As Many As Five Teams May Have GM Openings; 49ers Exec Josh Williams Expected To Generate Interest
As of the time of this writing, only the Dolphins are certain to be interviewing prospective general managers at season’s end (their GM post has been filled by interim Champ Kelly since Chris Grier’s midseason ouster). But sources tell Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that as many as five other clubs could part ways with their incumbent GM in short order.
Jones does not specify which teams may be looking for a new top executive. Clubs like the Browns (Andrew Berry), Cardinals (Monti Ossenfort), Falcons (Terry Fontenot), and Giants (Joe Schoen) all have GMs with varying degrees of job security, though the fact that Schoen is spearheading New York’s head coaching search suggests he will be given another year at the helm. Likewise, Berry and Ossenfort may be on firmer footing than the HCs of their respective teams, while roughly 70% of PFR readership believes Atlanta will move on from Fontenot.
Regardless of how many openings materialize, Jones expects 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams to be among the top candidates for clubs in search of a new GM. During calls Jones has placed around the league, multiple sources have brought up Williams’ name on their own, without any sort of prompt from Jones.
Williams, 38, joined San Francisco as a scouting assistant in 2011 and was promoted to his current position in 2024. At the time, we noted that he was viewed in league circles as a future general manager, and during the 2025 hiring cycle, he earned a second interview for the Jaguars’ post, which ultimately went to James Gladstone.
John Lynch’s front office has already seen Adam Peters and Ran Carthon depart for GM jobs elsewhere in recent years, and there are a number of other San Francisco staffers who could follow in their footsteps in the near future. That list includes (in addition to Williams) assistant GM RJ Gillen, vice president of player personnel Tariq Ahmad, and vice president of football research and development Matt Ploenzke.
Of that group, only Williams has received a GM interview to date, and the fact that he scored two summits with Jacksonville brass is telling. Team owners are already familiar with Williams as a result of the NFL’s accelerator program, and Jones says Williams’ experience scouting college players will be his biggest selling point.
49ers Announce Three Staff Promotions
Earlier this week, the 49ers announced the promotion of three members of their staff, according to Jonthan Jones of CBS Sports. In the personnel department, Tariq Ahmad and R.J. Gillen have both been promoted in the shared role of vice president of player personnel, and in analytics, Matt Ploenzke was elevated into the position of vice president of football research and development.
Ahmad joined the team in 2014 as a scouting assistant, after a collegiate career that saw him serve as an offensive graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, Ithaca College, and as director of football recruiting operations at Rutgers, where he earned his master’s degree. A year later, he was promoted to area scout, holding the role for five seasons before earning another promotion to assistant director of college scouting in 2020. Ahmad would only spend a year in that role, as well, before being named director and serving in that role for three years.
Where Ahmad’s experience is solidly in scouting, Gillen has experience in scouting, law, and technology. Following time as a walk-on athlete at LSU, where he was a part of the 2007 BCS National Championship team, Gillen earned his law degree from Marquette; he’s still a member of the bar in Texas and Wisconsin. His uniquely diverse background helps him in regard to personnel evaluation, roster management, and contract negotiation. Gillen even interned at the Shapiro Negotiations Institute where he assisted in consulting and coaching for NBA, NFL, and MLB front offices. He followed that with a front office internship with the San Antonio Spurs before joining the 49ers in 2015.
In San Francisco, Gillen started as a scouting assistant before getting promoted to pro personnel scout. After five years in that role, he was named director of pro personnel, while Ahmad served in the equal role for college scouting. The two shared the title of director of player personnel for a year last season before earning this joint promotion.
Ploenzke holds two bachelor’s degrees in statistics and economics from the University of Minnestoa, Duluth, and a Ph.D. in biostatistics from Harvard. He logged experience working for the Office of Institutional Research at Minnesota, Duluth, and as a head research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before turning to football.
After being a part of the winning team in the NFL’s 2020 Big Data Bowl, per Michael Lopez of the NFL’s data & analytics department, Ploenzke joined the 49ers as a football data scientist. He was elevated to manager of football research and development in 2022 and director in 2023. Like Ahmad and Gillen, he, too, now sports the vice president designation for his department.