The long-awaited union between New England Patriots’ de facto general mananger Dave Ziegler and the Las Vegas Raiders is now upon us.
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Sunday afternoon that the Raiders have in fact hired Ziegler to be their next general manager. The report goes on to note that Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will soon follow Ziegler to Sin City as the Raiders’ next head coach.
This has been a long time coming. Dave Ziegler interviewed for the Raiders’ general manager job immediately after Mike Mayock was ousted from that position following three seasons. At that point, it seemed to be clear that Raiders owner Mark Davis was looking for a packaged deal. Once McDaniels interviewed for the job in Vegas earlier this weekend, this was magnified further.
Related: Las Vegas Raiders offseason keys
Dave Ziegler as the Las Vegas Raiders new general manager
Technically in a pro personnel director role with the Patriots, Ziegler has acted as the team’s de facto general manager while working with head coach Bill Belichick. He just finished up his ninth season with the Patriots. Interestingly, Ziegler and McDaniels crossed paths in Denver when the latter was the team’s head coach in 2009 and 2010. That makes this a natural fit.
The success New England has had with Ziegler in the front office provides some hope for a Raiders organization that struggled big time in the draft under disgraced former head coach Jon Gruden and the aforementioned Mike Mayock.
Another note indicates that Raiders owner Mark Davis was attempting to make his new head coach and general manager a packaged deal. That included being linked to Indianapolis Colts front office man Ed Dodds to team up with Jim Harbaugh during the initial stages of the process. Obviously, Davis and Co. have decided to go in another direction.
While McDaniels’ deal to become the Raiders’ next head coach is not finalized, there’s every reason to believe that he will follow Ziegler to Las Vegas — creating a new power structure for an organization coming off a surprise playoff appearance.
Stay tuned!