Washington Hires Former New York Jets GM to Lead Player Negotiations, Revenue Sharing

Back in January when Jedd Fisch was introduced as the Washington Huskies' newest head football coach the longtime NFL assistant coach stated he wanted his program to become, in effect, the 33rd team. 

After completing his first full regular season at UW, and with revenue sharing set to be implemented on July 1, 2025, Fisch took another step Tuesday in turning Washington into a full-fledged professional football outfit by hiring the 33rd Team — a think tank founded by former New York Jets general manager and Miami Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum — to help lead the program into the new and evolving world of name, image and likeness. 

According to a report from Jordan Schultz, reposted by Fisch, Tannenbaum will lead the partnership, but what exact role the 55-year-old will play is yet to be understood. 

At present, the Husky football program does not have a general manager in the operations department. Fisch brought Matt Doherty, his director of player personnel from Arizona, up to Seattle in January but did not assign him with a new title. 

Several schools throughout college football have hired often former or current director of player personnel to the de facto GM, with NIL being one main reason to have a separate person in that role to alleviate some duties for the head coach and other front office personnel. 

In his seven seasons with the Jets from 2006-12, Tannenbaum drafted four players who made at least one First-Team All-Pro — Nick Mangold, Leon Washington, Darrelle Revis and Demario Davis — after working his way up from director of player contracts (1997-2000), director of pro player development (2000) and assistant general manager and director of pro personnel (2001-05). 

Over his four seasons with the Dolphins the New York native added three more draft picks to that list; Xavien Howard, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jason Sanders. 

Prior to UW's regular season finale against Oregon this past Saturday, Fisch was asked about how he prioritizes positions at the college level in contrast to what teams in the NFL do — quarterback, left tackle, cornerback, edge rusher, etc. — and how the new world of NIL and revenue sharing impacts the dollar allotment for each player or position group. 

"Every program is going to make a decision on how they want to handle, let's call it, the pot of money they receive through revenue share," Fisch said during his Monday press conference on November 25. 

"And each program is going to determine where they value those dollars, just like in the NFL. Some general managers build their program from the inside out. If you were to talk to (Philadelphia Eagles GM) Howie Roseman, he would tell you that the biggest investments he'd like to make is in the offensive and defensive line and then followed by quarterback and trade for skill guys. There's going to be other general managers out there that are going to be extremely excited about getting an elite wide receiver or an elite (left) tackle, or an elite runner. I think everybody's different. For us, what we need to do, is we're recognizing the transition from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten starts upfront."

It's expected that Tannenbaum will help with negotiating player contracts with each college football program slated to have between $20 and $30 million to spend total on its respective rosters.