lucky #13 climbing

[rkarp1]

RotoPat’s 2026 NFL GM rankings: Analysis for all 32 teams

Ranking and evaluating the NFL's general managers, including this year's new hires.

www.nbcsports.com

 

[jmt57]

Quite a few names from the Patriots/Belichick tree on this list:

#9 Nick Caserio
2001-2020
Director of player personnel

#12 Jason Licht
1999-2002; 2009-2011
Director of player personnel

#13 Eliot Wolf
2020-present
EVP of player personnel

#24 Adam Peters
2003-2008
Pro scout, Area scout

#28 Monti Ossenfort
2003, 2006-2019
Director of college scouting



Other much looser ties

#4 Erik DeCosta
grew up as a Pats fan in Taunton and at Colby College

#8 John Lynch
spent his last summer as a pro football player in training camp in Foxborough

#10 Sean Payton
never worked with Belichick, but both worked for Bill Parcells

 

[rkarp1]

Licht is kind of a head scratcher
since he was named GM in 2014, the Bucs are well under .500 during his tenure.
other than having Brady for 2 years, would he even be the GM today with out Brady for those 2 years?

 

[jmt57]

Licht is kind of a head scratcher
since he was named GM in 2014, the Bucs are well under .500 during his tenure.
other than having Brady for 2 years, would he even be the GM today with out Brady for those 2 years?

Jerry Jones at #16 and Chris Ballard at #21 deserve to be lower as well.
Odd that the author ranks them that high, then blasts both of them in their bios.

 

[TheRainMaker]

While there are many GM's ranked too high, I'm completely shocked to see Micky Loomis is still the GM of the Saints. I thought they moved on from him a long time ago. Lol.

Eric DeCosta is very overrated, but then I saw Brian Gutekunst 6th on the list. Packers have had awful GM's since Wolf struggled post 1997. They have never found players to put the team over the top during the Favre and Rodgers years. They finally swing for the fences after almost years. However, Parsons ain't that guy.

Reid/Veach should be top 3 by default of their track record since 2019. But I do see they are slipping.

Shanahan and Lynch should have at least 2 Super Bowls, but poor decisions put them in their current situation. They do great finding late gems, but they are awful drafting in the first two rounds since 2019. And I mean AWFUL. Had Purdy not played well in 2022, there were serious rumblings that Shanahan and Lynch were going to be canned.

Although many here hate on Wolf (including myself), he's ranked too low based on the 2 year turn around and Super Bowl birth. How do you seriously put the Chargers GM over him? The Pats have just won more playoff games in one season than the Chargers have in the last 8 years combined.

 

[rkarp1]

While there are many GM's ranked too high, I'm completely shocked to see Micky Loomis is still the GM of the Saints. I thought they moved on from him a long time ago. Lol.

Eric DeCosta is very overrated, but then I saw Brian Gutekunst 6th on the list. Packers have had awful GM's since Wolf struggled post 1997. They have never found players to put the team over the top during the Favre and Rodgers years. They finally swing for the fences after almost years. However, Parsons ain't that guy.

Reid/Veach should be top 3 by default of their track record since 2019. But I do see they are slipping.

Shanahan and Lynch should have at least 2 Super Bowls, but poor decisions put them in their current situation. They do great finding late gems, but they are awful drafting in the first two rounds since 2019. And I mean AWFUL. Had Purdy not played well in 2022, there were serious rumblings that Shanahan and Lynch were going to be canned.

Although many here hate on Wolf (including myself), he's ranked too low based on the 2 year turn around and Super Bowl birth. How do you seriously put the Chargers GM over him?

part of the formula would be draft results, and Wolf is brought down from his 2024 results (even with Maye) trying to recover from the BB mess

 

[Bill Lee]

Licht is kind of a head scratcher
since he was named GM in 2014, the Bucs are well under .500 during his tenure.
other than having Brady for 2 years, would he even be the GM today with out Brady for those 2 years?

I can see both sides of that argument.

They had a pretty good set of talent when Brady, Gronk and Playoff Lenny arrived, and a lot of that is a credit to Licht.

Bringing in Ariens and Bowles were largely his call too, I think.

Yet we'll never know if he would have gotten "over the hump" without Brady.

He also gets "points" for making chicken salad out of chicken sh*t with Baker Mayfield.

Yet chicken salad ain't Coq au Vin, so he's got that in the negative column.

I guess the real question is, who could Tampa bring in better than him?

Tampa is a decent place, but Brady boogied out of town pretty quickly once he decided to hang up the cleats.

Yet there are only 32 GM jobs, so someone would find a way to make it work for the right price.

 

[patfanken]

I think Wolf et al have had a very underrated off season so far. Between FA and the draft, they have addressed pretty much ALL the Pats needs that were identified. Edge, OL, S, CB depth, TE and WR. About the only thing I could see to complain about is the lack of a big name or high pick ILB. Now they did add 2 FA ILB's and a late round draft pick, but these are relative unknowns and their value is unproven, just like a LOT of the guys we signed as FA's in the '25 off season.

