Wardy's NFL Wordy, Week 7 Preview: A general look at the Generals

By Rob Ward

The bollards came down and the Ballard passed through. Out of Indianapolis and onto the highway of uncertainty. After just under a decade of service, mostly spent searching for an Andrew Luck replacement after that shock retirement in 2019, the man who once called his critics “chicken shit” can now return to cleaning up that very same faecal matter on his farm in Texas.

When Colts owner Carly Irsay-Gordon donned the headset and clipboard, we knew this was an unconventional move for an owner. Whilst other fat cats sipped Old Fashioneds on Tuesday afternoons down the country club, Irsay-Gordon was putting her staff on notice. Slowly but surely, she has compiled a rap sheet on all personnel involved in keeping the Colts somewhere between mediocre and bad for the past few seasons, reaching her conclusion this week.  

The departure of Ballard, a man who seemed to have outstayed his welcome about 5 years ago, got me thinking more generally about General Managers. Who are the good ones? Who are the duffers? And most importantly, who are the ones I could pick out of a police lineup? (Spoiler alert: not many)

I decided to preview Week 7 with a head-to-head clash between the GMs on competing teams, asking which is closest to joining Ballard on the scrap heap come January.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS @ NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (though actually @ Paris, France)

Omar Khan @ Mickey Loomis 

Contrasting emotions on this one. Mickey Loomis’ CV is impressive. Built a Super Bowl winning roster, having traded for the right QB and hired the right head coach, before constructing one of the great 21st century teams never to make a Super Bowl (2017-2020). But a decision to extend the old boys and act like they were still a contender post-Brees has left the Saints adrift. We’re a long way from the Steelers’ GM earning “the Khan Man” moniker for convincing the Bears to give up a 2nd for Chase Claypool. These days Khan seems happy to trade all his best players to Dallas. The Steelers’ wide receiver draft well has dried up too. 

VERDICT: Khan is currently underwhelming, but the Steelers are a patient franchise. The cut looms largest for Loomis. 

TAMPA BAY BUCCANNEERS @ CAROLINA PANTHERS

Jason Licht @ Dan Morgan

Despite being one of the best drafting GMs of recent times, Jason Licht appears to have committed the cardinal sin and extended his OK-to-middling quarterback to a big contract following one good season. And it wasn’t even the previous season; it was the season before that! We arrive at the first GM I had to Google. Dan Morgan anyone? Turns out, he’s not bad at all. Addressing the O Line issues when he first arrived in 2024 has contributed to a turnaround in the prospects of Bryce Young, a situation that looked damning for the Panthers not long ago. The hiring of a smart HC and steady as you go approach is starting to bear fruit in the Carolinas (even though Charlotte is in one not both Carolinas).

VERDICT: This is a tough call, they’re both good, but I wonder if Licht carries the can if the Baker move backfires. 

MIAMI DOLPHINS @ NEW YORK JETS

Jon-Eric Sullivan @ Darren Mougey

This is only Darren Mougey’s (sneaky silly name) second season in the job, but the appointment of Aaron Glenn as head coach is already leaving a stink around the place. A lot will rest on the success of this year’s three first round picks, David Bailey, Kenyon Sadiq and Omar Cooper Jr. I have nothing to say on Dolphins chief Jon-Eric Sullivan other than to declare my innate suspicion of people who hyphenise two first names to create one first name. 

VERDICT: Because he’s a Jet, I have concluded Mougey will be terrible. I need no further evidence than this.

NEW YORK GIANTS @ HOUSTON TEXANS

Joe Schoen @ Nick Caserio

There always seems to be chaos around the Giants, even when they lead the division with a visually satisfying 3-2-1 record. Schoen won the head coach Hunger Games in the summer, landing the supposed big fish of John Harbaugh. Yet only seven games in and we’re entertaining J.J. McCarthy as the starting quarterback with the lesser-spotted running back controversy on our hands. Schoen needs some sunshine. The stormy clouds of the Daniel Jones extension – and letting Saquon walk to help bitter rival Eagles win a Super Bowl – have not cleared. Texans boss Nick Caserio has built an elite defense and assembled some exciting receivers, but he has a career-defining decision to come over C.J. Stroud. He was great, then he was shit, now he’s good. Best of luck with that one. 

