Johnathon Stigall - Pro Football Rumors

Raiders To Hire Broncos’ Brian Stark As Assistant GM

April 30th, 2025 at 4:20pm CST by Sam Robinson

John Spytek came to Las Vegas from Tampa, but the former Tom Brady college teammate also has a past in Denver. Some of his hires reflect that.

The Raiders hired Broncos exec Mark Thewes to be their senior VP of football operations early this offseason, and they have since made a bigger addition from Denver’s staff. Brian Stark will join the Raiders as assistant general manager, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reports.

Spytek and Stark worked together in Denver during the first half of the 2010s, serving under then-GM John Elway. Stark climbed to the Broncos’ director of college scouting post late in Elway’s tenure and stayed on under successor George Paton. The latter also lost his own assistant GM, Darren Mougey, this offseason. Mougey is now the Jets’ GM.

The Broncos interviewed Stark for their GM job in 2021, but Paton kept him around despite that. Stark had been viewed as a rising exec at the time, and this climb could potentially put him on the GM radar moving forward. Stark has not interviewed for a GM job since that Broncos meeting four years ago. He was likely to see a promotion in Denver this offseason, considering the turnover on the Broncos’ staff, Insidetheleague.com’s Neil Stratton adds.

Although it took a while for the Broncos to recover from Peyton Manning‘s retirement, they rebuilt around a new core that helped Bo Nix pilot the 2024 roster to the playoffs. The Broncos also gave up three first-round picks in trades for Russell Wilson and Sean Payton, limiting their draft capital this decade. The team has, however, found impact players in Patrick Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Nik Bonitto this decade. Jonathon Cooper also recently earned an extension, after rising from seventh-round pick to starter. Marvin Mims, a 2023 second-round pick, has also earned back-to-back first-team All-Pro honors.

It is not known who holds the roster-control hammer in Las Vegas just yet, as a collaborative approach (via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur) took place in the draft last week. This marked a change from recent drafts, per Tafur. Brady, Spytek and Pete Carroll each have significant input. That stands to limit the influence of an assistant GM, but Spytek is bringing aboard one of his former coworkers to help the cause.

In addition to Stark, the Raiders are hiring former Jets staffer Johnathon Stigall as their assistant director of college scouting, Stratton tweets. Stigall had been with the Jets since 2014, moving into the role of national scout last year. With the Jets restructuring under Mougey, he will head to Vegas to help out under Spytek. Stigall has been in the NFL since 1999, having worked previously with the Browns, Eagles, Dolphins and Bears.

Extra Points: Dolphins, Olson, Jets

June 1st, 2014 at 10:03pm CST by Ben Levine

The Dolphins selected four players in the first three rounds of the 2013 NFL Draft. The rookies had underwhelming seasons to say the least, and the Sun Sentinel’s Chris Perkins takes a look at the group. Third-overall pick Dion Jordan contributed mostly as a third-down pass rusher in a season riddled by injuries. Cornerback Jamar Taylor and guard Dallas Thomas also suffered through injures while cornerback Will Davis struggled to crack the defensive back rotation.

In spite of the player’s issues, the sophomores are confident they will rebound.

“I feel like it was a learning experience for all of us,” said Taylor. “We all came here on our high horse and we got humbled real quick… There’s no doubt in my mind the Dolphins drafted the right players last year.

“I’ve got high expectations on myself. I can’t really worry about what everybody else thinks. As long as I get the respect of my teammates and the coaches and myself, and just prove myself right, that I know I can do it, that’s all I worry about.”

Thomas is now the team’s starting left guard, but as Perkins points out, none of the other players are starters. It will be difficult for Jordan, Taylor and Davis to dethrone the veterans ahead of them on the depth chart.

Let’s see what else is going on around the NFL…

The Dolphins should sign Bryant McKinnie to be a “minimum salary insurance policy backup,” states Armando Salguero of The Miami Herald. McKinnie started ten games for the Dolphins in 2013.
Former Central Michigan offensive tackle Jake Olson will sign with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, tweets Tom Pelissero of USA Today. Prior to the player’s unlucky string of injuries in college, he started over 2013 number-one pick Eric Fisher.
The Jets had a bit of a shakeup in their scouting department. The team announced the hirings of Johnathon Stigall and Seth Turner, who will replace the recently departed David Boller and Aaron Glenn. As ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini points out, the subtraction of Boller came as a surprise; he was hired only last year by general manager John Idzik.