Ryne Nutt

Chiefs Promote Mike Bradway, Chris Shea To Assistant GM

This offseason saw the Chiefs lose assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi as he earned his first general manager role with the Titans. In the wake of Borgonzi’s exit, Kansas City made a number of promotions, using two of them to fill Borgonzi’s vacated role, per Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated.

The assistant general manager role will now officially be shared by Mike Bradway and Chris Shea. Bradway joined the organization in 2018 after 10 years in the Eagles front office. He made a lateral move to join the team his father, former Jets general manager Terry Bradway, worked for from 1992-2000, accepting the assistant director of personnel position. In 2020, he shared the assistant director of player personnel role with current Bears general manager Ryan Poles, getting promoted to director in 2021. He’s served the last three seasons as senior director of player personnel and is now a step closer to following in his father’s footsteps of landing a general manager job.

A licensed attorney in the state of New York, Shea has worked in football for 34 years, starting as a coach in minor roles at Boston College and Harvard before shifting to recruiting in a return to Boston College, where he earned his Bachelors. He also spent time as an operations/equipment intern in the Panthers’ inaugural season. While earning his law degree at Hofstra, Shea returned to the NFL, serving as a pro personnel assistant for the Jets then a scouting consultant for the Cowboys. For a short time after, Shea worked for the NFL Management Council, focusing on player grievances and litigation.

In 2008, Shea return to a front office role, joining the Dolphins and serving as player personnel coordinator, player personnel administrator, and eventually, assistant director of pro personnel. Utilizing his scouting and legal experience, Shea coordinated scouting, legal, salary cap management, information technology, and analytics efforts for the Dolphins. He then joined the Eagles as director of scouting administration/strategic management in 2015 before changing his focus from strategic management to personnel scout for the two following seasons.

Shea joined Bradway in his leaving the Eagles for Kansas City in 2018. He served three years as football operations counsel and personnel executive, three years as vice president of football operations/team counsel, and last year as senior vice president of football operations and strategy. Based on their different areas of expertise and experience, it looks like Bradway will focus more on the scouting side of things as assistant GM while Shea focuses on a litany of areas ranging from salary cap management to analytics in his role as assistant GM.

In addition to the promotions of Bradway and Shea, the Chiefs saw two slightly more nominal promotions as Tim Terry and Ryne Nutt both were elevated to vice president of player personnel. Terry and Nutt were already in position as directors of player personnel with Terry’s focus on pro personnel and Nutt’s focus on college scouting. While the promotions aren’t likely to change their responsibilities with the team, the title change probably serves as an opportunity to give each staffer a substantial raise.

The Chiefs also reportedly hired Dru Grigson to serve in the role of senior college/pro executive. The son of Vikings senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Grigson, Grigson will rejoin an NFL front office after seemingly sitting out the 2024 NFL season following his parting of ways with the Cardinals, where he last worked as player personnel director.

Lastly, Breer reports that the Chiefs have promoted Marc Richards from football research analyst to director of football research and development. Richards previously worked in the NBA in the strategic planning group in basketball operations for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He joined the Chiefs in his prior role in 2022.

West Notes: 49ers, Hawks, Raiders, Chiefs

Before signing Mike Person earlier today, the 49ers also worked out veteran offensive linemenĀ Oday Aboushi, Josh LeRibeus, and Brian Schwenke, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link). San Francisco was clearly on the lookout for an experienced lineman capable of playing multiple spots along the interior, and Person won the job. Each of Aboushi, LeRibeus, and Schwenke boast at least one season of regular starting work, but none have generated any known interest to this point in the offseason. If the 49ers are in need of more center/guard as the year progresses, however, it’s fair to assume they’ll circle back to these same candidates.

Here’s more from the NFL’s two West divisions:

  • Seahawks general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll have both denied that Seattle is entering a full-scale rebuild, and the club’s meeting with veteran wideout Brandon Marshall only verifies that stance, as Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times notes. While the Seahawks have shed a mass of talent this offseason by releasing or trading stalwarts such as Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, and Cliff Avril, the club doesn’t intend to sacrifice its intention to compete. Marshall, of course, hasn’t been productive since 2015, but he’d add a physical element to a wide receiving depth chart that includes Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, and Jaron Brown.
  • Linebacker Derrick Johnson rebuffed offers from two-to-three other clubs in order to sign with the Raiders, as Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. Johnson, 35, reiterated that the opportunity to play for head coach Jon Gruden played a large role in his decision to join Oakland’s squad, where he is expected to play middle linebacker in a 4-3 scheme for the first time in his career. The Raiders have made multiple additions to the second level of their defense, adding Tahir Whitehead, Emmanuel Lamur, and Kyle Wilber in addition to Johnson. As such, it’s becoming clear that fellow linebacker NaVorro Bowman is unlikely to return to the Bay Area.
  • Byron Maxwell‘s new deal with the Seahawks has a base value of $2MM, reports Brady Henderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The veteran cornerback, who is now in his second stint with Seattle, will collect a $950K base salary, a $500K signing bonus, a $100K roster bonus paid if he makes the Seahawks’ 53-man roster, and up to $450K in per-game roster bonuses. Maxwell looks like the clear favorite to start at outside corner opposite Shaquill Griffin, but he’ll be pushed by Justin Coleman and free agent addition Dontae Johnson.
  • The Chiefs announced that they’ve promotedĀ Mike Borgonzi to director of football operations. As Adam Schefter of ESPN.com points out (Twitter link), Borgonzi will now take over the position manned by Chris Ballard before he became the Colts’ general manager, meaning the former should now be viewed as a future GM candidate. Kansas City also promoted Ryan Poles to assistant director of player personnel and named Ryne Nutt director of college scouting.