VERDICT: In any other media market, Joe Schoen might be able to pull off a Ballard. In the Big Apple, he’s gonna get crunched.

CINCINNATI BENGALS @ BALTIMORE RAVENS

Mike Brown @ Eric DeCosta

The Bengals setup is somewhat confusing. The most ‘Mom & Pop Store’ of franchises can’t quite let go of the past. You have Mike Brown floating around as President with hints of GM. Duke Tobin doesn’t quite get the GM title, instead he is Director of Player Personnel. Then there’s someone called Katie Blackburn who does contracts and the salary cap. No surprise that their approach to roster construction has been imbalanced for years, but have they finally landed on a winner? Eric DeCosta has continued the fine tradition of predecessor Ozzie Newsome and been very good at what he does. Drafting stars, retaining most of them and finally landing the Ravens with a decent wide receiver. 

VERDICT: In our first major upset of the contest, Mike Brown, the cockroach of the NFL, sticks around like dry rot and it’s Eric DeCosta who makes way, probably in about 30 years’ time. We’re playing the long game with this one.

CLEVELAND BROWNS @ TENNESSEE TITANS

Andrew Berry @ Mike Borgonzi

It’s not like me to slip into hyperbole. Heaven forbid. But with the move for DeShaun Watson, Andrew Berry has overseen both the worst trade and most morally reprehensible decision by an NFL franchise in living memory, and that really is saying something. A shame, because his drafts have improved as the years have gone by. The only thing saving Berry in this one is his opponent. Mike Borgonzi was only appointed in 2025, but he has somehow made a bad team even worse. Quite the achievement. Cam Ward is crumbling before our eyes and Bobby Saleh seems destined to be one of those better-a-bridesmaid-than-a-bride coaches. 

VERDICT: If it was up to me, Berry is a goner. But the question is ‘who goes first?’ You can see this season buying the Browns’ GM more time, whilst Borgonzi takes the Titans into a half empty new stadium in Nashville, prompting an enormous clear out.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS @ MINNESOTA VIKINGS

GM Needed @ Nolan Teasley

An appropriate clash of two franchises who axed their general managers at unconventional times of the year. We’ve spoken about Ballard, who appears to have been moved on before he could wreak pre-trade deadline havoc. The Vikes shifted Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after the initial merry-go-round of mid-January, likely to save the franchise from any more harm ahead of free agency. Minnesota showed what they thought of the GM position back in the Spring, by completing an entire draft without one. The results? They sit 5-0 with the best defense in football. Nolan Teasley may just be there to give a big, white smile to cameras.

VERDICT: No contest. A team without a GM vs a team that doesn’t need one. 

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS @ ATLANTA FALCONS

John Lynch @ Ian Cunningham

A David and Goliath contest as relatively unknown bloke, who sounds like your Geography teacher from Year 10, takes on the mighty John Lynch. Well, I say ‘mighty’, my God did Lynch get lucky with Brock Purdy and a head coach could turn me into an MVP contending signal caller. After some rough years, Lynch’s last few drafts are looking pretty fine and the rare running back trade he initiated back in 2022 for CMC was bang on. Ian Cunningham has barely had a cup of tea and a bacon butty in Atlanta, but the early signs are promising. He’s locked down key offensive talent and finally started to address the defense after years of neglect. 

VERDICT: I can’t see Lynch going anywhere for a while, so by default Cunningham is gone-ingham. I think Matt Ryan fancies the gig anyway.   

DENVER BRONCOS @ ARIZONA CARDINALS

George Paton @ Monti Ossenfort

I could be forced to watch every Cardinals game this season in a 24-hour period and still struggle to pick out Monti Ossenfort the next morning. Now in his fourth year, the Cardinals are no closer to solving the quarterback puzzle, and they might be winning too many games to contend for a high-end option in 2027. Add the Marvin Harrison Jr. debacle to the mix, it’s getting hotter than usual in the desert. It’s hard to know in an organisation dwarfed by the head coach’s ego just how much influence General Paton has, but the Broncos roster build has been one of the best in the league in the last three years. That said, it may be about to come crumbling down at the hands of that pesky quarterback. 

VERDICT: Hard to know just how arsed Cardinals’ owner Michael Bidwell really is, but if it’s anything above ‘mild intrigue’ I don’t think Ossenfort is trusted to oversee the crucial 2027 draft for Arizona.

