Ike Brown

Longest-Tenured GMs In The NFL

By Zachary Links | at May 20, 2020 2:07 pm

When we ran down the longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL, we found that less than half of the league’s current coaches have been in their positions for more than three years. That’s not quite the case with general managers, but there have been plenty of changes in recent years.

A handful of general managers have gotten to take their coats off and stay for a long while. Among coaches, Bill Belichick had joined his team prior to 2003. Here, you’ll see that five GMs have been with their teams since before ’03 (Belichick, of course, is also on this list). Two of those five – Jerry Jones and Mike Brown – are outliers, since they’re team owners and serve as de facto GMs. But the Patriots, Steelers, and Saints, have all had the same general managers making their roster decisions for well over a decade.

Here’s the complete list of the NFL’s longest-tenured GMs, along with the date they took over the job:

1. Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys): April 18, 1989^[1]
2. Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals): August 5, 1991^[2]
3. Bill Belichick (New England Patriots): January 27, 2000^[3]
4. Kevin Colbert (Pittsburgh Steelers): February 18, 2000^[4]
5. Mickey Loomis (New Orleans Saints): May 14, 2002
6. Rick Spielman (Minnesota Vikings): May 30, 2006^[5]
7. Thomas Dimitroff (Atlanta Falcons): January 13, 2008
8. John Schneider (Seattle Seahawks): January 19, 2010^[6]
9. Howie Roseman (Philadelphia Eagles): January 29, 2010
10. John Elway (Denver Broncos): January 5, 2011^[7]
11. Les Snead (St. Louis Rams): February 10, 2012
12. David Caldwell (Jacksonville Jaguars): January 8, 2013
13. Steve Keim (Arizona Cardinals): January 8, 2013
14. Tom Telesco (San Diego Chargers): January 9, 2013
15. Jason Licht (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): January 21, 2014
16. Ryan Pace (Chicago Bears): January 8, 2015
17. Chris Grier (Miami Dolphins): January 4, 2016
18. Bob Quinn (Detroit Lions): January 8, 2016
19. Jon Robinson (Tennessee Titans): January 14, 2016
20. John Lynch (San Francisco 49ers): January 29, 2017
21. Chris Ballard (Indianapolis Colts): January 30, 2017
22. Brandon Beane (Buffalo Bills): May 9, 2017
23. Brett Veach (Kansas City Chiefs): July 11, 2017
24. Marty Hurney (Carolina Panthers): July 19, 2017
25. Dave Gettleman (New York Giants): December 28, 2017
26. Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay Packers): January 7, 2018
27. Mike Mayock (Oakland Raiders): December 31, 2018
28. Joe Douglas (New York Jets): June 7, 2019
29. Eric DeCosta (Baltimore Ravens): January 7, 2019^[8]
30. Ron Rivera (Washington Redskins): January 1, 2020^[9]
31. Andrew Berry (Cleveland Browns): January 27, 2020
32. Bill O’Brien (Houston Texans): January 28, 2020

Footnotes:

1. Jones has been the Cowboys’ de facto general manager since former GM Tex Schramm resigned in April 1989.
2. Brown has been the Bengals’ de facto GM since taking over as the team’s owner in August 1991.
3. Belichick has been the Patriots’ de facto GM since shortly after being hired as the team’s head coach in January 2000.
4. Colbert was initially hired as the team’s director of football operations and received the newly-created general manager title in 2011.
5. Spielman was initially hired as the team’s VP of player personnel and received the GM title in 2012.
6. While Schneider holds the title of GM, head coach Pete Carroll has the final say on roster moves for the Seahawks.
7. Elway was initially hired as the team’s executive VP of football operations and received the GM title in 2014.
8. In 2018, the Ravens announced that DeCosta would replace Ozzie Newsome as GM for Ozzie Newsome after the conclusion of the season. The Ravens’ ’18 season ended with their Wild Card loss to the Chargers on 1/6/19.
9. Technically, the Redskins do not have a GM, as of this writing. Rivera is, effectively, their GM, working in tandem with Vice President of Player Personnel Kyle Smith. Smith may receive the GM title in the near future.