Bengals Exec Turns Down Chance at Patriots GM Job: Report

Getty New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

The New England Patriots are in the market for a general manager for the first time in 24 years after head coach Bill Belichick served in the role until he and team owner Robert Kraft

One person not in the running for the spot is Cincinnati Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown after the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that Brown declined a request to be interviewed for the job.

The Patriots hired former linebacker Jerod Mayo as their new head coach one day after parting ways with Belichick.

“#Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown has declined a request to interview for the #Patriots de facto GM position, per source,” Pelissero posted on his X account. “Brown will remain a top GM candidate in next year’s cycle.”

Brown has a long history with the Patriots. He broke into the NFL with New England’s scouting department in 2010 and was with the team from 2010 to 2012. Brown was the Director of College Scouting for the Philadelphia Eagles when they defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl LII following the 2017 season.

Brown has been with the Bengals since 2021.

Brown Has Built Teams From Scratch

Brown has unique work experience when it comes to being a football executive— he’s built an entire professional team from scratch. Twice.

Brown left the Eagles following the 2018 season to become the executive vice president of football operations for the Alliance of American Football’s Birmingham Iron in 2019 — the AAF folded after one season.

In 2020, Brown was the director of player personnel for the XFL’s St. Louis BattleHawks before the league ceased play in spring 2020 because of the pandemic and later filed for bankruptcy.

“I think this gave me an opportunity to not only work with great people, but also do things that you probably wouldn’t get a chance to do or get experience in the NFL mainly because those GM opportunities that you mention, when you walk into those jobs, you’ve got players already on the roster, guys that are under contract,” Brown told NFL.com’s Herbie Teope about the Iron in 2019. “When we took this thing in December, there were no players on the roster, so you’re going from building everything from scratch, which is a unique opportunity, and you get a chance to gain some experience to learn.”

Interviewed for NFL GM Positions in the Past

Brown is a Kansas native who played college football for UCLA and was a second-team Associated Press All-American cornerback in 2007. He signed with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2008 and played one season with the UFL’s New York Sentinels in 2009.

Brown has interviewed for NFL general manager jobs three times in the past, with the Buffalo Bills in 2017 and twice with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders in 2018 and 2022.

Brown’s connections to the NFL run deep. His father, Theotis Brown II, was a star running back at UCLA in the late 1970s and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 1979 NFL Draft.

Theotis’ career was cut short by a heart attack in 1984 while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs and he went to work in community relations and ticket sales for the franchise — he brought his son with him to work on occasion.

Brown counts former Chiefs’ general manager Carl Peterson among his mentors.

“I’ve had the chance to be molded by a lot of different people,” Brown told Bengals.com’s Geoff Hobson in 2021.