GREEN BAY PACKERS @ DETROIT LIONS

Brian Gutekunst @ Brad Holmes

Gutekunst has built good team after good team in his eight years at the helm, with particularly great drafting at the offensive skill positions, and showing the balls to stand up to Aaron Rodgers and move for Jordan Love. The future has been semi-mortgaged on Micah Parsons holding together an otherwise suspect defense, whilst Gutekunst cheaping it on the O Line is starting to pose a serious threat to the team’s progress. The rise of the Detroit Lions can be traced to the dual appointment of Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell (it’s almost like pairing your GM and HC is a sensible idea). Holmes’ drafts are top heavy. He nails the cornerstone pieces, but leaves the cupboard rather bare elsewhere, with this year’s defense a startling demonstration of that.  

VERDICT: This is a tough one, as I can’t see either going anywhere anytime soon. As Holmes has given Detroit fans their best times in over 60 years, I’ll have to take Gutekunst leaving within the next two years, in a franchise refresher that sees Matt Le Fleur go the same way. You read it here first.

LOS ANGELES RAMS @ LAS VEGAS RAIDERS

Les Snead @ John Spytek

Les Snead has done it all. Built a Super Bowl winner whilst rewriting the rules of how you do so. Draft picks? Where we’re going, we don’t need draft picks. Yet remarkably, and in a rather Shakespearean manner, what was his greatest strength has now become the franchise’s big problem. There are too many ageing stars in La La Land. John Spytek may be a very competent executive and thoroughly decent chap, but he is a footballing eunuch. Knowing what we know of Tom Brady’s lust for the limelight, I refuse to believe TB12 isn’t behind all footballing decisions in Vegas. 

VERDICT: Another upset. Brady needs that Fox media money, so he can’t reveal his hand as the actual GM. The Spytek hand puppet stays, whilst Les Snead follows Sean McVay out of the door this January.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Brett Veach @ John Schneider

A heavyweight clash! Brett Veach has 3 Super Bowl victories, 5 AFC titles, 7 straight trips to the AFC Championship Game, but predominantly on the back of elite offensive assets and a head coach he had nothing to do with. Some of his draft classes have left a lot to be desired. That said, Veach made the splash for Super Bowl MVP and elite running back Kenneth Walker, which has turbocharged the team and got them back amongst the favourites for another Lombardi. There has been no more consistent team in the NFL during Schneider’s 16-year tenure as the Don of the Pacific Northwest. Two Super Bowls that should have been three (let’s not open that old wound), two elite defenses, consistently smart roster moves, chief of which was trading away Russell Wilson. Ironically, the big question he currently faces surrounds one of the best moves his opposite number has made. Was it wise to let your star running back leave, only to replace him with Emanuel Wilson, a rookie who can’t hold onto the ball and the injured backup to said star running back? Only the end of the season will tell.

VERDICT: So hard to call. Based on the fact he created the Seahawks entire history, John Schneider has a job for life. I can’t see Brett Veach outdoing him, particularly when Reid and, eventually, Mahomes call it a day.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES @ DALLAS COWBOYS

Howie Roseman @ Jerry Jones

In the words of Vanessa Williams, we’ve gone and saved the best for last. A match pitting the two most recognisable general managers in the league and absolute media darlings/whores. We’re not allowed to have an opinion on Howie Roseman other than he wins the draft every year and plays chess while the rest of us mere mortals play checkers. Even though I’ve never played checkers. Jerry is Jerry. By virtue of owning the team, he ain’t going anywhere by choice. Though his best days are behind him, and by that, I mean 30 years behind him, he is still capable of pulling rabbits out of the hat, trading for top talent and drafting gems.

VERDICT: One of them will never be fired. One of them won’t fire himself. The Grim Reaper will settle this one. I’ll leave it to you to figure out who that leaves standing.

ROB WARD

NFL/Fantasy Football Enthusiast

ROB IS A LOVER OF ALL THINGS 49ERS AND HOST OF THE COLLAPSING POCKET PODCAST IN WHICH HE, SIMON CARROLL AND SAM AKROYD BUTT-FUMBLE THEIR WAY THROUGH THE WORLD OF THE NFL. AWAY FROM SPORT, ROB IS A PROFESSIONAL WRITER AND PERFORMER. HIT HIM UP ON TWITTER @TDWARDY!

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