The General Manager search thread

The San Diego Chargers Might (or Might Not) Hire New GM Today

By John Gennaro

on Jan 8, 9:57am

"@lando33: @utkevinacee Will the Chargers have a new GM by close of business today?" >They should. That's the plan. Lots of moving parts.

— UTKevinAcee (@UTKevinAcee) January 8, 2013

Okay, so the San Diego Chargers will name their newly-hired GM sometime in the next 7 hours. That's that plan. Unless that doesn't happen. Which it might not because there's lots of moving parts.

How there can be lots of moving parts when the team is down to two finalists for the position, neither of which have interviewed for any other open GM jobs, is beyond me. However, I will never doubt Acee. If he says there are lots of moving parts, I imagine this hiring process to be more complicated than the gears behind Big Ben's face.

So, get ready! But not too ready. The Chargers search for a new Head Coach begins today! Or later this week. What's important is that we're ready when it does begin.

The real question should be if Tom Gamble was in house and Jimmy Raye was 49ers director of player personel would everyone be cheering for Raye over Gamble?

Chargers to soon name next GM
Written by Michael Gehlken

For more than a week, the Chargers have been without a general manager.

They won't be for much longer.

The team is expected to announce Wednesday the successor to A.J. Smith, who was relieved of his duties Dec. 31 along with head coach Norv Turner. The leading candidates are Jimmy Raye, in-house director of player personnel, and Tom Telesco, Colts vice president of football operations.

Tom Gamble, 49ers director of player personnel, was scheduled for a Tuesday interview. Whether that shook up the makeup of the search is unclear, but the team is known to be very high on Raye and Telesco.

Raye is among the longest-tenured members of the organization, recently concluding his 17th season. He arrived in 1996 as an area scout before moving to director of college scouting, where he served from 2000 to 2007.

Telesco has spent the past 15 seasons with the Colts, progressively climbing from his position as an area scout in 1998. He began his NFL career as a Panthers scouting assistant in 1995.

Of the league's seven GM vacancies, two were filled Tuesday.

Neither was a surprise.

Steve Keim, former Cardinals vice president of player personnel, was elevated to GM in place of Rod Graves, who was fired last month. Dave Caldwell, former Falcons director of player personnel, joined the Jaguars.

That left San Diego, Cleveland, Carolina, Kansas City, and the New York Jets as the remaining teams in the GM market.

The Chargers were granted consent to interview Caldwell and Keim, but it never came to that stage for either. Caldwell chose to focus his time on the Jaguars and Jets positions, a league source said Tuesday night, and Keim was on track to replace Graves.

Team president Dean Spanos will decide Smith's successor.

The selected candidate will join the rest of the Chargers' interview team — Spanos with executives Ed McGuire, John Spanos and consultant Ron Wolf — to decide the head coach. The plan is for the GM to choose the coach, Wolf said in a conference call last week.

San Diego already has begun reaching out to potential head coaches.

With hiring a GM the first priority, the team is one of five — Arizona, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Chicago the others — without a head coach.

The Chiefs hired former Eagles coach Andy Reid before signing a GM.

The Bills, with a GM in place, added Syracuse coach Doug Marrone.

Ugh, I think this Telescope (w/e) guy will get it. Which is cool as I think studying and working under Polian is much better tutelage than Raye got under AJ Smith. But I really don't want Arians as a head coach.

Who would you rather have and why?

I would rather have Telescope.

I think he may have meant who would you rather have has Head Coach but I could be wrong.

As far as GM goes, I fear that Raye will be more of the same. I think that's who we'll get and I hope he proves me wrong.

Telescope is not a real option, he was put up against Raye to make it look like they were trying hard to find an outside replacement only to find the prospects were not all that great. Now if you put Raye up against Tom Caldwell...eyebrows would be raised if Raye was chosen.

You are such a cynic!

I mean, granted I don't know tons about it, but why would Telescope be coveted? The Colts had basically no one for years. They had Manning and almost no one else. They basically rode on how amazing Manning was and it hid their deficiencies.

Kinda surprised they have not made an announcement yet.

Yes.
When you look at Manning taking Denver from 8-8 to 13-3 in one season...
I think you have to wonder how much he might've been resposible for the
remarkable success Indy enjoyed...and how much other folks' reputations
may've been inflated...

On the day the Chargers are expected to name their new GM, Colts VP of football operations Tom Telesco is back in San Diego.-Tweeted by Adam Schefter

Very interesting

Now Mike Zimmer would be a good choice in my view. I'd approve of that for sure.

I really think Arians is a flash in the pan. 60 years old with no HC experience, and filled in ok for half a season when Pagano was sick. If he was HC material surely he'd have his chance by now.

Would be a real shock if he gets it. Gotta wonder if Raye will stick around.

I reckon ifin you cain't have the Gamble soups,Y'all gotta settle for the Telescopio.

You do realize the same can be said about Zimmer, 57 no HC experience, blah blah blah. So 11 wins are truly going to be credited solely on the spirit of Pagano?

Give me the guy who was the OC for a winning franchise, who every year were favorites for the the Lombardi trophy. The same guy who when left pissed off a lot of players in that organization, the same guy that when left his old team didn't make the playoffs while his new team did. Just sayin'

Still no definitive word, but I am told Tom Telesco is either at Chargers Park or nearby. Told this is happening soon. Tweeted by Acee


Dean : "Tom, as you are aware we a in need of a new GM. You come highly recommended. Will you do me the honors in telling Jimmy Raye that he's the new GM of the San Diego Chargers!!!!!!!!!"

Looks like Telesco is the guy. From Acee:
"Still no definitive word, but I am told Tom Telesco is either at Chargers Park or nearby. Told this is happening soon."
https://twitter.com/UTKevinAcee

I doubt Telesco is at Chargers park to attend Raye's press conference.

I confess to not knowing much about Telesco, but the Colts had a very good draft this year, and I don't just mean Luck.

Dang! What am I going to do with the Jimmy Raye puppet?

maybe you should start looking for a Corona shaped Telescope

Not a bad start. Telescope Tom and his magic Corona telescope. He can look through it and it shows him who to draft. Or maybe he can see Deans colon?

Lol maybe find a less racist looking one of Spanos with his hand up Telescopes ***?

JUST ANNOUNCED:

TELESCOPE (AKA TOM TELESCO) NEW CHARGERS GM!!!*

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!










* Okay...one small disclaimer: The "announcement" was only made by me...but it's based on reliable information:
At 7:26 this morning Matilack declared that "Telescope is not a real option" and if my experience with
this site means anything, then Telescope must be an absolute lock for the GM job!

If Raye was their guy this whole time he would have already been named GM.

I know it's fun to be cynical but let's be real here.

Get it right it's TELESCOPIO!!!!!!!