Who knows how big the contributions will be from guys Britt, Vildor, Mike Brown, Hill and the late draft pick LB with the unpronounceable name provide. Remember Ninkovitch was a guy who came here looking to make the team as a long snapper. You ever know who will pop and who will not

 

[mgteich]

I think Wolf et al have had a very underrated off season so far. Between FA and the draft, they have addressed pretty much ALL the Pats needs that were identified. Edge, OL, S, CB depth, TE and WR. About the only thing I could see to complain about is the lack of a big name or high pick ILB. Now they did add 2 FA ILB's and a late round draft pick, but these are relative unknowns and their value is unproven, just like a LOT of the guys we signed as FA's in the '25 off season.

Who knows how big the contributions will be from guys Britt, Vildor, Mike Brown, Hill and the late draft pick LB with the unpronounceable name provide. Remember Ninkovitch was a guy who came here looking to make the team as a long snapper. You ever know who will pop and who will not

Q1) EDGE was a weakness last year. Do you think that it will be stronger this year? Unless Landry is 100%, I don't see any improvement. About the same would be OK I guess.

Q2) I suspect that we are just wishing and hoping that the backup ILB's will be able to give us what we had in Gibbens, Tavai and Mapu.

Yes, Belichick had great success in bringing in veterans as backups. We need 2 backups and an emergency 3rd, all of whom play lots of ST's.

We expect that the ST role will be well covered with Britt and Muma. However, none have much experience playing NFL LB.

 

[patfanken]

Q1) EDGE was a weakness last year. Do you think that it will be stronger this year? Unless Landry is 100%, I don't see any improvement. About the same would be OK I guess.

Q2) I suspect that we are just wishing and hoping that the backup ILB's will be able to give us what we had in Gibbens, Tavai and Mapu.

Yes, Belichick had great success in bringing in veterans as backups. We need 2 backups and an emergency 3rd, all of whom play lots of ST's.

We expect that the ST role will be well covered with Britt and Muma. However, none have much experience playing NFL LB.

Yes, and by quite a lot, and specifically in the run game. Both Jacas and Jones will provide much better edge setting than we got from Chassion and give us an improved power rush and probable an equal number of sacks (7-10). We did lose some pure speed rush ability, but I question whether that will lead to less actual rush production.

Also, I think we are all underestimating what a HEALTHY Landry could bring to the Edge rotation. He put up some pretty good numbers when he was healthy early in the season. And I agree with you that we need to add a vet ILB. Milano would be my first choice. It's still 2 Months til camp and there will be a lot of signings happening come June

 

[mgteich]

Yes, and by quite a lot, and specifically in the run game. Both Jacas and Jones will provide much better edge setting than we got from Chassion and give us an improved power rush and probable an equal number of sacks (7-10). We did lose some pure speed rush ability, but I question whether that will lead to less actual rush production.

Also, I think we are all underestimating what a HEALTHY Landry could bring to the Edge rotation. He put up some pretty good numbers when he was healthy early in the season. And I agree with you that we need to add a vet ILB. Milano would be my first choice. It's still 2 Months til camp and there will be a lot of signings happening come June

Thank you.

I am less confident than you that we will be signing significant help at ILB. I certainly hope that you right.

 

[Pape]

Quite a few names from the Patriots/Belichick tree on this list:

#9 Nick Caserio
2001-2020
Director of player personnel

#12 Jason Licht
1999-2002; 2009-2011
Director of player personnel

#13 Eliot Wolf
2020-present
EVP of player personnel

#24 Adam Peters
2003-2008
Pro scout, Area scout

#28 Monti Ossenfort
2003, 2006-2019
Director of college scouting



Other much looser ties

#4 Erik DeCosta
grew up as a Pats fan in Taunton and at Colby College

#8 John Lynch
spent his last summer as a pro football player in training camp in Foxborough

#10 Sean Payton
never worked with Belichick, but both worked for Bill Parcells

could also add

Dave Zeigler formerly Raiders, now asst in Tenn
Bob Quinn, formerly Lions, now adv in Atl

 

[rkarp1]

I am of the opinion Brady wanted to be in Florida, and he brought in Gronk and Lenny (and AB)

I can see both sides of that argument.

They had a pretty good set of talent when Brady, Gronk and Playoff Lenny arrived, and a lot of that is a credit to Licht.

Bringing in Ariens and Bowles were largely his call too, I think.

Yet we'll never know if he would have gotten "over the hump" without Brady.

He also gets "points" for making chicken salad out of chicken sh*t with Baker Mayfield.

Yet chicken salad ain't Coq au Vin, so he's got that in the negative column.

I guess the real question is, who could Tampa bring in better than him?

Tampa is a decent place, but Brady boogied out of town pretty quickly once he decided to hang up the cleats.

Yet there are only 32 GM jobs, so someone would find a way to make it work for the right price.

I am of the opinion Brady wanted to be in Florida and he brought in Gronk and Lenny (and AB)