A general manager (GM) is a

sports management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiza ...

position for an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team who typically oversees rosters and contracts. GMs answer directly to the team's owner in such an organizational model and are viewed as the team's most senior executive in football operations.

Professional football

The general manager (GM) is typically the head of football operations, which includes leading the scouting department and being responsible for handling

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

transactions and contract negotiations with players and coaches. The scouting department's role is to evaluate

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

players entering the annual

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

. During the

NFL Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

, general managers will interview players. Many GMs begin their front office career as an assistant scout and are promoted into roles such as director of college scouting or vice president of player personnel before being GM. The GM is also responsible for negotiating contracts with players and coaches. As with head coaches and some players, GMs are required by the NFL to attend press conferences with the media. During the season, general managers will work 100 hours or more a week. Some

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...

general managers include Tex Schramm,

Al Davis Allen R. Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American professional football executive and coach. He was the managing general partner, principal owner and ''de facto'' general manager of the National Football League (NFL) Oakland Rai ...

Bill Polian William Patrick Polian Jr. (born December 8, 1942) is an American former professional football executive. He rose to league prominence as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills, building a team that participated in four straight Super Bowls— ...

, Ron Wolf, Bobby Beathard,

Gil Brandt Gilbert Harvey Brandt (March 5, 1932 – August 31, 2023) was an American professional football executive who was the vice president of player personnel in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1988. He was indu ...

, and George Young.

List of current NFL general managers

College football

In the 2020s, the introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) and professionalization of college athletics led schools to hire NFL-style general managers to oversee personnel and scouting departments separate from the role of

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

s. They were introduced with recruiting and staff management as the focus, but evolved as transfer portal rules relaxed and became larger aspect of college roster building. Notable early hires include former NFL quarterback

Andrew Luck Andrew Austen Luck (born September 12, 1989) is an American football executive and former professional quarterback who is the general manager of the Stanford Cardinal. He previously played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons ...

, NFL executive Michael Lombardi, and NFL head coach

Ron Rivera Ronald Eugene Rivera (born January 7, 1962) is an American football executive and former professional player and coach who is the general manager for the California Golden Bears. He played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as ...

References

{{NFL general managers * American football occupations American football terminology