Getty Las Vegas Raiders helmet.
The Las Vegas Raiders have an opening at general manager after firing Mike Mayock. After making the playoffs this season, it’s incredibly important that owner Mark Davis nails this hire to avoid another full-scale rebuild. The opening should be appealing to top executives as Davis isn’t known to meddle and there are some really good pieces to build around.
The Raiders have already been linked to a number of candidates and are now starting to set interview dates. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the team is set to interview New England Patriots executive Dave Ziegler on Friday and Chicago Bears assistant director of players personnel Champ Kelly on Thursday.
The interest in Ziegler was previously known but the Kelly interest is new. He worked for the Denver Broncos for several years so he should be familiar with the Raiders. He went to the Bears as their director of pro scouting in 2015 before getting promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2017. Kelly has also interviewed for the Bears’ general manager opening.
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Former Player Praises Kelly
At the executive level, it’s difficult to know for sure what signings are draft picks people are responsible for. With the Bears, Kelly has worked on the pro side of things and was with the team when they engineered the trade for Khalil Mack. While his ability as a draft evaluator remains to be seen, he’s highly respected by people who have been involved in the Bears organization.
Former Chicago linebacker Sam Acho is very high on Kelly’s ability and believes “where he goes success will follow.”
Few people care about players the way Champ Kelly does. Few people know how to evaluate players the way Champ Kelly does. Few people know how to bring the best out of players the way Champ Kelly does. Passionate. No ego. Brilliant football mind. Where he goes success will follow
Mack also appeared to endorse him for the Bears opening.
@ChicagoBears @dunkindonuts Champppppppp!
It’s clear that Kelly knows how to build and maintain strong relationships with players. That will be important for the Raiders as Mayock was respected by the players. Bringing in a guy who can unify the team and earn respect from players will be important going forward.
Other Candidates Raiders Are Eyeing
Kelly and Ziegler are the only two candidates the Raiders have set interview dates with but they’ve shown interest in a couple of other men. The one name that has a lot of fans excited is Indianapolis Colts executive Ed Dobbs, who the team has requested to interview, per Rapoport.
An interview date hasn’t been set yet but Dobbs got his start with the Raiders under Al Davis as an intern. Everybody knows that the team likes to keep things in the family but that doesn’t mean he’s not qualified. Colts general manager Chris Ballard is one of the best in the business and Dobbs has worked closely with him for years. He’s a highly qualified candidate for the opening should the Raiders decide to hire him.
The team is also looking at Cincinnati Bengals scout Trey Brown, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Brown interviewed for the Raiders general manager job in 2018 before Mayock was hired. He’s a young candidate at 36-years-old but has over a decade of experience as a scout and personnel executive. He’ll be strongly considered for the Raiders’ general manager opening.
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