone to be in charge of making final decisions about personnel, and even back then, everyone knew Elway would wind up being the guy.
Who are the Broncos going to target this time around?
The bombshell of all offseason bombshells was dropped as the team announced not only is Elway stepping aside as general manager, but VP of Player Personnel Matt Russell (Elway’s no. 2) is retiring to focus on family.
https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/1346188548194656259
There is such a massive can of worms to be opened speculating over what Elway’s next step with the team could be, or if he’s truly going to spend the next year just grooming the person who is taking his place.
Perhaps Elway will be spending this next year focusing the majority of his time on eventual ownership or co-ownership of the team. Let your imagination run wild…
For the time being, who is going to replace Elway as general manager of the Denver Broncos?
Let’s dive into the likeliest candidates.
1. Adam Peters (49ers)
Adam Peters spent time with the Broncos from 2009-16 before he was ultimately hired away by John Lynch and the San Francisco 49ers.
Peters’ current role with the 49ers is VP of Player Personnel, and he was the director of college scouting in his final role with the Broncos.
Peters’ history with the Broncos and obvious desire to have a full-time GM role would certainly make him a top candidate for the job opening in Denver if he wants it.
Will the Broncos be able to lure Peters away from other job opportunities around the league? Denver’s GM position is not the only vacancy around the league right now and Peters has connections with Matt Rhule in Carolina already.
A lot could come down to what Peters — or any candidate with competition from other teams — believes about the incumbents on the roster.
Who will replace John Elway as Denver Broncos GM?
2. John Spytek (Buccaneers)
When looking at candidates for gigs around the league, it’s important to keep in mind how important in today’s NFL it is who you know.
John Spytek is the Director of Player Personnel in Tampa Bay, working closely with general manager Jason Licht. He has been working with the Bucs for the past five seasons after spending some time in Denver as a scout (both area and national) and helping assemble the Super Bowl 50 team.
Spytek’s ties to the Broncos paid off in a big way as he and the Bucs were able to bring in free agent Shaquil Barrett for an absolute bargain.
3. Champ Kelly (Bears)
Kelly is another former member of the Denver Broncos’ front office operations, where he worked from 2007-14. He initially worked with the team as a college scout before getting promoted to assistant coordinator of pro and college scouting and then assistant director of pro personnel.
Since 2015, Kelly has been working with the Chicago Bears, so there is some crossover here with Broncos head coach Vic Fangio.
Kelly has been the Bears’ director of pro scouting and most recently their assistant director of player personnel.
Denver Broncos GM candidates
4. Louis Riddick (ESPN)
Louis Riddick is a former NFL safety who has worked in the front offices of the Washington Football Team and Philadelphia Eagles.
Presently, Riddick works at ESPN and has not been in an NFL front office since 2013 after spending four years as the Eagles’ Director of Pro Personnel.
Riddick has been doing Monday Night Football this year for ESPN and prior to that was doing a variety of analysis work for them, including evaluating the incoming NFL Draft class each year.
Riddick’s bird’s eye view over the NFL as an employee of ESPN for the past seven years gives him a unique perspective on how to build a team and his prior experience in an NFL front office is a huge plus.
5. Daniel Jeremiah (NFL Network)
At this point, Jeremiah would be a pretty bold hire. Are the Broncos willing to go there with someone who has not risen up the ranks of an NFL front office before?
Why not?
Daniel Jeremiah has been working with the NFL Network and has been their lead NFL Draft analyst since Mike Mayock left for the Raiders GM gig a couple of years ago.
Jeremiah is as sharp as they come, knows how to evaluate college talent coming up to the professional level, and would be a really fun option for the Broncos.
Denver Broncos GM candidates to replace Elway
6. John Dorsey (Eagles)
John Dorsey is currently working with the Philadelphia Eagles as a front office consultant, but he has a ton of experience as an executive in the NFL.
Notably, Dorsey worked with the Packers from 2000-12 and was their director of college scouting for the majority of those years.
He was hired by the Chiefs in 2013 as general manager and was obviously key in trading up for Patrick Mahomes in 2017. He took the Cleveland Browns job in 2018 and drafted Baker Mayfield.
Both of those teams are in the playoffs for the AFC even though Dorsey was let go from both gigs for varying reasons.
7. Mike Borgonzi (Chiefs)
The Kansas City Chiefs’ director of football of operations is Mike Borgonzi, who has spent 10 years in the Chiefs’ scouting and personnel department.
Obviously, the way Kansas City is built right now is enviable around the entire league. It’s not every year a player like Patrick Mahomes comes along but Borgonzi has helped build playoff-caliber teams in Kansas City just about every year for the last decade.
8. Thomas Dimitroff (formerly Falcons)
The Atlanta Falcons cleaned house in 2020, firing longtime GM Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Dan Quinn.
Dimitroff has a long track record of building contending football teams so his name is definitely one to watch, and he’s already being interviewed in this GM cycle.
He worked with the Falcons from 2008-20, and prior to that he worked with the New England Patriots as a national scout.
Dimitroff’s track record as a general manager is very aggressive. His career with Atlanta opened up with the drafting of Matt Ryan and he made a number of really bold moves in the dozen years that followed.
Denver Broncos GM candidates to replace Elway
9. Rick Smith (formerly Texans)
From 1996-2006, Rick Smith was with the Denver Broncos’ organization as an assistant defensive backs coach and then director of pro personnel.
In 2006, he left the Broncos along with Gary Kubiak to become part of the Houston Texans organization where he was named general manager.
Smith spent 2006-17 with the Texans’ organization and stepped away in 2017 when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Bill O’Brien ended up taking his place as GM of the team and the Texans once again have a vacancy.
Smith’s time on task in the NFL as a GM and a fairly successful one with Houston as well as his significant history in Denver makes him an intriguing candidate.
10. Terry Fontenot (Saints)
Terry Fontenot is the director of pro scouting with the New Orleans Saints, an organization he has been with for 16 seasons.
He has a significant role in recommending roster moves all throughout the season, scouting not only for free agency but throughout the season when it comes to waiver pickups and evaluating talent from other professional leagues.
Fontenot is getting plenty of run in this circuit of NFL teams looking to hire prospective general managers, so perhaps the Broncos will give him a call.
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He has worked a number of jobs in New Orleans’ front office and that is one of the franchises in the NFL that has had a ton of success in the last couple of decades.