The Backgrounds of NFL GMs

By
Hayden Winks,

By
Hayden Winks

Published April 5, 2020 04:01 AM

It’s more important than ever for an NFL general manager to be more than a “football guy” this offseason. Teams will be faced with drafting alone from home likely via Zoom just like how we’ve done with our virtual happy hours. How well a GM can communicate during chaos is going to be key, and that’s assuming that every GM is even capable of opening his email and logging into a new account. This column will go through the backgrounds of these current NFL GMs.

Football Playing Experience

Approximately 80% of the current NFL General Managers played at least some college football, but that does not mean they were stud players. In fact, only a handful of them played football at a Division I university, and only the 49ers’ John Lynch and the Broncos’ John Elway had serious NFL careers. This is more evidence that playing football at the highest level in the world and evaluating talent are two completely different skill sets. It’s definitely possible to climb the front office ladder as a non-athlete. In fact, it’s probable that we see more and more non-college athletes in GM positions over the next decade, especially if owners continue to put more eggs into the analytics basket.

GM	Team	College football experience?
Andrew Berry	CLE	Yes
Ryan Pace	CHI	Yes
Brett Veach	KC	Yes
Joe Douglas	NYJ	Yes
Jon Robinson	TEN	Yes
Brian Gutekunst	GB	Yes
David Caldwell	JAX	Yes
Steve Keim	ARI	Yes
Tom Telesco	LAC	Yes
Eric DeCosta	BAL	Yes
John Schneider	SEA	Yes
John Lynch	SF	Yes
Jason Licht	TB	Yes
Duke Tobin	CIN	Yes
Les Snead	LAR	Yes
Bill O’Brien	HOU	Yes
Chris Ballard	IND	Yes
Thomas Dimitroff	ATL	Yes
Rick Spielman	MIN	Yes
John Elway	DEN	Yes
Mike Mayock	LVR	Yes
Bill Belichick	NE	Yes
Dave Gettleman	NYG	Yes
Jerry Jones	DAL	Yes
Chris Grier	MIA	Yes
Brandon Beane	BUF	No
Bob Quinn	DET	No
Howie Roseman	PHI	No
Mickey Loomis	NO	No
Kevin Colbert	PIT	No
Marty Hurney	CAR	No

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Education

All NFL General Managers graduated from college, but to my surprise, most GMs graduated from non-Power 5 football schools. In fact, the average American would have never heard of some of the universities on the list below. The Power 5 schools with a current NFL GM alum are Arkansas, Auburn, Boston College, Colorado, Florida, NC State, Oregon, Stanford (x2), and Wisconsin.

Nine of the current NFL GMs have at least a master’s degree, with sports management being the most common choice. There is only one GM, the Eagles’ Howie Roseman, with a professional degree (Fordham University School of Law). Roseman has previously stated that he primarily went to law school to get into an NFL front office. I guess that worked out. Please note that where they got an advanced degree may be different than the listed college.

GM	Team	College	Advanced Degree?
Andrew Berry	CLE	Harvard	Yes
Brett Veach	KC	Delaware	Yes
Les Snead	LAR	Auburn	Yes
Rick Spielman	MIN	Southern Illinois	Yes
Dave Gettleman	NYG	Springfield	Yes
Jerry Jones	DAL	Arkansas	Yes
Bob Quinn	DET	Uconn	Yes
Howie Roseman	PHI	Florida	Yes
Mickey Loomis	NO	Oregon	Yes
Ryan Pace	CHI	Eastern Illinois	No
Joe Douglas	NYJ	Richmond	No
Jon Robinson	TEN	Southeast Missouri State	No
Brian Gutekunst	GB	Wisconsin-La Crosse	No
David Caldwell	JAX	John Carroll	No
Steve Keim	ARI	NC State	No
Tom Telesco	LAC	John Carroll	No
Eric DeCosta	BAL	Colby	No
John Schneider	SEA	St. Thomas	No
John Lynch	SF	Stanford	No
Jason Licht	TB	Nebraska-Wesleyan	No
Duke Tobin	CIN	Colorado	No
Bill O’Brien	HOU	Brown	No
Chris Ballard	IND	Wisconsin	No
Thomas Dimitroff	ATL	Guelph	No
John Elway	DEN	Stanford	No
Mike Mayock	LVR	Boston College	No
Bill Belichick	NE	Wesleyan	No
Chris Grier	MIA	Massachusetts-Amherst	No
Brandon Beane	BUF	UNC Willmington	No
Kevin Colbert	PIT	Robert Morris	No
Marty Hurney	CAR	Catholic University	No

