John Dorsey has parted ways with the Chiefs… uh, I mean was shown the door… abruptly and unexpectedly.
John was a great scout (and mediocre linebacker) for the Packers. Now that Ted is up in age and wasting Rodgers’s prime, Packer fans just can’t wait to find his successor. So when a successful GM with ties to the Packers becomes unemployed, everyone is ready to anoint him.
It’s not gonna happen.
Ever since Ron Wolf left, the Packers have been building GM-worthy leaders in-house. While it’s true that Ted Thompson went from the Packers to the Seahawks and came back, that was a part of a career progression from Packers Director of Player Personnel to Seahawks VP of Football Operations, back to the Packers as General Manager.
When Wolf left, it was unexpected – Mike Holmgren sure didn’t see it coming – and they didn’t have a stable of guys lining up to take the job. That may have been a lesson, as the Packers have developing leaders almost intentionally ever since.
Even though guys like Dorsey, Reggie McKenzie, and John Schneider all left the Packers to become (very successful) GMs elsewhere (and Scot McCloughan could also be counted), there is still a strong leadership pipeline in Green Bay. The Packers currently have Eliot Wolf, who has been the hottest GM candidate in the NFL since he was like 12, and Brian Gutekunst, who has been proving to be a very worthy candidate as well. Russ Ball’s name also gets brought up (sometimes in humorous fashion) as a GM candidate, too (but I still think he’s more likely to eventually take Mark Murphy’s job).
The Packers aren’t the kind of team that would bring someone from the outside when they have guys like that in house.
And John Dorsey isn’t taking any job that isn’t GM.
Dorsey was a great scout, but he’s not coming back for a demotion to scout again. As GM, he built a contender out of a turd factory almost overnight. Some other turd factory would be wise to hire him for a turnaround job.
And he should want that. He almost certainly does.
It’s the same way in the business world. When a CEO gets ousted, he doesn’t go to another company at a lower level, he goes to another company to be CEO. Often it’s a smaller company, but still, those egos get big at that level and they don’t take demotions. That’s not to say Dorsey is a raging egomaniac, it’s just that when you take on a challenge as big as NFL GM or corporate CEO, it’s hard to get amped up and throw yourself into a job that is guaranteed to not be as challenging. When you make it to the top, you can’t untaste it.
I’d love to have Dorsey on staff, but I won’t hold my breath.
I wish him luck rebuilding some other AFC team.