The long-awaited union between New England Patriots’ de facto general mananger Dave Ziegler and the Las Vegas Raiders may be upon us.
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Sunday afternoon that the Raiders are expected to hire 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 package deal. Once McDaniels interviewed for the job in Vegas earlier this weekend, this was magnified further.
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 former head coach Jon Gruden and the aforementioned Mike Mayock.
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