College Major

Few current NFL GMs graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in a STEM-related field. The only GMs with a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics degree are Saints’ Mickey Loomis (accounting), Bucs’ Jason Licht (biology), Browns’ Andrew Berry (economics), Broncos’ John Elway (economics), Patriots’ Bill Belichick (economics), and Rams’ Les Snead (psychology). That means it is fair to assume most current NFL GMs did not have a college background that included the study of data and analytics. I’m betting on that changing over the next two decades. The Browns hiring a 32-year-old from Harvard with a Master’s in Computer Science to become their next GM may be the major domino to fall in what could be an all-out analytics race.

GM	Team	College Major
Brian Gutekunst	GB	Sports Management
Les Snead	LAR	Psychology
Bob Quinn	DET	Political Science
Bill O’Brien	HOU	Political Science
Brett Veach	KC	Physical Education
Ryan Pace	CHI	Marketing
Howie Roseman	PHI	Law
Chris Grier	MIA	Journalism
Marty Hurney	CAR	Journalism
John Schneider	SEA	History
Eric DeCosta	BAL	English
Dave Gettleman	NYG	Education
Andrew Berry	CLE	Economics
John Elway	DEN	Economics
Bill Belichick	NE	Economics
Joe Douglas	NYJ	Communications
Steve Keim	ARI	Communications
Brandon Beane	BUF	Communications
Jerry Jones	DAL	Business
David Caldwell	JAX	Business
Tom Telesco	LAC	Business
Jason Licht	TB	Biology
Mickey Loomis	NO	Accounting
Rick Spielman	MIN	?
Jon Robinson	TEN	?
John Lynch	SF	?
Duke Tobin	CIN	?
Chris Ballard	IND	?
Thomas Dimitroff	ATL	?
Mike Mayock	LVR	?
Kevin Colbert	PIT	?

Age

About 80% of the current NFL GMs are in their 40s or 50s, with the Browns’ Andrew Berry (32) being the youngest and Cowboys’ Jerry Jones (77) being the oldest. The full list of ages are below:

GM	Team	Age
Andrew Berry	CLE	32
Brandon Beane	BUF	41
Brett Veach	KC	42
Ryan Pace	CHI	42
Bob Quinn	DET	44
Howie Roseman	PHI	44
Joe Douglas	NYJ	44
Jon Robinson	TEN	44
Brian Gutekunst	GB	46
David Caldwell	JAX	46
Steve Keim	ARI	47
Tom Telesco	LAC	47
John Schneider	SEA	48
Eric DeCosta	BAL	48
Jason Licht	TB	48
John Lynch	SF	48
Les Snead	LAR	49
Duke Tobin	CIN	49
Bill O’Brien	HOU	50
Chris Ballard	IND	50
Thomas Dimitroff	ATL	53
Mickey Loomis	NO	56
Rick Spielman	MIN	57
John Elway	DEN	59
Mike Mayock	LVR	61
Kevin Colbert	PIT	63
Bill Belichick	NE	67
Dave Gettleman	NYG	68
Jerry Jones	DAL	77
Chris Grier	MIA	?
Marty Hurney	CAR	?

Race

This is, unfortunately, the least diverse grouping of the column. There are two black GMs in the NFL. Just two. Andrew Berry and Chris Grier. Everyone else is white. Not a surprise but still damning 100 seasons after the league was created. This discussion between ESPN’s Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre on race and front offices addresses the major reasons why this is the case and offers some perspective on how we can make some change on the ground level. I highly, highly recommend watching.

You can find all of this information in spreadsheet form here.